The Club at New Seabury

New Seabury's Ocean Course has something very few New England courses have: an entire nine holes in view of the Atlantic. Built in the 1960s, they tend toward the formulaic and straightforward, but with Bruce Hepner signed on to renovate the course in fall of 2019 into 2020, its prospects are bright.

The bunkering and greens should receive a shot of much-needed creativity, and the finished product should be a course worthy of its spectacular front-nine setting.

Despite historical assertions to the contrary, length really isn't a determining factor for the quality of a golf course. Golfers have been conditioned by marketing and media to think a 6,000 yard golf course is inferior, but Bruce Hepner's renovation of New Seabury's Dunes course proves otherwise.

What it lacks in length it makes up for in cheeky short par 4s, which seduce careless golfers into surprisingly high scores for a course of the Dunes' assumed stature. Classic bunkering, expanded short grass and at times treacherous greens mean there's more than meets the scorecard-assessing eye here.