Two-time Masters champion and World Golf Hall of Famer Ben Crenshaw is from Austin, Texas, but Massachusetts has played an important role in his golfing accomplishments.
Crenshaw, 73, played in the U.S. Junior Amateur at The Country Club in Brookline when he was 16 years old, and the course’s topography ignited his interest in golf course architecture. He couldn’t get over how different the course’s hills were than the flat courses he grew up playing in Texas.
Crenshaw also met noted golf writer Herbert Warren Wind that week, and they became lifelong friends.
In 1973, Crenshaw played in his first PGA Tour event at Pleasant Valley CC in Sutton after PV owner Cuzzy Mingolla gave him a sponsor exemption to reward him for earning medalist honors at three consecutive NCAA championships. He tied for 35th in the USI Classic at PV and earned $903.
In 1999, he captained the U.S. at The Country Club to the greatest Ryder Cup comeback to that point.
In 2004, Crenshaw and Bill Coore designed Old Sandwich Golf Club in Plymouth, ranked third best golf course in the state this year by Golf Digest.
Coore & Crenshaw have designed many golf courses in the U.S., Canada, China, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand, and on June 6, their complete retooling of the Pines Course at the International in Bolton opened. Crenshaw and Coore returned to the International on opening weekend to ride around the Pines with officials from Escalante Golf of Fort Worth, Texas, which bought the club in 2021.
As avid golf fans remember, when Crenshaw captained the 1999 U.S. Ryder Cup team at The Country Club in Brookline, he refused to give up on his squad after it fell behind, 10-6, entering the final day. No Ryder Cup team had ever overcome such a deficit, but Crenshaw told the media, “I have a good feeling about this.”
The media thought Crenshaw was crazy, but the U.S. rallied to beat Europe, 14½-13½.
Crenshaw also had a good feeling about designing and building an entirely new Pines Course at the International in Bolton with Coore. This was the first time that Coore and Crenshaw built a new course on the site of an existing one.
“The character of the ground, vegetation and the sand, it all goes together,” Crenshaw said, “and it makes you think you can do something special, you hope, and God we are so proud of the way it looks right now. It’s matured quite a bit. It looks fun to play.”
Escalante Golf purchased the region’s only private 36-hole club for $10 million and has invested more than $40 million in upgrades. Construction of a new clubhouse and member cottages is planned.
Architect Tripp Davis renovated the Oaks Course prior to it hosting a LIV Golf event in 2022. He primarily improved tees and bunkers on the 2001 Tom Fazio design. Then an overhaul of the Pines began.
Geoffrey Cornish designed the Pines as a 8,040-yard course with steeply pitched greens and challenging bunkers. It opened in 1955 on the site of Runaway Brook CC, which opened in 1901 as a nine-hole public course.
In 1972, architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. softened several greens and bunkers on the Pines, but he also lengthened the course to 8,325 yards. The par-5 fifth hole was 715 yards long and had a green that measured nearly 90 yards long.
For more than half a century, the Pines Course was known as the world’s longest golf course. Coore & Crenshaw shortened the course to 7,103 yards with a par of 71.
Coore, 78, said he couldn’t think of another course that was designed more than 1,000 yards shorter than the original.
When Crenshaw first visited the Pines in 2022, he asked to have the flags removed because he didn’t want to know where the greens were when he envisioned the new layout. No corridor or green site remains from the previous version of the course.
“You touch on people’s skills,” Crenshaw said. “You don’t want to beat them up. You want to encourage good play, you want to reward them. It’s a very trite observation, but anybody can build a really difficult golf course, and that’s not what you want. You want to welcome them and have each class of golfers have some thrills.”
The Pines is also one of the region’s few courses to feature fescue grass on tees, fairways and in the rough.
Crenshaw said he’s still grateful that Mingolla gave him his first sponsor exemption, and he was surprised that he did.
“It kind of came out of the blue,” he said, “but I had played some good golf, so I guess I was worthy of a nod.”
Crenshaw returned to play in several PGA Tour events at PV, and he finished second in 1976 to Buddy Allin and in 1978 to Lou Graham, both times by one stroke.
When in the area to play PV, Crenshaw made the short drive to play Whitinsville Golf Club with Steve Melynk and a couple of other players. They heard it was a Donald Ross course and wanted to go play the nine-hole course that is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.
“We were very thankful to Whitinsville for letting us do that,” Crenshaw said. “It was a wonderful nine-hole golf course. People don’t know that about New England. There are wonderful nine-hole golf courses all through New England, and it has nothing to do with the number of holes, it has to do with the character of the holes. But it was wonderful to see.”
Crenshaw especially loved the challenging, par-4 ninth hole.
“Oh gosh, a gorgeous hole,” he said. “You remember holes like that.”
Crenshaw knows his golf history. So he knows all about Bobby Jones calling a penalty stroke on himself that cost him the 1925 U.S. Open championship at Worcester CC. He even recited what Jones said after the media praised him for his honesty in calling the penalty stroke: “You might as well praise a man for not robbing a bank.”
He’s also well aware that Worcester CC hosted the first Ryder Cup in 1927.
“I never did make it to Worcester Country Club,” Crenshaw said. “I should have.”
Worcester CC head pro Andy Lane said he’d loved to have Crenshaw play the course.
“First off, we welcome Mr. Crenshaw to come and play Worcester Country Club any time,” Lane said, “and I think it’s exciting. With all these centennials and Ryder Cup celebrations coming up, I think Worcester is kind of the center of attention in golf here in New England. Each day gets a little more exciting as we approach that 100-year anniversary of that first Ryder Cup, and obviously with guys like Ben Crenshaw, who are pioneers in the game of the golf affiliated with Ryder Cups, we can’t wait to get him out here to play.”
“I’d love to see it because I know it’s a Ross course,” Crenshaw said.
Nevertheless, Crenshaw is familiar with golf in Massachusetts.
“It’s traditional,” he said. “It’s been a leader forever, historically. People that know golf know that it’s quality. It’s been that way forever, and I’m extremely proud to be part of it.”
Of course, Crenshaw is most proud of captaining the 1999 U.S. Ryder Cup team to victory at TCC. When he saw Justin Leonard sink a 45-foot birdie putt on 17 on the final day to help win the cup, he thought of Francis Ouimet sinking sizable putts on 17 in the final round of regulation and the playoff to help him win the 1913 U.S. Open at TCC.
“That’s pretty eerie,” Crenshaw said. “I’ve called him (Leonard) Francis ever since.”
On April 15, Michael Galvin became the general manager at the International after serving as director of agronomy for five years. He was the superintendent the previous four years at Red Tail GC in Devens after working on the grounds crew at Wedgewood Pines in Stow for two and on Long Island for 15.
Galvin replaced Tom Barnard, who retired after one season for health reasons.
“I’ve always thought about it in my career whether I’d be 55 years old and still being a superintendent,” the 44-year-old Galvin said. “Being a superintendent is a grind. It’s early hours. You’re at the mercy of Mother Nature. The opportunity came up, and with where we are right now with Coore and Crenshaw and where we’re going and the support of all of Escalante, I felt it was the right decision to make to keep this going in the right direction.”
Galvin said the International has 302 members and that he and the club’s two membership directors would like to boost that total.
Brian Marfione was promoted to director of agronomy after serving as superintendent of the Oaks since 2022. Previously, he was superintendent at Sterling National for 3½ years.
Ideas welcome
You can suggest story ideas for my golf column by reaching me at the email listed below. Comments also are welcome.
—Contact Bill Doyle at [email protected].
Read the full article here