Best golf courses near Newport, RI

History was made here in 1894 when the nine-hole Newport Country Club, one of five founding members of the USGA, became America’s first championship venue, hosting both the inaugural U.S. Amateur and, in the fall of 1895, the inaugural stroke-play U.S. Open Championship. Twenty years later, Donald Ross extended Newport to 18 holes, stretching it out to the Atlantic shoreline, and almost 10 years after that, A.W. Tillinghast remodeled the entire thing, resulting in the most authentic links experience Tilly ever created. Over the past 20 years, consulting architect Ron Forse has faithfully restored many Tillinghast greens and bunkers lost over time. Newport is the rare nationally-ranked course that’s never had a fairway irrigation system. Weather dictates how firm and fast it plays.