By BILL DOYLE
The 2013 Central Mass. golf season is young, but there have been a lot of changes so far. One golf course is closed after a 90-year run, another has new owners and others have new head pros or superintendents.
Member-owned Petersham Country Club has closed and the members hope to sell the property to Harvard University for use as open space, according to Tim Bishop, the club’s former general manager and head pro.
A nine-hole Donald Ross design that opened in Petersham in 1922, PCC was located
in a sparsely populated area 45 minutes northwest of Worcester and struggled financially in recent years. Budget cuts could not compensate for a dwindling membership.
“It’s a sad day,” Bishop said, “in the same sense that if you were losing somebody who’s been on life support for years and you finally decide you have to pull the plug. You kind of knew it was inevitable and you did everything you could do, but you just knew that it wasn’t going to be a viable entity any more.”
Bishop said the downturn in the economy, the drop in the number of golfers and the increase in insurance costs all played a role in the club’s board of directors voting to sell the member-owned club to Harvard University. Harvard owns land that abuts the course and purchased other smaller parcels of land from the club in recent years. The sale to Harvard is not complete, but even if it falls through Bishop said the club would not reopen.
Bishop became general manager and head pro at Ellinwood CC in Athol in March and roughly 30 PCC members joined him there. Ellinwood is located just 4-1/2 miles from PCC, and is trying to bounce back after filing for bankruptcy in April of 2012. Randy Sawin, who had been splitting his team at Ellinwood and Templewood CC, has joined Ellinwood this season as the fulltime superintendent.
The former Maplewood Golf Course in Lunenburg has new owners, a new name and a new outlook. William Gustus of Lunenburg and Don Lyons of Danvers bought the course in November for $1.4 million and renamed it Settlers Crossing Golf Course.
“Our plans are to change the whole atmosphere of the place,” Lyons said. “We want to make it more family and kid friendly.” Lyons was honored as New England PGA Junior Leader in 2012 for his work with younger golfers at Reedy Meadow Golf Course in Lynnfield. Lyons has been a PGA sanctioned pro for 26 years, served as president of the NEPGA from 1997-99 and was honored as NEPGA golf professional of the year in 2002 when he worked for Beverly Golf & Tennis Club. Lyons plans to conduct free junior clinics on Saturdays and reasonably priced junior camps during the summer.
Settlers Crossing is a 2,685-yard, nine-hole public course with rolling hills, stonewalls, tree-lined fairways and views of Mount Wachusett and the foothills of Mount Monadnock. The owners chose the name Settlers Crossing because in the early 1700s settlers used to cross Northfield Road that runs through the golf course to attend Sunday services and other civic meetings at the meetinghouse in Lunenburg center.
Hal Jacobs is the new head pro at Mount Pleasant CC in Boylston. Last year, Jacobs was an assistant at Weston Golf Club and the previous three he was an assistant at Worcester CC. Jacobs replaced Matt Walsh, who left Mount Pleasant after four years to become head pro at Warwick (R.I.) CC.
Heritage CC plans to open a new back tee by this month that will extend the ninth hole nearly 30 yards and turn it into a monstrous 481-yard par-4. “It’s going to be one that makes you earn the beer at the bar,” Heritage owner Bill Plante said. Golfers will need long, accurate tee shots to keep the trees on both sides from blocking downhill approach shots that must carry a pond in front of the green.
Greg Farland, general manager and head pro the past eight years at Plante’s other course, Quaboag Country Club in Monson, has left to become head pro at Marlboro CC. Farland replaced Mark Klotz, who has taken over as head pro at Cold Springs CC in Belchertown. Farland’s wife, Liz, left her position as a golf instructor at Heritage to teach at Marlboro. Fran Marrello, 58, of Plymouth, Conn., replaced Farland as Quaboag’s head pro. Last year, Marrello won the Vermont Senior Open and his eighth Connecticut Section PGA Match Play championship.
Bob Keene has returned as head pro at Twin Springs in Bolton after serving the same role at its sister course, the International, for the past two years. Keene plans to revitalize the junior program, which he built up during his previous 18-year stint at Twin Springs.
Shawn Durocher, a schoolteacher from Princeton, has joined Cyprian Keyes GC in Boylston as an assistant pro. Her husband, Rick, in an assistant pro at Concord CC.
Bob Varanka, former superintendent at Edgewood Golf Course in Southwick, is the new superintendent at Bedrock GC in Rutland.
Red Tail has reduced its rates of $89 weekdays and $99 weekends, including cart and range balls, to $69 and $79 until May 9. Women of all ages and golfers aged 62 or older can play Red Tail on Mondays for $59 all season.
Bill Doyle is a sportswriter for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and writes a Central Mass. column in each issue of Southern New England Golfer.
