Commonwealth Country Club, 1941 (aka Newton Commonwealth GC)

[gforce41]

Anyone in the greater Boston area knows Newton Commonwealth Golf Club. The course is often billed as a “Donald Ross”, but the course history is complicated and filled with additions, subtractions, and alterations. Once a former private country club, it descended into hacker status when sold and turned into a public course after hitting financial difficulty in the 60s into the 70s. Unfortunately, along with the sale of the club, came sale of surrounding land, which dramatically shrunk the available land for the course and impacted multiple holes.



When I played it fairly often in the mid to late 1990s, I couldn't help but wonder what the full course was once like. There is very, very little public information or photographs of the old course.



So one cold night in January, I decided, what heck, why not take a look? I found a source of old aerial photos and was fairly stunned by what I had found. I realized the course extended all the way down to Chandler Pond...I instantly saw 3 if not 4 “lost holes” as well as some of the familiar favorites that still exist to this day. I struggled to figure out what the routing could possibly have been and what the seemingly random green near what is now the 10 the hole area was…heyyyy, this was getting interesting!



Eager to find out more, I hit the Boston Globe archives and Digital Commonwealth online.

The Globe turned out an article that floored me…in 1941, there was a well-publicized Charity “Grudge Match” between… BABE RUTH AND TY COBB! Are you kidding me? I found a few pictures via Digital Commonwealth….and it WAS GAME ON!



Therefore, I am happy to report that my now well-underway Work In Progress is a digital recreation of the former Commonwealth Country Club (now known as Newton Commonwealth Golf Course) in its fully expanded form, which the Babe played Cobb on in 1941!









Photo is courtesy of Digital Commonwealth

Copyright (c) Leslie Jones.

All rights reserved.

[gforce41]

Here's a sneak peak of what I am working with....this is a 1955 aerial photo that I found, enhanced a bit for clarity, and colorized. Anyone who is familiar with the course now will immediately see the stunning difference of the course running down to Chandler Pond (the second picture is the current course with current routing for comparison.


Of note, the course is situated on a hill. The two ponds you see are the low land points, which are about +50 from sea level. The Old Clubhouse is bottom right and sits atop a hill at about +170ft. So there is quite a drop from the south side of the course to the middle of the course; hence, it’s fairly well known for being a hillside course.

It took me quite a bit of research to find out the sequence of holes and yardage went like this:

Hole 1 340 yard Par 4
Hole 2 420 yard Par 4
Hole 3 490 yard Par 5
Hole 4 495 yard Par 5
Hole 5 195 yard Par 3
Hole 6 335 yard Par 4
Hole 7 495 yard Par 5
Hole 8 185 yard Par 3
Hole 9 395 yard Par 4

Hole 10 325 yard Par 4
Hole 11 185 yard Par 3
Hole 12 420 yard Par 4
Hole 13 520 yard Par 5 (yup! lol)
Hole 14 330 Yard Par 4
Hole 15 320 Yard Par 4
Hole 16 160 Yard Par 3
Hole 17 445 Yard Par 5 (A 1952 Globe article stated 482 yards. Basically, this hole is played as one big long hole where the 10 and 11 holes are today)
Hole 18 185 Yard Par 3

[Rickster]

Looking forward to your updates on future progress and photos when available.

Cheers

[gforce41]

I have a sneak peek of the WIP up in my new YouTube video, check it out! While the main focus of the video is on fairway splines basics, I used the second hole of the WIP for the demonstration and go over some historic facts and layout  to start the video. (ie some quick tidbits).

The course is billed as a "Donald Ross", 1920. The original course was a 9 holer built in the late 1890's. Ross expanded to 18 holes in 1920 and 1923. However, they still didn't own all the land until 1941 when another expansion took place. Ross was not part of that.
Ross lived about 2 miles down the road on Beacon Street and was a member of the club himself.

Francis Ouimet, Sam Sneed, Bing Crosby and others all played here.

The course hosted many a local championship including state championships. And of course, as stated above, Ruth played Cobb here in 1941. Cool stuff!

[gforce41]

Hi all, quick update....looking for ideas from creative minds on how to build the clubhouse.

The old clubhouse sat on top of the hill by what is now the 13th hole (used to be 18th in the 90s), which was the original 1st hole. I have very little information other than these 3 pics from the Boston globe....pretty cook stuff! Ideas, thoughts and suggestions are welcome!

[gforce41]

Quick peek at progress:


Sneak peek of the lost 15th hole! 16 tee is to the right and 17 fairway in distance. 17 was one big hole where 10 and 11 are today.





This is a view from behind the lost 18th hole (a par 3, my golfer is behind the green as if I went long) looking down at Chandler Pond. The lost 16 hole and green is just off to the left, while the opening hole is down the hill to far left (where it says 316 yds). That is the area of the current 13th hole, but the original green was about 25 yards back and to the right from the current green. The tee box was further back than current and up by the clubhouse as you can see from the Sam Snead picture above.

[gforce41]

a Beta is up under CCCNewtonBeta

There is still plenty of work to do, but I want to see how the course plays and looks before making final edits.

[gforce41]

Update: I am getting close to a release. I posted a video sneak peek of the lost 16th hole, with a quick look at the 1st hole (current 13th) and surrounding area. Gives you a good feel for the course as it existed 70 years ago!

[gforce41]

A couple of more sneak peeks for you!

Here is the view from first tee. This hole exists today as the 13th hole BUT the original tee box was much further back (20-30 yards) by the original clubhouse and the original green was back and to the right by 25 yards in now what is the parking lot. There was no water in front of the green and it played at 340 yards.

The second photo is the 11th hole which is the current 7th hole, a locally well know downhill par 3. This hole has been in place for a loooong time. I can safely say this is a Donald Ross original. It has a very Eden like quality to it with a hazard in front instead of the back.