Cohasse membership promotion a perfect 10
A lot of people talk about helping grow the game of golf, but member-owned Cohasse Country Club in Southbridge has actually done something about it.
The private nine-hole club awarded free junior memberships this season to 10 high school students.
“We did it to promote youth golf,” said John Kingston, a member of the club’s board of governors and chairman of the marketing committee. “We don’t have many young members. We thought it would be a good idea to get more students involved. It doesn’t really cost us anything and we thought it would help promote the course. It helps the community, but it also helps get the word out that Cohasse is here.”
Kingston sent letters to the athletic directors of the public high schools closest to the club, inviting students to write essays about why they would like a free membership. It took some prodding and an extension of the deadline, but 10 students responded and the club decided to award all 10. The 10 are: Nick Czernicki of Bartlett High, Julia Cierpich of Shepherd Hill, Colin Nosek of David Prouty, Roxanne and Hunter Garceau of Woodstock Academy, Andrew Parker, Matthew McCormick and Ryan Slade of Tantasqua Regional, William Cournoyer of Oxford High, and Ruben Rodriguez Jr. of Southbridge High.
Although it wasn’t required that the students be experienced golfers, they all are and many of them play for their high school teams. Slade, a freshman at Tantasqua, impressed Kingston and his fellow Cohasse members by writing that he had played the course and enjoyed it.
“Every time I turn the corner entering the country club,” Slade wrote, “I feel like a ‘kid at Christmas.’ My stomach has butterflies. They usually stay with me until the final putt on the ninth hole.”
Who could say no to that?
Cohasse, a Donald Ross design that opened in 1918, has only five paid junior members (ages 12-21) so the club also decided to try to attract more by reducing its junior membership from $650 a year to $350 a year.
Kingston said the number of members at Cohasse has dropped well below the nearly 200 that belonged when he joined the club 15 years ago. Kingston said ideally the club would like about 225 members. To boost membership, new members can join Cohasse for 50 percent off the full individual membership fee of $2,600 for one year and 25 percent off the second year. If a new member is under 35 years old, the first year is only $880.
“It’s getting tougher and tougher for every private golf course,” Kingston said.
Kingston believes too many golf courses were built over the past 25 years to accommodate the number of golfers in the region.
“A lot of people don’t feel like they get a value out of a private course,” Kingston said, “but the value we still give that you can’t get at public courses is you can play our course any day of the week and not bump into a lot of people.”
Kingston said Cohasse doesn’t take tee times, but golfers usually tee off within 10 minutes of arriving at the club and play 18 holes within 3-1/2 hours.
Cohasse is a private club, but Kingston said the club’s restaurant, Cohasse on the Green, is open to the public.
Kingston said 40 percent of the club’s members live in Southbridge, 40 percent live in Sturbridge and the other 20 percent come from other surrounding towns.
Doug Juhasz has replaced Peter Frey as Cohasse’s head pro. For the previous four years, Juhasz was general manager at the Ledges Golf Club, an 18-hole municipal course in South Hadley. Frey left the club last fall after 23 years due to budget cuts at the club.
Ben Haringa is back as the superintendent.
Heritage pushes 7,000
When Bill Plante bought Heritage Country Club in Charlton in 1991, the course was only about 6,000 yards. When three new back tees open this year, Heritage will be play nearly 7,000 yards from the tips.
Plante said his 73-year-old mother Sally often asks him when he’s going to stop lengthening the course. Plante actually hopes to stretch out one more hole to push Heritage beyond 7,000 yards. He’s keeping identity of that hole a secret for now.
A tee behind and to the right of the existing tee should add about 20 yards to the par 3 16th and force golfers to carry the pond in front of the green from a different angle.
A back tee on the par 5 17th should add another 20 yards, extending the length of that hole to about 615 yards.
A back tee dug out of the woods well behind and to the right of the existing tee is expected to add about 140 yards to the par 4 fifth and turn it into a dogleg.
Plante expects the new tees on 16 and 17 to open in May and the new tee on five to open in June. After all three open, Heritage will play about 20 yards shy of 7,000 from the tips, but the course also has tees at 5,400 yards, 6,000 yards and 6,347 yards.
Plante also had trees on every fairway pruned for the first time in more than a decade and a few trees were removed.
Views at Blackstone
The view from the clubhouse deck that opened last fall at Blackstone National GC in Sutton should be even better this year.
The club cleared trees to provide a view of the par 3 13th hole and the ninth green. The deck already overlooked the 18th green.
“The real story at Blackstone National,” director of golf Matt Stephens said via email, “is the emergence of the National Grill as one of the premier destinations for dinner and music in the Blackstone Valley.”
Stephens said the deck with a full bar has attracted diners from as far away as Milford and Sturbridge. The club is working with its nonprofit partners to use its Sunday brunches as a fundraising tool.
The club reconstructed several of the larger bunkers on the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th holes. Overgrown brush was cleared and trees removed to restore many of the holes to their original appearance. The cart barn was redesigned and filled with a new fleet of carts from Country Club Enterprises.
Stephens reported that the junior intramural program that Blackstone established with the Sutton School system continues to grow. The eight-week classes run from April through June. Many of those junior golfers contributed to the Central Mass. PGA Junior All-Star team that reached the Northeast final match against Connecticut last year after defeating New York and Vermont.
Stephens is proud to have introduced 24 women to the game last summer through the Get Golf Ready Ladies Beginner League and plans to introduce 20 more this year.
Blackstone will host a Massachusetts Amateur qualifier on June 1.
Courses reopened
Kettle Brook GC in Paxton opened on March 12 and Wachusett CC in West Boylston opened on March 16. Nick Marrone, director of golf at both courses, said he couldn’t remember either course opening any earlier. Of course, both courses had to close for after the snow fell last Monday, but they reopened on Friday.
Marrone said trees will be cleared from the left side of the sixth fairway to make room for a new cart path and a new bunker to the left of the green. The seventh tee will be moved about 20 or 30 yards back and to the left, extending that hole to about 380 yards or so. Marrone expects all the work to be completed by the fall.
Wachusett has a new fleet of 66 electric carts.
The Worcester County Amateur is scheduled to be held at Kettle Brook on July 2 and at Wachusett on July 3. Matt Parziale of Thorny Lea in Brockton won the Worcester County Amateur for the second time last year.
Kettle Brook GC head pro Mark Klotz plans to form PGA Junior League Golf teams at his course and sister course Wachusett CC.
Westminster growing
Westminster CC director of golf Mike Leblanc said the club enjoyed a successful year last season when more than 100 new members took advantage of a two-for-one deal as long as one of the two was a new member. That boosted total membership to about 220.
“It was a bounce back year,” Leblanc said.
Westminster is offering the same deal this year. The cost would work out to $900 per person.
Beginning on April 19, golfers will be able to ride 18 holes Tuesday-Friday and have lunch by 2 p.m. for $38.
Leblanc said the 16th green will be repaired this spring
—Contact Bill Doyle at wdoyle@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillDoyle15