The Aquidneck Club

Overview: The Aquidneck Club is a private coastal course in Portsmouth, set on a large property overlooking Narragansett Bay. Donald Steel’s design uses the open ground, broad views and prevailing wind to create a Scottish-influenced layout with strategic bunkering and a strong sense of exposure. The course is modern in date but traditional in intent: the interest comes from how the holes sit on the land, how the wind changes their apparent width and how the approach angles shape the greens. Its setting on Aquidneck Island gives the round a distinctly maritime backdrop.

History: The course opened in 2000 as part of the Carnegie Abbey Club, created by Peter de Savary on more than 300 acres leased from Portsmouth Abbey School. Steel designed the golf course as the centerpiece of a broader private sporting property. The club later changed identity and ownership, reopening as The Aquidneck Club while retaining the golf course and its waterfront setting. The transition added a new chapter without erasing the original Carnegie Abbey story, which remains the foundation of the course’s architecture and arrival experience.

Did You Know? The property was planned as more than a golf venue: its wider sporting concept included a marina, equestrian facilities, tennis and wellness amenities. The course’s original Carnegie Abbey name referred to the property’s ambitious destination-club idea, while Aquidneck connects it directly to the island on which it sits. The view across Narragansett Bay is not an incidental backdrop; it is one of the central design resources that Steel used to establish scale and direction.