Cochecho Country Club

Cochecho Country Club sits in Dover, New Hampshire's oldest permanent settlement, where the Cochecho River meets the tidal waters of the Piscataqua basin. The course was designed by Wayne Stiles and Phil Wogan, a prominent New England partnership active primarily in the 1920s and 1930s. Stiles, who studied landscape architecture at Harvard and worked briefly with Donald Ross, collaborated with Wogan on dozens of courses throughout the region, developing a reputation for routing that worked sensitively with existing terrain rather than imposing dramatic earthwork. The layout occupies rolling New England terrain characteristic of the Seacoast region, where glacial deposits left varied topography and natural drainage corridors. Stiles and Wogan typically routed holes to follow land contours and take advantage of elevation changes for strategic interest, favoring green sites that used natural slopes for defense. The course reflects the design sensibilities of its era, when architects worked with smaller construction budgets and emphasized playability for the membership while incorporating enough challenge to reward skilled shotmaking. Dover's history as a mill town and its position along major transportation routes between Portsmouth and the interior gave the club a regional membership base drawn from business and professional communities. The Cochecho River, which gives both the club and the course their name, was central to Dover's industrial development and remains a defining feature of the local landscape. The course serves as a traditional private club for the greater Dover area, maintaining the kind of member-focused golf that characterized Stiles and Wogan's design philosophy.