Cohasset Golf Club, founded in 1894, first played over a modest six-hole layout credited to the Scottish professional Willie (Willy) Campbell. By the end of the first decade of the 1900s, the club sought a more durable course and retained Donald J. Ross “around 1909” to rework the property; the club’s own account states that Ross’s first commission at Cohasset included a redesign and expansion to nine holes. Surviving club correspondence later summarized Ross’s status succinctly: he “laid out the original course of the Club and…has been consulted on all improvements which we have made,” and he had “considered a golf course from the point of view of 18 holes,” indicating that the expansion to a full course was already in his sights during those pre-war visits. In 1920 the club formally contracted with Ross to “revamp the layout and expand it to eighteen holes,” and the 18-hole course opened for play in 1922. That two-phase arc—first an early-career nine, then a full post-war 18—explains both the unusually cohesive routing on a rocky South Shore site and the persistence of a few pre-Ross cues where the ground forms argued to keep them.
The club has twice undertaken substantial, historically minded work to preserve what Ross built. In 1999–2000, Ross specialist Ron Prichard was hired to “return [Cohasset] to its original intent,” a program that combined large-scale tree removal (to restore width and wind), recapture of green perimeters and internal contours, and a bunker program that eliminated later, non-Ross hazards while re-establishing bunkers documented on older plans and aerials. In 2014, Ron Forse was engaged “to oversee the completion of the restoration process,” notably rebuilding the 12th green to its original shape and contour and softening two overly steep greens to fit modern green speeds. The club’s plan still calls for finishing the bunker work and completing the teeing program in the “Ross tradition,” but the routing and the strategic relationships Ross set in 1920–22 are intact.
Unique design characteristics
Cohasset’s identity comes from how Ross threaded golf through granite shelves, kettleholes, and a network of brooks that slide toward the harbor. Because he could not overpower the ledge, he used it—setting greens just atop or beyond rock shoulders, letting natural fall-offs defend targets, and leveraging streams as diagonal questions rather than simple crossings.
The 1st hole establishes the pattern. A generous landing area from an elevated tee belies a demanding, often semi-blind second to an elevated green set on a nose of ground, the surrounds dropping away sharply on three sides. Putts here have pace; recoveries are exacting; and the angles of the approach change markedly with tee-ball placement. That interplay—fairway width feeding into a small, lively target—recurs throughout the day.
Ross alternates stout two-shot holes with a few short, opportunistic asks. The 3rd (442 yards) climbs to an elevated green beyond a stream, the target defended front-left and back-right; the hole’s difficulty is as much the raised putting surface as the length. By contrast, the 5th (301 yards) is a precise half-par par 4: out-of-bounds left, water right and across, a diagonal fairway bunker at 110 yards, and a green with opposing pitches from its left and right halves. A lay-up of ~200 yards yields the preferred angle; the aerial all-or-nothing line is available but marginal in prevailing breezes.
Cohasset’s most frequently cited stretch begins at the 4th, the longest hole on the card (587 yards). Here Ross used a creek that cuts the fairway and then angled the third shot over two cross-bunkers sitting 30 yards short of a very elevated green with a false front, the entire approach framed by granite outcrops—a textbook example of Ross letting rock and slope do the “architectural” work. On the back nine the 12th (231 yards) is a stern downhill one-shotter to a sharply back-to-front sloping green, restored in 2014 to its original footprint; a water hazard well short of the putting surface plays more on the eye than the ball, but the flanking bunkers and green pitch make par an earned result. The 13th follows with a classic 3½-par short two-shotter (268 yards), its green severely canted back-to-front and fronted by a broad bunker that makes the go/no-go choice off the tee meaningful rather than gratuitous. The 15th is the photogenic one-shot hole many visitors remember: over a brow to a green ringed by six large bunkers, with a pronounced false front that sends tentative shots back to the apron. And the 16th, which the club calls its “signature hole,” routes between big, rocky outcrops to a bunkerless, elevated target with sharp fall-off left—proof that at Cohasset the land’s edges, not the sand, are often the primary hazard.
Other Ross fingerprints show through in smaller details. The 2nd green is bifurcated by a bold tier, rewarding the properly shaped tee ball rather than merely the solid one. The 7th (518 yards) bends along water to a bowl-like green where angle matters as much as distance. And the 10th asks for a drive up the left to open the approach into what the club itself describes as a “redan green,” its front-right corner and short fairway bunkers 60 yards out combining to reward a controlled, landing-short approach. Those holes—1, 4, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16—are the clearest survivals of Ross’s 1920–22 intent, each coupling a compact, elevated target with a natural defense and an approach that is better from one side of the fairway than the other.
