Truro, Ma ● Highland Links Golf Course History

Heralded as Cape Cod's oldest golf course, perhaps its most scenic, the Highland Links in North Truro is one of America s golf treasures, perched high along windswept bluffs overlooking the Atlantic next to the vintage Cape Cod Light. Founded in 1892, Highland recently celebrated a hundred years of golf. More than significant than its age is Highland's heritage; circumstances keep it a genuine links, as close to the Scottish tradition found anywhere in the eastern United States, with deep natural rough, Scotch broom, heath, non irrigated open fairways, and spectacular ocean views. (Thoreau) The original "Highland House Golf Links" was part of an ocean hotel and cottage resort operated for year by the Small family of Truro, who promoted the course as "2000 yards around...in attractiveness not equaled in the New England coast." Francis Ouimet, the legendary U.S. amateur, played an exhibition round here after its original sand greens were converted to grass. First laid out by Isaac Small's son Willard, a redesign was implemented in 1913 by New Yorker and frequent hotel guest J. Henry McKinley. By 1955 the links had been refurbished again by owner Hal Conklin. When John Kennedy's Cape Cod National Seashore was conceived in the 1960's Highland became Federal property and leased to the Town of Truro.

The first hole demands a drive over moors land: in the background are several FAA flight service domes, part of a former World War II Air Force surveillance station.
Hole #2 is a dramatic shot from an elevated tee, a par-5 down into a unique beach canyon surrounded by Rosa Ragusa and guarded over by a medieval granite tower—a memorial to 19 century singer Jenny Lind that stands solemnly above the fairway, adding to the Moorish flair at Highland.
The greenside at #3 offers a stunning glimpse of the sea.
#4 runs back over heath land.
Reminiscent of Bermuda is the straight par-4 at hole #5.
The longest hole (#6) is Highland s signature, with its renown cliff tee 1 130 feet above the Atlantic: play it soon, it may be shortened by coastal erosion.
Losing three feet of cliff per year is the Cape Cod or "Highland" Light — the Cape s oldest beam dating from 1767 and backdrop for the 170 yard #7.
Cross Lighthouse Road to the 8th tee and gaze in the distance over the moors to the landmark Provincetown Tower, a monument to the Pilgrims who landed there before settling at Plymouth.
The finishing hole- it s tee box near the rear door of the old Highland House, now the Truro Historical Museum, is a par 3 pitch to a notorious two-tiered green that inspired Donald Ross s artistic renderings of famous par 3 s around the country.

In 1992, a local golfer reviewer praised the aboriginal hazards" at Highland—beach plum, wild cranberry, thicket—and the good fortune of having it preserved in perpetuity by the National Seashore. Alistair Cook once described Highland as "the most perfect example of the typical British or Scottish links in the United States."