R & A Golf Course Of Somerville

Scituate sits on the South Shore of Massachusetts, where the Atlantic pushes hard against a rocky coastline and the inland terrain rolls with the kind of glacial topography that tends to produce interesting golf. The town has a working-fishing-harbor character — unpretentious, old-stock New England — and that sensibility tends to carry over into its recreational institutions.

The R & A Golf Club of Somerville is a private members' club, and private South Shore clubs in this part of the state have traditionally served tight-knit communities where membership passes through families over generations. That culture shapes the experience as much as anything on the course itself: this is golf as a local institution rather than a destination resort, with all the informality and belonging that implies.

Without detailed records on the architect or specific routing, what can be said honestly is that 18 holes laid across glacially sculpted Massachusetts terrain will almost certainly reward shot-shaping — elevations shift, winds off the water change conditions hole to hole, and the turf plays firm and fast in the manner that defines New England golf at its most traditional.