By Steve Derderian
sderderian@massgolf.org
WESTON, Massachusetts – A century ago, Pine Brook Country Club and its surroundings were vastly different from what we see today. Founded in the same year that the Boston Bruins joined the National Hockey League and the inaugural Winter Olympics took place in France, Pine Brook was born during the vibrant, fast-paced era of the Roaring Twenties—a time when social clubs, in particular, flourished across the nation.
Pine Brook, however, was more than just another golf course in Greater Boston. It was founded by a group of successful Jewish businessmen and professionals drawn together by their shared passion for golf yet excluded from the existing clubs of the time. They banded together to form the ABC Development Company. Starting with a generous donation from charter member Benjamin Loring Young, a lawyer-turned-politician, the group purchased 49 acres that included a Renaissance Rival brick mansion known as Doublet Hill as their home base. They then acquired the Ferndale Farm to give it space for an entire 18-hole golf course.
Kernwood Country Club (Salem), Blue Hill Country Club (Canton), and Spring Valley Country Club (now Cape Club of Sharon) are all examples of private clubs founded by Jewish individuals. Like its contemporaries, Pine Brook has always been a sanctuary for Jewish identity, culture, and community—a vital space in a society that often withheld such inclusion. While the main focus in 2024 is on leisure, the club is proud of its roots and what it has established for future generations to inherit.
“The idea was for 2024 to arrive and find the club at its peak of excellence with every amenity in place and with nothing left for the members to do but celebrate,” said past president Jeffrey Baron.
When it was founded, Massachusetts almost had its own Pine Valley. Let us explain. The original name of the course was Pine Brook Valley Country Club, named for its copious pine trees and steep inclines. Traveling underneath the one-cart-wide tunnel from the clubhouse side that provides safe passage beneath the winding Newton St., you look out at the vast green expanses recently renovated by Ron Forse and see several holes playing either to or from several high points as well as several water sources. If anything, the layout of this section of the course (Holes 5-15) is one large bowl, and as David Gould points out in the club’s centennial book (an invaluable resource for this piece), the valley was more of an attention-grabbing, marketing term. It was dropped after WWII.
Discussing the layout itself, Stiles said in 1924 that Pine Brook has no blind holes, no two holes alike, and that all fairways have an average width of 160-190 feet with remarkably tall trees. In the form of many renowned Stiles designs (Taconic, Thorny Lea, Franklin), Pine Brook has several elevated greensites, and you won’t find a flat hole or flat lie in many spaces.
The first two holes rise up from the clubhouse, crossing the Weston Aqueduct, a water system that once connected Boston’s drinking water from the Quabbin Reservoir. And then it tumbles back down, setting up the iconic downhill par-3 4th, the first hole you see when driving up to the clubhouse side.
After stopping in the refreshment pavilion, transformed from an old turn shack to a casual dining facility a decade ago and now a popular spot during club events with outdoor seating overlooking much of the “bowl,” golfers take on another adventurous stretch of holes. The par-4 11th is a challenging dogleg left that works straight uphill from the fairway to a small, bunker-guarded green. Golfers can then let it fly on the 12th, playing down to a green nearly 85 feet in elevation below from the back tee.
The 13th then provides a heart-pounding carry over a large retention pond with very little room to bail out. Forse recently removed a bunker to make life a bit easier. During the implementation of his master plan, Forse took golfers of all handicaps to scope out teeing areas that would best suit the club they would hit. On 13, for example, he placed the back tee from a spot where hybrid would be the club choice for low-handicappers. He also noticed that members enjoyed all the original Stiles green complexes over the ones that changed over time (unbeknownst to most which ones they were). Other work included a new 18th green, practice green, a state-of-the-art short game area, and a complete bunker project.
“My first thought as I saw the restored Pine Brook is ‘it looks like a golf course again,'” said longtime superintendent Mike Iacono.
Moving inside the clubhouse, refreshed inside with a gray palette in many areas, there’s a board room with the likeness of every club president except for one — David Stoneman, whose FDR-like 17-year term (1926-1943) carried the club through most of the first generation.
