Warwick Country Club

Overview: Warwick Country Club sits at Warwick Neck beside Narragansett Bay, a waterfront setting where changing coastal wind is part of the design problem on every round. Its 18 holes retain a traditional Donald Ross character, with a compact, strategic layout, tree-lined sections and open views toward the water. The course is less about spectacle than about using the peninsula well: angles, breezes and the contours around the greens shape the best route through the property. The family-club atmosphere and the seaside location give it a distinctly Rhode Island identity.

History: Fifty Rhode Islanders purchased Colonel George L. Shepley’s estate and mansion on December 15, 1924, intending to create a yacht club. During 1925, the new Warwick Country and Yacht Club added tennis courts and engaged Donald Ross to design nine golf holes. A second nine was later built with the help of Geoffrey Cornish. Hurricanes repeatedly tested the property: the 1938 storm destroyed the yacht area, while the 1944 storm destroyed the dock, slips and boathouse, ending the club’s yachting phase. In 1997, Ron Prichard directed a restoration project intended to recover the course’s original Ross character.

Did You Know? Warwick’s golf course began as part of a waterfront yacht club, so the site’s early history was as much maritime as sporting. The second nine was dedicated in 1954, only to be struck by Hurricane Carol the next day; the club rebuilt once again. Today the golf course is the part of that long shoreline story that remains most visible, with Narragansett Bay and the old Warwick Neck setting still defining the round.