Historical significance
Cohasset matters within Ross’s Massachusetts portfolio for three reasons. First, the club’s records place his involvement “around 1909,” making it one of his earlier independent Boston-area commissions and a bridge from the six-hole Campbell era to an 18-hole, modern course. Second, the way Ross integrated rock outcrops and brooks into strategy—most vividly at 4 and 16—shows his willingness to let South Shore terrain dictate both line and defense, rather than imposing stock forms. Third, the course became a reliable championship-caliber venue without ever chasing yardage: it has hosted USGA and Mass Golf qualifying events repeatedly in the modern era, including a U.S. Junior Amateur qualifier (2014) and Massachusetts Open qualifying (2017), and it continues to appear on Mass Golf’s competitive schedule. These assignments hinge on Cohasset’s green-to-green rigor—exactly where Ross invested his effort here.
Current condition / integrity
The 18-hole Ross routing from 1920–22 remains in place, including the sequencing of half-pars that gives the round its pulse. Prichard’s 1999–2000 program re-introduced lost fairway width and restored original green shapes; many of the most confounding hole locations today owe to that recapture of perimeter and interior contour. The bunker set is closer in scale and position to what older imagery suggests, with later accretions removed. Forse’s 2014 work was targeted: rebuilding the 12th green to its historic template, and moderating two greens whose slopes had become incompatible with contemporary green speeds—changes that protected Ross’s intent (firm, runoff-defended targets) by keeping pinnable space, rather than forcing speeds down or mowing lines in. The club’s forward plan envisions completing bunker and tee work in the same vein and carrying the tree master plan to conclusion. The course currently plays approximately 6,268 yards, par 71, across 18 holes, with ratings near 71.3/134 from the back set—numbers that reflect Cohasset’s insistence on precision more than power.
Finally, the most persuasive evidence of integrity is visual, and it is baked into the ground: the elevated, smallish targets that open to one angle; the use of diagonal water and interior shelves; and the way rocky ledge is a strategic actor rather than a backdrop. Prichard’s and Forse’s contributions, taken together, have preserved those relationships while making the course function for modern play.
Sources & Notes
Cohasset Golf Club – “Course Tour” & history panel. Club’s own chronology: six holes by Willie Campbell; Ross hired c.1909 to redesign/expand to nine; 1920 contract to expand to 18; 18-hole opening in 1922; 1999–2000 restoration by Ron Prichard (tree removal, green-shape recapture, bunker program); 2014 work by Ron Forse (12th green rebuilt to original shape; two greens moderated; further bunker/tee/tree plan). Also provides hole-by-hole descriptions used above (holes 1–7, 10–16).
Anthony Pioppi, “Donald Ross at Cohasset (Mass.) Golf Club,” quoting a club letter noting that Ross “laid out the original course…has been consulted on all improvements,” and that he considered the property “from the point of view of 18 holes”—evidence of Ross’s early design intent and multiple visits.
Top100GolfCourses.com – “Cohasset.” Capsule history (Campbell six holes; Ross to 18 by 1920), later work by Prichard (1999) and Forse (2014), and highlight-hole descriptions including 4 (stream, cross-bunkers, false-fronted, granite outcrops), 13 (short par-4), and 16 (rock-framed, bunkerless, elevated target).
USGA – 2014 U.S. Junior Amateur Qualifying results. Confirms Cohasset as a 2014 qualifier host.
Mass Golf – 2017 Massachusetts Open qualifying news. Confirms Cohasset as a 2017 qualifier site; Mass Golf – 2024 Super Senior Amateur qualifying notes the championship’s origins at Cohasset a decade earlier.
Uncertainties & disputes.
• Start date of Ross involvement: the club’s narrative uses “around 1909” for Ross’s first work; that date aligns with early-career Boston-area commissions but lacks a specific contract record in public sources. The later 1920 commission and 1922 opening are secure in the club’s history.
• Attribution language in older letters: the quoted letter describing Ross as having “laid out the original course” likely reflects institutional shorthand; contemporary sources credit Campbell with the initial six holes. The course we see today is the product of Ross’s 1920–22 expansion, informed by his earlier nine-hole redesign.