Stoneman, who argued cases in front of the Supreme Court, was also an entrepreneur. He founded a group that purchased the failing Mount Washington Hotel, revitalizing its interior and lifting its past discrimination policies. In 1944, Mount Washington hosted the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference (better known as the Bretton Woods Conference), which hosted 700 international delegates and established the International Monetary Fund. As for his contributions to Pine Brook, you can thank Stoneman for the aforementioned tunnel built wide enough for two golfers to walk side-by-side.
Baron, a more recent past president, maintains that Pine Brook’s decisions to improve the club over time aren’t reactionary to other area clubs, especially those with a Jewish foundation. They did things the way the wanted to, not based on templates from other clubs. As past president Audrey Robinson, one of Pine Brook’s most influential members, once said, “As a membership, we were more earthbound…we weren’t trying to grab the spotlight.”
Rather, the aim has been on member satisfaction and retention. According to Baron, there’s one element in particular that sets Pine Brook apart — the food. “If you’re a Jewish club and you’re not doing the food right, you’re not doing everything that you should,” he said.
During a summer Wednesday visit, executive chef Jason Cohen prepared a full slate of chickens in a rotisserie oven, among other food preparations inside the bustling and awkwardly angled kitchen. In addition to traditional Jewish menu items, popular offerings include brisket, a recipe that came from membership, and shrimp, ahh the shrimp, which could cheer up any golfer who had an off day.
In terms of notable figures, Bob Crowley was once described as the heart and soul of Pine Brook. The former head golf professional from 1961-1991 was a 2016 inductee into the Massachusetts Golf Hall of Fame. After winning the 1950 New England Intercollegiate while attending Boston College, Crowley embarked on a professional career that included five NEPGA titles and four Mass Open and competed in 10 U.S. Opens and 10 PGA Championships. Known for his personable, approachable style, Crowley played at a time when touring pros also needed a job to make a living, and Crowley was drawn to Pine Brook in 1957 as an assistant pro, often playing with all different levels of players.
In Crowley fashion, he deflected his credit for his successful tenure: “No one has worked for a membership that has been better to them than the people at Pine Brook have been to me.”
Other standouts from Crowley’s time included Peter Drooker, who won the 1969 Mass Amateur at Brae Burn and 15 years later won the first Mass Mid-Amateur title at The Club at New Seabury. The Mid-Amateur trophy is named after Hall of Famer Ted Bishop, who also held membership at Pine Brook. Bishop, who won the 1946 U.S. Amateur, also won the 1961 Mass Amateur and 1969 Mass Senior Amateur.
In the modern era, Rebecca Skoler has carried the torch well for Pine Brook. Currently playing for the University of Virginia, Skoler won her first Mass Golf title in 2018 when she took home the Mass Girls’ Junior Amateur title and earned it again in 2020. After setting a course record at Plymouth CC in 2021 and making it to the final match of the Mass Women’s Amateur in 2022, Skoler prevailed in 2023 at Dedham Country & Polo Club, getting up and down from the bunker on the 17th hole to win the final match.
As for hosting championships, Pine Brook has held the Mass Women’s Amateur twice: first in 1955, won by Theodora “Pippy” Rooney, and again in 1973, won by Noreen Friel. In 2018, the club hosted one by Frank Vana, Jr. — another Hall of Famer adding to Pine Brook’s lore.
Other club members with notable championship victories:
Max Hoffman – 1965 Mass Senior Amateur
Melvin Weinberger 1968 Greater Boston Intercollegiate
Lee Karofsky – 1985 Globe Tournament of Champions
Congratulations to the 120th Massachusetts Women’s Amateur Champion, Rebecca Skoler!#MassWomensAm | #MassGolf pic.twitter.com/TJXqQ63jtc
— Mass Golf (@PlayMassGolf) August 18, 2023
As a parting thought, current club president Jay Segel offered this to close out the centennial book: “The club can and must remain competitive and relevant if we intend to preserve and amplify our singular past. … We’re confident Pine Brook will continue to thrive because the ethical strength inherent in the principles of its founder so evidently endures.”
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