Longmeadow Country Club

Donald Ross designed Longmeadow Country Club in 1922 on rolling Western Massachusetts farmland just south of Springfield, on a piece of property that the founding members had been using for hunt-club purposes since the 1880s. The course opened the same year as Oak Hill in Rochester — also a Ross project — and the two represent Ross's prolific middle period, when he was producing major championship-quality designs at a pace that has not been matched since.

The scorecard reads 6,756 yards from the back markers, par 70, with a slope of 135 and a course rating of 72. The par-70 carries the signature Ross weight — two par-5s, twelve par-4s, four par-3s — and the routing's defense is the lineup of long par-4s rather than the par-5 scoring chances. The four par-3s sit between 134 and 228 yards. The 228-yard fourteenth is the longest one-shotter and plays into the prevailing northwest wind for most of the season; the 134-yard third is the shortest and is the only one-shotter most players can attack with a wedge.

The number-one handicap is the 601-yard ninth — a par-5 that closes the front nine with a slight uphill grade into a green Ross crowned aggressively. The 449-yard second-hardest and the 453-yard third-hardest are both long par-4s on the back nine, where Ross routed the round's longest two-shotters in succession through the round's quietest stretch. The course has hosted the Massachusetts Amateur and Massachusetts Open multiple times, and the Connecticut Open occasionally crosses the border to play here.

The Western Massachusetts climate is colder than coastal New England and the playing window is correspondingly shorter — late April through October, with mid-October typically the last reliable playing date before the first hard frost. September is the prime month for ball-striking conditions; the fairway bentgrass tightens through the cool nights, and the greens reach their seasonal peak speed. Walking is allowed and encouraged; the membership is small and the course is private but with periodic public reciprocity arrangements with nearby clubs.