Farm Neck vs Oyster Harbors for Golf Living

At Farm Neck, the exclusivity mechanism most relevant to a homebuyer is real-estate-linked: buy in Farm Neck Estates, reportedly receive a lifetime stockholder membership that would otherwise require a 16-plus-year wait. At Oyster Harbors, exclusivity is physical and social rather than automatic: the club and roughly 400 homes occupy the entirety of Grand Island, accessible only through one guarded bridge, but the club itself admits members -- including resident homeowners -- through an invitation and sponsorship process rather than granting membership automatically with a deed.

Oyster Harbors carries deeper architectural pedigree for a course-focused buyer: an 18-hole 1926 Donald Ross design, site-planned by the Olmsted Brothers, restored by Tom Doak in 2009. Farm Neck's 1979 Geoffrey Cornish/Bill Robinson/Patrick Mulligan design is younger and has built its reputation more through presidential play and Vineyard prestige than classic-architecture pedigree.

Farm Neck requires a ferry or small-plane trip to Martha's Vineyard; Oyster Harbors is on the Cape Cod mainland, bridge-connected to the rest of Osterville and Barnstable, though its own single-bridge island geography creates a comparably strong sense of physical seclusion without the ferry-schedule logistics of a true island.