Myopia Hunt Club is a foxhunting and private country club at 435 Bay Road in South Hamilton, Massachusetts founded in 1882 by J. Murray Forbes.[1] The name "Myopia" is due to some of its founding members having come from the Myopia Club in Winchester, Massachusetts, which had been founded by four brothers with poor vision.[2] Today, the Myopia Hunt Club is a drag hunt, meaning that the hounds follow a laid scent rather than live fox.[1]
Myopia also boasts the oldest continually running polo field in the nation. Polo is still played on Sunday afternoons and is open to the public for a small fee.
In 1902 a real tennis court was opened at the Myopia Hunt Club, but has since been converted to other uses.[3]
This is the only course in the United States to have been listed by Golf Magazine as having two of the United States's top 100 signature holes, Myopia's fourth and ninth.[4]
The U.S. Open was held at the club in 1898, 1901, 1905, and 1908. The 72-hole winning score by Willie Anderson in 1901 was 331, a record high that still stands today.[5] He defeated Alex Smith (golfer) in an 18 hole playoff, 85 to 86, his highest 18 hole score of the tournament.[6] Herbert Corey Leeds was the course designer.[7] The first nine was completed in 1896, but the second nine was not finished until 1901, so the 1898 U.S. Open was actually played on eight rounds of nine holes.
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 new tees on the 2nd, 4th, 7th, 10th, 11th, 15th, and 18th holes. In addition, many trees throughout the links course were removed and replaced with traditional mounds, as the historic design of Herbert Corey Leeds demanded.
Myopia was the home course of the late golf writer and novelist John Updike.[8]