Wentworth by the Sea Country Club

The course's history runs through three eras: a nine-hole layout by George Wright in 1897, a substantial revision by Donald Ross in 1921 (one of several New Hampshire courses Ross touched, alongside Manchester Country Club and others), and an expansion to a full 18 holes by Geoffrey Cornish in the 1960s. The result is a par-70, roughly 6,300-yard coastal course with ocean views along Rye's Little Harbor -- one of only four fully private courses among New Hampshire's nine Donald Ross-designed layouts.

Access is private and non-equity, through three membership tiers (Full Golf Privilege, Sports, Business and Social) with an application process and a reported real waitlist for full golf privileges; social memberships are reported to be more readily available than golf memberships. Living in Harbour Links Estates puts a homeowner directly on the club's fairways with walking or golf-cart access to the clubhouse, but this session could not confirm that homeownership there includes, guarantees, or accelerates club membership -- treat it as proximity with strong marketing ties to the club rather than confirmed bundled access.

Harbour Links Estates is a small, exclusive enclave of 21 custom homes built along the club's fairways and bordering Witch Creek with views toward Little Harbor -- an intentionally golf-fronting neighborhood distinct from Rye's broader housing stock, and priced accordingly (recent Heather Drive sales averaging roughly $7.3 million).

Beyond golf, members have access to an indoor sports center with four indoor tennis courts and a fitness center, four outdoor Har-Tru tennis courts, two platform tennis courts, an outdoor pool, a children's Camp Wentworth program, and clubhouse dining (the Donald Ross Grill and a porch/patio dining option) -- a full-service, family-oriented private club model.

The club sits on Wentworth Road in Rye, NH, on the Little Harbor side of the peninsula, across the harbor from the historic Wentworth by the Sea Hotel in New Castle -- a genuinely separate property and ownership despite the shared name and history. Rye is part of the Seacoast market alongside Greenland (Portsmouth Country Club) and Rye Beach (Abenaqui Country Club), both researched in this same batch.