The Greenock Country Club
A Wonderful GetawayTo atone for sins past, present and future and to celebrate the nuptials of 31 years ago with my darling wife, I suggested a nice night in a B&B, a good dinner and to play a little known, but wonderful 9 hole Ross Course. So off we headed to Lee, Massachusetts, which could well be the B&B capital in all of Massachusetts. We stayed at a delightful Inn in Lee and had a very nice meal in nearby Lenox.
The next morning, Monica and myself wandered over to see Ross Society member and Course Superintendent Bob Decker. Bob introduced us to PGA Golf Professional, Michael Bechard. We had a discussion of Ross affiliations, Mike and Bob had essentially plied their respective trades at Ross courses and both had grown quite attached to the Ross way of design. At Greenock, I was to find that a good deal of the original flavor of this 1927 Donald Ross design still remains.
The course is built on a significantly sloping property that produced only one flat hole in nine. The first is an apparent handshake, a 345-yard par four from an elevated tee. The second shot is to a concealed green at the top of a rise. The elevation change is pause for careful selection of weapon for the second shot, a situation I would face five more times in nine holes. All of the greens are elevated with the exception of the two lovely par three holes. The second hole and the seventh holes are exceptionally well carved one shot holes. Both play downhill and are well defined by strategic bunkering. The greens are very original looking, never a straight putt over three feet, Donald Ross greens.
Bob Decker is in the throes of trying to bring back more of the original size and shapes of the greens. He has brought out a number of the surfaces as much as ten feet and in doing so has created a number of new pinning positions that are so crucial on a nine-hole track.
The greens were eminently playable although not to their highest potential due to the late start we have had this year in New England.The bunkering on the course has probably been altered most drastically of all the features on the course. The end product is that they resemble Trent Jones 1950’s style bunkering. Bob is working with some able advisors to rebuild one of the bunkers to the Ross look in hopes of kicking off a program to restore all thirty bunkers.
There are few places in the world as pretty as the Berkshires in the spring, summer and fall. A trip to the Lee-Lenox area covers all bases and the Greenock Country Club will satisfy your golf needs. For more information e-mail me at mjfay@attbi.com.
