Ponk Golf Course

As the Boston Globe reported in its June 19th issue, the United States Golf Association considered Ponkapoag Golf Course as a location for this year's U.S. Open. The estimated $35 million to renovate the course, however, proved just too great. See article below or click here for the on-line version.

In the Rough, Canton Gem Missed Big Shot
But Ponkapoag Needed Too Much to Host Open

By Peter Schworm
Globe Staff / June 19, 2009

CANTON - When two of the country’s top golf officials surveyed Ponkapoag Golf Course a few years back, they analyzed every green, every fairway, from every possible angle, as if grimly sizing up a tough lie. A few months earlier, a multimillion-dollar face lift of another scruffy public course - Bethpage State Park on Long Island - had culminated with its hosting the 2002 US Open to rave reviews. Now, the United States Golf Association was eagerly searching for a sequel.

Designed by legendary architect Donald Ross, Ponkapoag was at its core magnificent, a graceful expanse of rolling fairways gently flanked by maples and cedars. But too many rounds over too many years with too little maintenance had earned it the ignominious moniker in Sports Illustrated as the worst public course in America.

With the USGA’s help, some hoped then, Ponkapoag could reclaim the greatness Ross envisioned, and New England its place at the center of the golfing world.

It never happened. The challenges were just too great.

Yesterday, as large galleries lined the fairways at Bethpage Black to see the greats of the game take in New York’s second US Open in the last eight years, David Gianferante, who manages Massachusetts’ two state-owned golf facilities, gazed wistfully over Ponkapoag’s soggy, overgrown third hole, long closed to the public because of its state of total disrepair.
The USGA would have lengthened the hole, Gianferante explained as he eyed it from his cart, and sliced a stroke off its par. They marveled at its possibilities as a signature hole for a championship event.

“It’s a magnificent hole,’’ he said, looking out over a fairway that gently bends over 520 tree-framed yards from tee to green. “Just magnificent.’’

In many ways, the story of Ponkapoag is the story of lost opportunity, like a potentially winning putt that lips out on the 18th hole of a major championship. As the people of New York celebrate their rehabilitated course and the lucrative championship it hosts, the people at Ponkapoag, amid a downturn in golf, a suffering economy, and a chronic inferiority complex, are left to wonder what might have been.

“This could be better than Bethpage,’’ Gianferante said, estimating it would cost about $6 million to restore the nine holes made defunct by poor drainage. “Even though it was in tough shape, they could see the magic.’’

Mike Butz, the deputy executive director of the USGA, said he came to Ponkapoag in search of the next Bethpage, a municipal course that could challenge the game’s elite. But he and his team found “considerable challenges’’ in designing a course that would provide a “full examination’’ of players’ skills. Organizers, he said, would have found it hard to remodel the course to make it sufficiently challenging for the professionals.

“One of the attractions of Bethpage Black . . . is that any golfer can tee it up and experience the same course as the competitors in the US Open,’’ he said. “That would not have been the case of Ponkapoag.’’

Still, many wonder what might have been.

“I think about it all the time,’’ said John Connolly, a selectman in Canton. “They were very interested, if it had been at all up to par. But it wasn’t up to par.’’

You wouldn’t know by looking, but Ponkapoag boasts many of the qualities needed to host a major championship. In many ways, it was exactly what the USGA officials were looking for, a diamond in the rough they could shape to exact specifications.

Like Bethpage, Ponkapoag is a Depression-era municipal course designed by a legend, and once ranked among the great public facilities in the country. It stands in the shadow of one of the nation’s largest media markets, with easy access for fans and corporate sponsors. And like Bethpage, Ponkapoag has highways close at hand and a second course to help handle the crush of a major event.

But while Bethpage Black, the famously unforgiving championship course - part of a five-course complex in Farmingdale, N.Y. - needed a $3 million infusion of USGA money to make it Open-caliber, Ponkapoag required far more - tens of millions, by some estimates.

“It’s a lot like Bethpage, so you can understand why they would find it intriguing,’’ said Nathan Robbins, executive director of the New England PGA. “Underneath the years of neglect is a major championship golf course waiting to happen.’’

Or, as one consultant who studied Ponkapoag called it, “a Mona Lisa with mud on its face.’’
For those who treasure the course’s underlying beauty, its condition is an affront to the sport itself. Donald Ross, they say, is rolling over in his grave.

“It needs a total rehab,’’ said Jack Neville, director of golf at Brookline Golf Club and the former head professional at Ponkapoag. “It’s no Bethpage, let me tell you that. Though it could be.’’
Like that important missed putt that never quite loses its sting, the region’s golf community still mourns the missed chance. New England has not hosted a US Open since 1988, at The Country Club in Brookline.

Built in the 1930s, Bethpage Black was designed by storied architect A.W. Tillinghast. Over the years, it became a victim of its own success, as constant use outpaced upkeep. By the 1990s, when the USGA came to visit, it was past its prime.

But like Ponkapoag, it had potential for greatness. The USGA all but rebuilt the course, from tees to greens, installing a new irrigation system, extra drainage, and restoring the bunkers.
Now it is revered for its challenging nature; a sign at the first tee warns it is “an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for highly skilled golfers.’’ In 2002, Tiger Woods was the only golfer to finish under par.

Many New England golf professionals remain hopeful that a complete renovation of Ponkapoag - costing as much as $35 million - could turn the USGA’s head.

“You could run a US Open there,’’ said Harry McCracken, secretary-treasurer of the New England Golf Association. “You’re going to have to lay out some funds, but in the long run you’re going to reap the benefit.’’

To that end, state Senator Brian A. Joyce, who represents Canton, is pushing to let the state lease the course to a private company to improve it.

“The opportunity cost is extraordinary,’’ he said. “Hosting a championship event could bring $100 million in regional economic impact.’’

Tom Rooney, head professional at LeBaron Hills Country Club in Lakeville, grew up playing on Ponky, as it’s known informally. If things had turned out differently, he would be watching the drama unfold this weekend from his hometown course. “It would have been great,’’ he sighed.