Set The Way-Back Machine To 2005: New Golf Course To Open In Massachusetts

With all the bad PR in golf these days -- economy sucks! Rounds played down! Bubba and Bieber are BFFs! Tiger Woods! -- there’s a feel-good story shaping up in New England that could have national ramifications. A new golf course is opening in Massachusetts in June.

Cold Spring Country Club, in the central Massachusetts town of Belchertown (excuse me!), hopes to become a high-end destination for golfers across the state and beyond when it opens its rolling, bentgrass fairways and manicured greens to the public on June 1.

“The owners are really excited about it,” head golf pro Bill Tragakis told us recently about the semi-private, par-71, 18-hole layout that will play to 6,521 yards from the tips. “They want to offer a product that’s [tops] in quality and playability.”

When the club launches, it will buck the economic tide of the golf course industry. Indeed, as courses worldwide head to foreclosure auctions, supply will continue to outpace demand for the foreseeable future, according to the National Golf Foundation. Almost 160 U.S.-owned 18-hole operations shut down in 2011, compared with 19 openings -- a trend that has seen almost 360 clubs close since the market’s peak in 2005, says NGF.

Given such stats, it’s not surprising that Cold Spring will be the first new Massachusetts circuit to welcome golfers since 2002, when two courses -- The Ranch Golf Club and Ledges Golf Course -- opened in the western part of the state.

For sure, the 15-year history of the 260-acre former apple orchard with a bushel full of legal and financial baggage plays out like a microcosm of the overall course business. Talk of the project began in 1997 and construction got under way in 2000, as golf was booming.

All work stopped when an original owner got into legal trouble and was convicted of fraud, according to the Springfield (Mass.) Republican. It started up again, only to come to a screeching halt when the next owner defaulted on a $4.2 million mortgage. A Chinese company, Qianlong (USBoston) LLC, bought the property from a local bank for $2.3 million in 2009 but delayed a scheduled 2011 opening to give maintenance workers a chance to whip it into championship shape, the Republican said.

Now, with sparkling white crushed-marble sand filling the bunkers that dot the fairways, and a state-of-the-art clubhouse set to open to the public in little more than six weeks (members will have first crack starting on May 1), Cold Spring is good to go. Course operators as well as town officials have high hopes for its success.

“It’s a beautiful facility,” said Tragakis, who claimed Cold Spring stacked up favorably against some of the region’s highly acclaimed tracks. “The great layout reminds me a lot of [perennial national award-winner] Crumpin-Fox Club.”

The millions of dollars that the current owners have reportedly sunk into the facility, plus purported plans to build some housing units as well as a hotel, have locals believing their little burg could become a must-visit international venue.

“It could become a destination for foreign travelers,” town administrator Gary Brougham told the Republican.

While local enthusiasm may be off the charts, it’s too early to know if Cold Spring will make a go of it in what continues to be a down economy. For now, though, you’ll excuse the golf industry if it chooses to celebrate some favorable headlines for a change.