BOLTON, MASSACHUSETTS | Opened in 1955, The Worldwide featured as its centerpiece a course designed by Geoffrey Cornish with help from newbie golf icon Francis Ouimet. The structure was dubbed the Pines and identified for being the longest course within the nation, measuring 8,040 yards from the again tees. That was an astounding quantity, particularly when one considers the persimmon woods and two-piece, rubber-cored balls everybody was taking part in on the time. And the homeowners of this personal membership in farm nation some 30 miles west of Boston touted that size as some extent of distinction within the golf course universe and promoted it as a cause to play the structure.
One other promoting level of their view was the general toughness of a monitor that additionally boasted cavernous bunkers and steeply pitched greens.
However most golfers didn’t regard these options as nice points of interest. Consequently, the Pines by no means discovered its manner onto probably the most respected top-100 lists, even after the membership employed Robert Trent Jones in 1972 so as to add practically 300 yards of size to the course.
Quick ahead to 2025, and all of a sudden the Pines is surrounded by buzz. That’s due to a current revamping by architects Invoice Coore and Ben Crenshaw that has made it among the many most attention-grabbing locations to play in New England.
It begins with a totally totally different routing, which Coore created after strolling the well-contoured property time and time once more. Not one gap hall or inexperienced web site is identical, apart from No. 6.
As is commonly their wont, the architects additionally produced a lovely mixture of holes on the par-71 structure that take a look at one’s abilities with a wide range of golf equipment.
There are attention-grabbing design options, too, such because the gaping sand pit that borders the second, third and thirteenth holes and evokes the quarry on the second gap at Backyard Metropolis Golf Membership on Lengthy Island. The pure bunkering and swaths of discipline grass make components of the Pines really feel like Pine Valley, particularly the shortish par-3 sixth. The fairways are fescue. The tees and tough, too. And it’s attainable on most holes to run approaches onto the bent grass greens, most of that are endowed with each dimension and spice. The soil, which consists principally of sand and gravel, drains nicely.
The purpose all through the method was to emphasise technique and playability, not size, and benefit from the various design choices the property offered in addition to a way of New England because of the rugged rock outcroppings, stands of mature hardwoods and pines, and terrain filled with humps, bumps and hills. Crenshaw was particularly enthralled with the land, having fallen arduous for the architectural components of this area after competing as a 16-year-old within the 1968 U.S. Junior Newbie at The Nation Membership in Brookline, Massachusetts. It additionally reminded him and his design accomplice of the location on which they crafted the one different course in Massachusetts that bears their names, on the celebrated Previous Sandwich Golf Membership in historic Plymouth. So, they have been understandably excited by what they may vogue on comparable floor at The Worldwide.
“The topography right here is gorgeous,” the two-time Masters winner mentioned this previous June as he and Coore toured the course on the day it opened for member play. “And the landforms are so conducive to actually attention-grabbing golf.”
“It might be the perfect golf course routing I’ve ever seen,” Crenshaw added with out the slightest little bit of hyperbole. “Invoice did an awesome job linking up the holes like a series and creating such a pleasant rhythm and steadiness.”
You possibly can make sure that nobody ever spoke concerning the unique Pines course in such a manner.
The story of that transformation started in 2021, when Escalante Golf, a Fort Price, Texas-based concern, bought the membership. By that time, it included a second 18 holes, dubbed the Oaks and designed by Tom Fazio. Escalante’s first transfer was to rent Tripp Davis to renovate the Oaks, which had opened in 2001, largely by bettering the tees and bunkering, recovering former sandy waste areas and enhancing drainage and irrigation. Then the corporate, which owns and operates golf properties throughout 17 states, engaged Coore and Crenshaw to redo the Pines. Work on that challenge started within the spring of 2022, with tough shaping accomplished a yr later. Quickly after got here the grassing of the primary fairways and tees, and the sprigging of the preliminary greens. Develop-in continued by means of 2024 and into the spring of 2025, with Coore and Crenshaw making closing “within the discipline” design tweaks earlier than the reopening.
All advised, firm officers say they’ve invested greater than $40 million within the Worldwide. However there’s extra work to be executed, within the type of member cottages and a brand new clubhouse.
After touring the Pines the day earlier than that event, the designers pronounced themselves fairly happy with the outcomes.
