Bill Doyle
| Correspondent
Golfers will play a nine-hole tournament with hickory clubs and mesh golf balls Saturday at Whitinsville Golf Club. The men will dress in knickers, high socks, ties and scally caps. The women will wear dresses.
Why? Because the club is celebrating its 100th anniversary, and the members want to play and dress the way golfers did back in 1925.
Whitinsville Golf Club opened on June 27, 1925. On Friday, exactly 100 years later, the nine-hole private club will hold a centennial cocktail party beginning at 6 p.m. There will be hors d’oeuvres, music and a champagne toast. The club’s 11-foot street clock will be officially unveiled behind the first tee. The ground at the base of the clock is covered by bricks engraved with the names of members and local businesses who bought them to subsidize the purchase of the clock and the centennial event.
The club also will raise its 100th anniversary flag in front of the clubhouse on Friday.
The following morning, about 80 golfers will play in a nine-hole scramble with a double shotgun. A BBQ will follow.
The club will rent the hickory clubs and mesh balls. Each set will consist of only a handful of clubs.
“We don’t know how far the balls are going to go,” admitted Jim Brodeur, co-chair of Whitinsville Golf Club’s centennial committee. “Who’s hit a hickory shaft persimmon golf club? Unless you’re in your 70s anyway, you’ve probably never swung one. It’s just going to be a fun event.”
Dressing up in 1925 attire will be optional, but Brodeur said he expects most golfers will.
“Basically, there are going to be a lot of people with the Payne Stewart look,” Brodeur said of the late two-time U.S. Open champion.
Brodeur, 68, of Whitinsville, plans to dress in knickers, high socks, a buttoned-down white shirt, tie and scally cap.
E. Kent Swift, chief executive of the Whitin Machine Works, the world’s largest manufacturer of textile machinery at the time, hired Donald Ross to design the golf course for the company’s employees. Legend has it that Ross had no interest in the project at first, insisting he designed only 18-hole courses, but he changed his mind when Swift offered to pay him his 18-hole rate.
Steve MacQuarrie, a Whitinsville member, authored a book recently about the club’s 100-year history, but he isn’t convinced that story is true.
“I looked up and down, but I could not find any written evidence of that ever happening,” MacQuarrie said, “but it’s been part of the club lore forever, so it may well be true.”
MacQuarrie said Swift wanted to build a nine-hole course because he didn’t want his managers playing too much golf.
MacQuarrie titled his book, “From the Shop to the Top.” Whitin Machine Works used to be known in town as “the shop” and the club rose to “the top” of Golf.com’s 2020 inaugural rankings in the U.S. and second in the world among stand-alone, nine-hole courses. Only Royal Worlington & Newmarket GC of Suffolk, England, ranked better.
MacQuarrie spoke about the book and signed copies at the club early this month. The book is for sale in the pro shop.
MacQuarrie has also written books about the 50th anniversary of Broomstones Curling Club in 2018 and the 100th anniversary of Wanumetonomy Golf Club in Middletown, Rhode Island, in 2022, as well as one about the history of Boston Golf Club in Hingham.
MacQuarrie, 78, lives in Bristol, Rhode Island, and he’s among the many members who drive more than an hour to play Whitinsville. He plans to play in the hickory tournament.
MacQuarrie is president of the Donald Ross Society Foundation, which has more than 600 members and holds golf tournaments to raise money for clubs planning to restore their Ross designs.
In his book, MacQuarrie refers to Ralph Lincoln as the heart and soul of the club. Lincoln was a board member who worked at Whitin Machine Works for more than 50 years and who interacted with Ross the most. Lincoln lived in a house next to the fourth green and served as the club’s first president and as the greens chair for more than 30 years. He hired the club’s first pro.
While no big-time tournaments have been held at Whitinsville, MacQuarrie discovered that some well known professional golfers have played the course. Ben Crenshaw won two Masters and 19 PGA Tour events, Gary Player won nine majors, Jim Barnes won three majors, and Doug Sanders won 20 PGA Tour events.
Crenshaw wrote the introduction to MacQuarrie’s book.
MacQuarrie said Whitinsville faced a couple of big challenges over the years. After White Consolidated of Cleveland, Ohio, took over Whitin Machine Works in 1967, White sold the club to the members. So Whiting Machine Works no longer subsidized the club when needed. Members sold raffle tickets to raise money for the club.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the waiting list was so long that people had to wait up to seven years to join. During the recession of 2007 and 2008, the waiting list went from 10 years to 10 minutes, as one member put it without too much exaggeration. So the club cut costs, and members purchased bonds to support the club.
The club is healthy again. Whitinsville has no pool, tennis courts or fancy clubhouse, but has a full membership and a waiting list of about 40, according to Brodeur, because the golf course is so popular. Brodeur has been a member for eight years.
The course hasn’t changed much since Ross designed it. Some trees have been removed, but many of them weren’t around when Ross designed the course.
In 2019, Golfweek ranked Whitinsville 55th on its list of classic golf courses built before 1960, and it was the only nine-hole course listed.
This year, Golfweek ranked Whitinsville 10th on its list of the top 15 private golf clubs in Massachusetts. Again, Whitinsville was the only nine-hole club mentioned.
Whitinsville plays to a par of 70 over 6,427 yards for 18 holes from the back tees. The course rating is 71.2, and the slope is 139.
The challenging par-4 ninth hole has long been recognized as one of the 100 best holes in the country by Golf Magazine and has been a favorite of Crenshaw, who played the course when he was in the area to play PGA Tour events at nearby Pleasant Valley CC in Sutton.
The ninth hole plays 446 yards from the back tees and is considered to be one of the best holes Ross designed anywhere. A long, accurate tee shot over water is required along with a long approach to a green atop a steep hill and surrounded by bunkers. Approach shots that come up short roll to the bottom of the hill, leaving shots of about 140 yards. Approach shots also can roll off the back of the green.
“It’s an awesome finishing hole,” said Brodeur, a 12-handicapper. “For most members, it plays like a par 5, but it’s really a par 4. For us mere humans off the tee, you’ll be on in three, not two.”
Nearly 50 members of the Donald Ross Society Foundation played Whitinsville with club members on June 9 as part of the centennial celebration. The foundation presented the club with a plaque in recognition of the club’s 100th anniversary that has a metal bust of Ross and declares that there was “no doubt” that Whitinsville was the finest of the more than 50 nine-hole courses that Ross designed.
Gil Hanse, who renovated TPC Boston and restored The Country Club in Brookline, restored Whitinsville about 15 years ago. David Johnson was Whitinsville’s superintendent at the time, and now he’s the super at The Country Club in Brookline.
Current superintendent Shaun Mitchell and head pro and director of golf operations Mark Aldrich both came to Whitinsville six years ago from Worcester CC.
The members own the club, which is overseen by board members, including club president Peter Castellanos and vice president Maureen Hughes. Hughes is co-chair of the centennial committee.
The public must play with a member at Whitinsville, but the function room can be rented by the public for weddings, showers and parties.
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—Contact Bill Doyle at bcdoyle15@charter.net.
