Myopia Hunt Club is a

foxhunting Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase and, if caught, the killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds. A group of unarmed followers, led by a "master of foxhounds" (or "master of ho ...

and private

country club A country club is a privately owned club, often with a membership quota and admittance by invitation or sponsorship, that generally offers both a variety of recreational sports and facilities for dining and entertaining. Typical athletic offer ...

South Hamilton, Massachusetts South Hamilton is a postal address assigned to ZIP code 01982 by the Postal Service and is part of the town of Hamilton, Essex County, Massachusetts, United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the Uni ...

, northeast of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. In the early years of the U.S. Open, the club hosted it four times:

1898 Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, B ...

1901 Events January * January 1 – The Crown colony, British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria (Australia), Victoria and Western Australia Federation of Australia, federate as the Australia, ...

1905 As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to the 1905 Russian Revolution against Nicholas II of Russia (Shostakovich's 11th Symphony i ...

, and 1908.

History

Myopia Hunt Club was founded in 1882 by J. Murray Forbes. The golf course was designed and built by Herbert C. Leeds in 1894 and he continued working at the Club for over 30 years. Leeds tied for seventh place in the 1898 U.S. Open held at Myopia Hunt Club. His familiarity with the course was no doubt a factor in his ability to finish so high on the leaderboard in the tournament. The name "Myopia" is due to some of its founding members having come from the

Myopia Club The Myopia Club, regarded by some historiansMayo, p. 63. Others regard The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts as being the oldest, even though it was incorporated three years later. (It depends on one's definition of "country club".) as ...

Winchester, Massachusetts Winchester is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, located 8.2 miles (13.2 km) north of downtown Boston as part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. It is also one of the List of Massachusetts locations by per capita income, wealt ...

, which had been founded by four brothers with poor vision, or

myopia Near-sightedness, also known as myopia and short-sightedness, is an eye disease where light focuses in front of, instead of on, the retina. As a result, distant objects appear blurry while close objects appear normal. Other symptoms may include ...

. Today, the Myopia Hunt Club is a

drag hunt Drag hunting or draghunting is a form of equestrian sport, where mounted riders hunt the trail of an artificially laid scent with hounds. Description Drag hunting is conducted in a similar manner to fox hunting, with a field of mounted riders foll ...

, meaning that the

hounds A hound is a type of dog that assists hunters by tracking or chasing the animal being hunted. Hound may also refer to: * Dog, any dog of the subfamily Caninae Arts and entertainment * ''Hounds'' (TV series), a 2012 television comedy series set a ...

follow a laid scent rather than live fox. When completed, Myopia Hunt Club measured 6,539 yards and Leeds made certain that golfers would encounter a multitude of challenging features, including tall mounds, deep bunkers, lightning-fast greens, blind shots requiring substantial carry, deep swales, punishing rough, plateaued greens, as well as a pond and paddock to avoid. So difficult was the course that in the 1901 U.S. Open not a single professional was able to break 80 in any round.

Polo

Myopia also features one of the oldest continually running polo fields in the nation. Gibney Field, formerly used as a pasture, was mowed and used for practice in the summer of 1888. That fall, Myopia held its first official match against the Dedham Polo and Country Club. In 1890, Myopia became one of seven charter members of the Polo Association, now the

United States Polo Association The United States Polo Association (USPA) is the national governing body for the sport of polo in the United States. Introduction Established in 1890, by David Grubbs the USPA provides resources to over 4,500 individual members and 250 polo club ...

. Of those seven original clubs, Myopia is one of two still in existence; Meadowbrook on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

is the other. It is the only one that still uses its original field. Gibney Field is not, however, the oldest continuously used polo field in the nation. That honor goes to

Aiken Polo Club The Aiken Polo Club is a polo club in Aiken, South Carolina. Location It is located at 240-399 Mead Avenue in Aiken, South Carolina, 29801. It is two blocks away from the Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame and Museum, the Rye Patch Estate and t ...

's Whitney Field—in

Aiken, South Carolina Aiken is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Aiken County, in western South Carolina. It is one of the two largest cities of the Central Savannah River Area. Founded in 1835, Aiken was named after William Aiken, the president of the Sout ...

—which was first used for polo in a gala exhibition match in 1882. Aiken Polo Club joined the Polo Association in 1899. Polo is still played at Myopia throughout the summer season, from Memorial Day until Columbus Day. Sunday afternoon games at 3 p.m. are open to the public for a small fee. In 1902 a

real tennis Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of tennis (also called "lawn tennis") is derived. It is also known as court tennis in the United Sta ...

court was opened at the Myopia Hunt Club, but has since been converted to other uses.

Golf

Myopia Hunt Club is the only course in the United States to have been listed by ''

Golf Magazine ''Golf Magazine'' is a monthly golf magazine. It was started in April 1959 by Universal Publishing and Distributing, who sold it to Times Mirror in 1972. Time Inc. acquired it in 2000. It was acquired by Howard Milstein in 2018. It was the world' ...

'' as having two of the United States's top 100 signature holes, Myopia's fourth and ninth. The U.S. Open was held at the Club in 1898, 1901, 1905, and 1908. The 72-hole winning score in 1901 by Willie Anderson, one of only four four-time champions, was 331, a record high that still stands today. He defeated

Alex Smith Alexander Douglas Smith (born May 7, 1984) is an American former quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons. He played college football at Utah, where he received first-team All-American honors and won the 20 ...

in an 18-hole playoff, 85 to 86, his highest 18-hole score of the tournament. The first nine was completed in 1896, but the second nine was not finished until October, 1898, so the June, 1898 U.S. Open was actually played over eight rounds of nine holes.

Myopia Hunt Club scorecard

From 1995–2005, the course underwent a series of major improvements under the leadership of Club president Michael Greene. Greene, along with Captain of Golf Steve Warhover (and with the consent of the voting members of the Club), lengthened the course with several new tees. These were installed on the 2nd, 4th, 7th, 10th, 11th, 15th, and 18th holes. In addition, many trees throughout the course were removed and replaced with traditional mounds, better fitting the historic design of Herbert Corey Leeds. Myopia Hunt Club was the home course of the late novelist and golf writer

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth ...

.John Updike, "The Yankee Golfer," ''Golf Dreams'' (N.Y., Knopf, 1996), p. 193. The holes on the course are all named on the scorecard, with most of the names pertaining to a geographic signifier on a particular hole: # First # Lookout # Brae # Miles River # Lone Tree # Brook # Myopia # Prairie # Pond # Alps # Road # Valley # Hill # Ridge # Long # Paddock # West # Home

References

External links