“I actually loved seeing immediately what we’ve got been engaged on for a great whereas,” Crenshaw mentioned. “I’m very pleased with our crew and what they produced, and I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out.”
Coore appeared simply as happy as he mirrored on how the routing got here collectively.
“We walked the property lots to get a way of what was attainable,” he mentioned. “Clearly, there had been a course right here, and there have been a number of cleared areas. So, we requested the membership to take out all of the flags after we walked round. That manner, we might simply have a look at the land with none actual regard for the place the greens had been earlier than and begin to envision totally different holes and the way the routing may unfold.”
“Greater than anything, it’s a strategy of placing items of a puzzle collectively, slowly however certainly, and letting the location dictate the design,” Coore added.
“Whereas the brand new Pines … will nonetheless problem gamers, it can achieve this with out overly counting on sheer size. As a substitute, it can mix Invoice and Ben’s classically impressed structure with firm-and-fast course conditioning to create a taking part in expertise that requires each creativity and expert shot-making.” – Jeff Kindred
The parents at Escalante, whose properties have hosted a number of important skilled and newbie golf tournaments, appear to be more than happy with the outcomes of this redo.
“During the last 20 years or so, there’s been a major change to the notion of what constitutes a ‘nice’ golf course,” mentioned COO Jeff Kindred. “Whereas the brand new Pines … will nonetheless problem gamers, it can achieve this with out overly counting on sheer size. As a substitute, it can mix Invoice and Ben’s classically impressed structure with firm-and-fast course conditioning to create a taking part in expertise that requires each creativity and expert shot-making. This throwback to option-oriented golf is embraced by immediately’s gamers and drove our resolution to rethink the Pines and start a brand new chapter in The Worldwide’s … historical past.”
A have a look at the brand new scorecard displays that new strategy. The again markers now tip out at a mere 7,082 yards, and the homeowners have made the Pines accessible to the widest vary of golfers by putting in 5 different units of tees, starting from 6,730 yards to 4,651 yards.
A tour of the reimagined course does the identical factor. And after taking a cart trip across the Pines the day that it opened for members after which taking part in a spherical on it later in the summertime, I got here to grasp simply how dramatically totally different it’s immediately – and the way a lot the modifications that Coore and Crenshaw made have been for the higher.
The primary tee offers an excellent first impression. Perched on a promontory slightly below the sprawling clubhouse, it affords a sweeping, barely downhill view of the opening gap, a par-4 of medium size with an extended, gaping fairway bunker on the precise and a distant inexperienced that includes a false entrance and is guarded on the left by one other bunker. Despite the fact that a lot of the opening is bordered by pines, the touchdown space feels as ample as it’s scenic, and I can’t wait to hit my drive.
Simply as engaging are the opposite panoramas I soak up from that spot. By my rely, I can see parts of eight holes, together with No. 1.
I discover that I like a lot of the holes on the Pines. The par-4 ninth, which doglegs to the left after which performs to an elevated inexperienced, brings the entrance 9 to a stirring conclusion. I additionally take pleasure in how the again 9 begins, with an extended 3-par measuring greater than 200 yards in No. 10 after which No. 11, a par-5 that’s maybe the hardest driving gap on the monitor, with water proper and bunkers left. At 583 yards from the members’ markers, it’s no cupcake so far as size is worried, and I wanted to crush my tee shot after which hammer a 3-wood simply to go away myself with a brief iron in.
The par-3 sixteenth is basic Coore and Crenshaw, too, asking golfers to hit a wedge to a raised and well-contoured inexperienced. And the subsequent two holes present an ideal coda to the spherical. No. 17 is a meaty par-4 that doglegs to the left, boasting three fairway bunkers on the precise and wetlands on the left in addition to a two-tiered inexperienced that’s simply begging to be three-putted. And I take pleasure in how the par-5 18th affords an opportunity for a round-ending birdie, offered, in fact, that you just keep away from the golf green bunker on the precise together with your drive and maintain the inexperienced together with your strategy.
All I can take into consideration as I stroll in from my spherical with my caddie is what a terrific addition this model of the Pines is to New England – and the way it enhances the already stellar golf course portfolio of Coore and Crenshaw.
I’d play it once more in a second.
Photographs: Matt Hart
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