Bill Doyle
| Special to the Telegram & Gazette
Taconic Golf Club in Williamstown is ranked among the top 15 golf courses in the state, but head pro Josh Hillman believes it should be ranked even higher.
“You put this course in the Boston area,” he said, “and it immediately goes to the top of the list. But I like this setting better. I like the atmosphere, I like the feeling here. The people are great.”
Yes, Taconic is iconic.
Taconic is based on an Algonquian word meaning “in the trees” or “forest” and Taconic GC provides spectacular views of the Taconic Mountains in nearby New York and of the Berkshire Mountains in western Massachusetts.
When my foursome played Taconic this summer, Hillman pointed to the mountains to the west and explained that they were in New York only about a mile and a half behind the third and fourth holes. Then he turned to the mountains to the north of downtown Williamstown and pointed out that they were located in Vermont about two miles away.
“So we are literally in the corner of the state,” he said.
The Berkshires are located so far away from Boston — about three hours — Taconic and the other clubs in the region belong to the Northeastern New York PGA, not the New England PGA.
Williamstown is a more than a two-hour drive from Worcester, even longer than it takes to get to Florida. You drive through the town of Florida, Mass., on Route 2 on the way to Williamstown.
Much of the drive takes place on Route 2, which is scenic, but winding, especially the hairpin turn in North Adams.
Williams College owns Taconic GC, and the club is located on the opposite side of the parking lot from the college’s football stadium and adjacent to the track facility. Hillman, 47, doubles as the men’s golf coach at Williams.
“I think that’s the biggest asset as a college coach,” Hillman said. “When recruits come in, they say, ‘Boy, this is part of the campus,’ and we are part of the campus. Anywhere on campus is a 10-minute walk for a student to be on this property.”
On Saturdays in the fall, a football or a field hockey game could be taking place next door to the golf course.
“The horn’s going, the crowd’s cheering,” Hillman said. “You can hear, ‘First and 10 for Willams,’ and it gets exciting. You can hear that horn everywhere on this property. It’s a really, really great college environment.”
Taconic also is a great golf course. Golf Digest ranks Taconic the second-best college campus golf course in the nation, behind only Yale Golf Course in New Haven, Connecticut. Hillman pointed out that Yale GC is temporarily closed, so he considers Taconic to be No. 1. Yale GC has been closed since September 2023 for a Gil Hanse restoration and isn’t scheduled to reopen until next year.
Golf Digest also ranks Taconic 13th among all courses in Massachusetts. Golf.com ranked Taconic 73rd on its list of the top 100 courses you can play.
“It’s definitely worth the trip,” Hillman said. “You’re not going to be disappointed.”
Hillman pointed out that Taconic is such an enjoyable place to work, he’s only the club’s fourth head pro in the last century. When Hillman was an assistant pro at Taconic in 2007, he shot a 63 to break the course record, which had been set by Rick Pohle, the head pro at the time. Hillman replaced Pohle as head pro in 2013.
Taconic’s tassel flags are replicas of those used when three Williams students established a three-hole course near the current 18th fairway in 1896 with tomato cans for cups. The course was lengthened to seven holes later that year and expanded to nine holes the following year.
Wayne Stiles redesigned the course to 18 holes in 1927.
Taconic is a par 71 with five sets of tees that play from 3,934 yards to 6,808.
“Very generous off the tee,” Hillman said. “You have a lot of room to hit it. The second shots are where you get that pucker factor. You kind of get a little tense, you’ve got to make sure you leave it in the right spots to make a 4. The defense has always been the greens. They’re old school Wayne Stiles greens that you want to make sure you leave the ball in the right spots to be able to make a par.”
Taconic is semi-private, meaning it has members, but allows public play as well.
Hillman said he has seen an uptick of golfers from Boston and New York who play at Crumpin-Fox Club in Bernardston, then head a little more than an hour west to tee off at Taconic, and then drive a bit more than hour farther west to play Saratoga National Golf Club in Saratoga Springs, New York. Hillman said those golfers put Taconic at the top of that list.
