TRAVEL: Famed Duo of Coore & Crenshaw Announce New Boston-Area Project

Modern golf architects have truly been revitalizing the game and offering an experience that has never been delivered before. Indeed, the likes of Tom Doak, Gil Hanse, and Mike Strantz all but guarantee a memorable golfing experience.

Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore are two other very notable individuals who have quite a repertoire that includes, among many others, Bandon Trails, Cabot Cliffs, Friar’s Head, and Kapalua Plantation Course, along with revitalizations of Maidstone, Pinehurst No. 2, and Riviera Country Club.

Escalante Golf, a boutique owner and operator of unique golf assets who recently acquired The International Golf Club (located 25 miles northwest of Boston), will now be the next club to be blessed by the touch of Coore & Crenshaw.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Specifically, The International Golf Club—the only 36-hole area with a dedicated focus on the membership experience and premium golf—have retained Coore & Crenshaw to breath new life into the Pines Course, which measures out to more than 8,300 yards and, thus, can be called the longest golf course in the United States.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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While the Pines Course was designed and built by Geoffrey Cornish in 1953 and later expanded by Robert Trent Jones in 1972, Escalante Golf has, more or less, granted Coore & Crenshaw complete control over the project, including the ability to reconfigure and renumber the holes to develop a course that will be “distinctly New England,” says Ben Crenshaw. Indeed, Bill Coore, who’s toured the property, has already envisioned rerouting numerous holes so the natural conditions and contours could be better utilized to develop an “interesting golf course.”

Bandon Trails, another Coore & Crenshaw Design

“We will study the Pines course more as a landform in its raw state as if no golf course exists,” said Coore. “We don’t want to view this as restoring an existing course and be too influenced by its features.”

The team is expecting to head up and walk the grounds within the next year to start brainstorming the rerouting and design changes before breaking ground, with the new Pines Course opening currently scheduled for Spring 2024.  But the important takeaway here is that the Pines Course is about to undergo a true rebuild that, in all likelihood, will provide New Englanders with a course that finds itself among the best in the area, if not the country.

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