MAC: Canton Golf Courses in the News
By Joe DeFeliceDid you know …
This year marks the 125th anniversary of the Milton-Hoosic Club in Canton. The club is one of the 100 oldest in the United States and is the result of a merger between the Milton Club, established in 1891, and the Hoosic-Whisick Club, established a year later in 1892. The original holes were on Houghton’s Farm, located at the foot of the Blue Hills. In 1895, it moved to its current location on Greenlodge Street (formerly the Shaller Farm). The club was elected to membership by the U.S. Golf Association in 1897 and was one of the 42 founding member clubs of the Massachusetts Golf Association. When first built, the club had only six holes, but in 1916, famed golf course architect Willie Park, Jr. expanded the course to nine holes and enhanced the existing holes. Hoosic-Whisick is a Ponkapoag Indian name for “shallow waters,” making reference to its original site near Houghton’s Pond. The president of the club is Jerry McEleney, and the golf pro is Todd Cook. The longest tenured members are Mr. and Mrs. Mitch Draper, who joined the club in 1946 and now boast 70 years of membership.
The Ponkapoag Golf Course is back to where it once was when it was designed in 1936 by the legendary Donald Ross. Ross designed 27 of the 36 holes at Ponkapoag, including the entire No. 1 course. Ross’s protégé William Mitchell designed the other nine holes in 1958. In 2003, conditions at the Ponkapoag Golf Course deteriorated so badly that nine holes from the No. 1 course were closed. In 2014, Brian Silva, a golf course architect, was given the job to rebuild the closed holes. Silva, who was named the architect of the year by Golf World in 1999 — with $5 million set aside by the state to give the club the full complement of its 36 holes — went to work reconstructing the nine greens and rebuilding five holes that included automating the irrigation system and fixing all of the tee boxes and bunkers. When Silva was finished, the new look of the remodeled course was “right out of a magazine,” according to a Ponky member. After being closed for 13 years, people were very happy to see it reopened officially on May 18, 2016.
The Blue Hill Country Club was another Canton golf course that was struggling, with about $5 million in longstanding debt. The member-owned club decided to sell to the highest bidder. For a reported $10 million, Concert Golf Partners, based in Newport Beach, California, was the winning bidder. Concert Golf has promised to invest close to $3 million to improve the club over the next two years. Plans include expanding the driving range, repairing the parking lot, and renovating the Grille Room, the club’s restaurant. The new owners have also partnered with the Harvard Club of Boston to extend member benefits. Concert Golf Partners gives Blue Hill the potential to continue to be a premier facility. The club is located at 23 Pecunit Street in Canton, and it is the only New England course to ever host a PGA Golf Championship, which it did in 1956. According to the new board of directors, it will preserve the course’s 27 holes.
The Canton annual town meeting approved $620,000 to renovate the high school turf field and track. Construction will begin after the 2016 football season and should be completed by early winter. The track renovations will be done in the summer of 2017.
The town of Stoughton voted overwhelmingly to spend $71.3 million as its share of the overall $123.9 million cost of the construction of a new high school and a new athletic facility. The new athletic facility will include a grass soccer field, a turf track, five tennis courts, and a multi-sport artificial turf field. The existing high school, which was built in 1923, will be demolished and a new 214,600-square-foot school will be built on the site. The Massachusetts School Building Authority has agreed to reimburse the town up to $52.6 million of the cost.
Randolph’s Town Council recently voted to approve a proposal to borrow $11.3 million to build a multigenerational community center.
This week, hundreds of protesters will be marching the length of the proposed Spectra gas pipeline to the State House and will stop at or near the Canton Library around noon tomorrow, July 15. The organizers of the “People Over Pipelines” march, as well as the local “No Canton Gas Pipeline” group, want to make Canton citizens aware of the perceived disruption and danger such a pipeline will cause, together with the fact that Spectra is trying to get the legislature to pass a tax authorizing the pipeline’s estimated $3 billion cost, which would be paid from surcharges to the electric bill of the citizens of Massachusetts. A map is available showing the Hazard Zone and the Evacuation Zone around this pipeline in Canton, and both zones encompass hundreds of homes and businesses. For example, the new Canton Ice House is within the Hazard Zone as is all of Will Drive. Also, it is hoped that the Canton Board of Selectmen will take up this issue at its July 26 meeting. Concerned Canton citizens are asked to attend. For further information, contact Jennifer Wexler at jenwexshayndle@gmail.com or Eileen Mattis at emattis19@gmail.com.
Lost time is never found again.
That is all for now folks. See you next week.
Joe DeFelice can be reached at manaboutcanton@aol.com.
Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=33839
Posted by Joe DeFelice
on Jul 14 2016. Filed under Featured Content, Man About Canton, Opinion.
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