Hillman said golfers from the Worcester area sometimes make day trips to Taconic. Some might also attend the Clark Art Institute in town or a concert at Tanglewood in Lenox just under an hour south.
“Williamstown in the summer is like one of those magical, small New England towns,” he said. “It’s pretty special.”
In 2004, I was at Taconic to write about Frank Vana Jr. of Marlboro CC winning the Mass. Amateur there, but I had never played it until this summer.
Joe Pagano, 67, of Worcester invited me to play Taconic with him and two of his fellow members at Worcester Country Club: Sean McShea, 60, of Holden and Dan Shimkus, 60, of Worcester. We played in the afternoon during a heat wave in June, and the temperature approached 90.
Pagano’s son John, a three-time T&G Hometeam All-Star golfer at St. John’s, will be a senior on the Williams golf team in the fall. He did not compete last spring due to a back injury.
Hillman called John Pagano a “huge asset” to the team and praised him for being able to play well in difficult conditions, such as when it’s wet and windy.
“He’s just a good leader,” Hillman said. “Everybody on the team loves John. It’s really amazing. Everybody has their own personality, and people just gravitate toward him.”
Joe Pagano had played Taconic a couple of times previously, and he had attended a half dozen of his son’s matches at the course.
McShea played Taconic in the 1990s with a couple of his roommates at Columbia University graduate school who had graduated from Williams.
Shimkus had played Taconic three times over the past dozen years.
“I think it’s one of the most scenic golf courses that you could play,” Pagano said. “It’s more than just the terrain of the course, it’s to be able to see the mountain views and the sky, it’s a complete connection to nature. So that’s what I find edifying to play this course. And the course is always in spectacular condition, from the spring to late fall.”
“I loved it,” McShea said. “Beautiful day, a little on the warm side. Tough greens, small greens, long (course), challenging. Every hole was interesting. There wasn’t a hole I didn’t like. I thought it was very fair. But what a beautiful background. Great layout. I do love that it’s an old course.”
“Very picturesque,” Shimkus said, “with the mountain ranges. Rustic, great golf course, fair, tough greens, very enjoyable.”
We took carts because of the heat, but Taconic is walkable.
“I’d love to come back,” McShea said.
McShea stayed the night before at the Williams Inn in downtown Williamstown because he didn’t want to drive up and back the same day. He was also able to work remotely in the morning before we played.
Pagano drove Shimkus and me for the ride of two hours and 20 minutes from Worcester and I rode back with McShea.
Shimkus accounted for one of the highlights of our day by birdieing the par-4, 449-yard 11th hole. He drove the ball 235 yards, 4 feet into the rough, but had a decent lie. Then he hit a 4-iron onto the green and sank a 12-foot, downhill, right-to-left putt.
On the par-3, 167-yard, downhill ninth hole, I hit a 4-hybrid to the back of the green and drained a 45-foot putt for my only birdie.
Hanse completed a renovation of Taconic in 2009, and he’s currently working on developing another master plan for the club.
Taconic’s rates range from $75 for guests playing with a member to $180 for nonmembers not playing with a member. Taconic has 250 local members and 500 national members. Hillman said unaccompanied guests account for about 30 percent of Taconic’s play.
Taconic has hosted several notable events, beginning with the 1956 USGA Junior Amateur. Jack Nicklaus, 16 at the time, carded a hole-in-one on the par-3 16th hole during a practice round. He lost in the semifinals of that tournament.
Taconic has also hosted the 1963 U.S. Women’s Amateur, 1996 U.S. Senior Amateur, 1958 NCAA Division 1 Championship, 1972 NCAA Division 2 Championship, 1999 NCAA Division 3 Championship, five Mass. Amateurs, two Mass. Opens, and the 2024 Mass. Women’s Amateur.
Ideas welcome
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—Contact Bill Doyle at bcdoyle15@charter.net.
