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Just a few miles down Point Road from the renowned Kittansett Club in seaside Marion, Mass., sits a nine-hole course known to locals as "Little Marion." The humble 118-year-old layout, named Marion Golf Club, has an eye-opening pedigree: it's the first architectural effort of George C. Thomas Jr, a Philadelphia native who went on to design a trio of renowned L.A. layouts – Bel-Air, Riviera and the North Course at The Los Angeles Country Club, sote of the 2023 U.S. Open.
Thomas' first project came about when family friend William Bullivant asked him to lay out this course near Cape Cod. As Thomas later said, "I have often wondered why he entrusted me, and admired his sportsmanship in doing so."
Marion G.C. opened in 1904, and the quirky course's survival was not always assured, even as recently as a few years ago, when the longtime leaseholders retired. Marion native Jeremiah Daly and summer residents Michael Kane and Will Fulton assumed the lease and invested in equipment and an irrigation system, determined to, as Daly put it, "dust off and restore" the course, which is largely untouched and intact from its roots.
Players hit over several stone walls left over from the property's former use as farmland; in sum, Marion plays to about 2,700 yards and a par of 34. As Daly put it, "We didn't want to let this valuable part of the community go away. It's open to everybody, with no dress code and no pretenses." Marion's motto is "Play fast. Have fun."
