BOLTON, MASSACHUSETTS | Opened in 1955, The International featured as its centerpiece a course designed by Geoffrey Cornish with assistance from amateur golf icon Francis Ouimet. The layout was dubbed the Pines and known for being the longest course in the country, measuring 8,040 yards from the back tees. That was an astounding number, especially when one considers the persimmon woods and two-piece, rubber-cored balls everyone was playing at the time. And the owners of this private club in farm country some 30 miles west of Boston touted that length as a point of difference in the golf course universe and promoted it as a reason to play the layout.
Another selling point in their view was the overall toughness of a track that also boasted cavernous bunkers and steeply pitched greens.
But most golfers did not regard those features as great attractions. As a result, the Pines never found its way onto the most reputable top-100 lists, even after the club hired Robert Trent Jones in 1972 to add nearly 300 yards of length to the course.
Fast forward to 2025, and suddenly the Pines is surrounded by buzz. That is thanks to a recent revamping by architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw that has made it among the most interesting places to play in New England.
It starts with a completely different routing, which Coore created after walking the well-contoured property time and time again. Not one hole corridor or green site is the same, with the exception of No. 6.
As is often their wont, the architects also produced a pleasing mix of holes on the par-71 layout that test one’s skills with a variety of clubs.
There are interesting design features, too, such as the gaping sand pit that borders the second, third and 13th holes and evokes the quarry on the second hole at Garden City Golf Club on Long Island. The natural bunkering and swaths of field grass make parts of the Pines feel like Pine Valley, especially the shortish par-3 sixth. The fairways are fescue. The tees and rough, too. And it is possible on most holes to run approaches onto the bent grass greens, most of which are endowed with both size and spice. The soil, which is composed mostly of sand and gravel, drains well.
The goal throughout the process was to emphasize strategy and playability, not length, and take advantage of the many design options the property provided as well as a sense of New England due to the rugged rock outcroppings, stands of mature hardwoods and pines, and terrain full of humps, bumps and hills. Crenshaw was especially enthralled with the land, having fallen hard for the architectural elements of this region after competing as a 16-year-old in the 1968 U.S. Junior Amateur at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. It also reminded him and his design partner of the site on which they crafted the only other course in Massachusetts that bears their names, at the celebrated Old Sandwich Golf Club in historic Plymouth. So, they were understandably excited by what they could fashion on similar ground at The International.
“The topography here is beautiful,” the two-time Masters winner said this past June as he and Coore toured the course on the day it opened for member play. “And the landforms are so conducive to really interesting golf.”
“It may be the best golf course routing I have ever seen,” Crenshaw added without the slightest bit of hyperbole. “Bill did a great job linking up the holes like a chain and creating such a nice rhythm and balance.”
You can be sure that no one ever spoke about the original Pines course in such a way.
The story of that transformation began in 2021, when Escalante Golf, a Fort Worth, Texas-based concern, purchased the club. By that point, it included a second 18 holes, dubbed the Oaks and designed by Tom Fazio. Escalante’s first move was to hire Tripp Davis to renovate the Oaks, which had opened in 2001, largely by improving the tees and bunkering, recovering former sandy waste areas and enhancing drainage and irrigation. Then the company, which owns and operates golf properties across 17 states, engaged Coore and Crenshaw to redo the Pines. Work on that project began in the spring of 2022, with rough shaping completed a year later. Soon after came the grassing of the first fairways and tees, and the sprigging of the initial greens. Grow-in continued through 2024 and into the spring of 2025, with Coore and Crenshaw making final “in the field” design tweaks before the reopening.
All told, company officials say they have invested more than $40 million in the International. But there is more work to be done, in the form of member cottages and a new clubhouse.
After touring the Pines the day before that occasion, the designers pronounced themselves quite pleased with the results.
“I really enjoyed seeing today what we have been working on for a good while,” Crenshaw said. “I am very proud of our crew and what they produced, and I could not be happier with how it turned out.”
Coore seemed just as pleased as he reflected on how the routing came together.
“We walked the property a lot to get a sense of what was possible,” he said. “Obviously, there had been a course here, and there were lots of cleared areas. So, we asked the club to take out all the flags when we walked around. That way, we could just look at the land without any real regard for where the greens had been before and start to envision different holes and how the routing might unfold.”
“More than anything else, it’s a process of putting pieces of a puzzle together, slowly but surely, and letting the site dictate the design,” Coore added.
“While the new Pines … will still challenge players, it will do so without overly relying on sheer length. Instead, it will combine Bill and Ben’s classically inspired architecture with firm-and-fast course conditioning to create a playing experience that requires both creativity and skilled shot-making.” – Jeff Kindred
The folks at Escalante, whose properties have hosted several significant professional and amateur golf tournaments, seem to be very pleased with the results of this redo.
“Over the last 20 years or so, there’s been a significant change to the perception of what constitutes a ‘great’ golf course,” said COO Jeff Kindred. “While the new Pines … will still challenge players, it will do so without overly relying on sheer length. Instead, it will combine Bill and Ben’s classically inspired architecture with firm-and-fast course conditioning to create a playing experience that requires both creativity and skilled shot-making. This throwback to option-oriented golf is embraced by today’s players and drove our decision to rethink the Pines and begin a new chapter in The International’s … history.”
A look at the new scorecard reflects that new approach. The back markers now tip out at a mere 7,082 yards, and the owners have made the Pines accessible to the widest range of golfers by installing five other sets of tees, ranging from 6,730 yards to 4,651 yards.
A tour of the reimagined course does the same thing. And after taking a cart ride around the Pines the day that it opened for members and then playing a round on it later in the summer, I came to understand just how dramatically different it is today – and how much the changes that Coore and Crenshaw made have been for the better.
The first tee gives a very good first impression. Perched on a promontory just below the sprawling clubhouse, it offers a sweeping, slightly downhill view of the opening hole, a par-4 of medium length with a long, gaping fairway bunker on the right and a distant green that features a false front and is guarded on the left by another bunker. Even though much of the hole is bordered by pines, the landing area feels as ample as it is scenic, and I cannot wait to hit my drive.
Just as enticing are the other panoramas I take in from that spot. By my count, I can see portions of eight holes, including No. 1.
I find that I like most of the holes on the Pines. The par-4 ninth, which doglegs to the left and then plays to an elevated green, brings the front nine to a stirring conclusion. I also enjoy how the back nine starts, with a long 3-par measuring more than 200 yards in No. 10 and then No. 11, a par-5 that is perhaps the toughest driving hole on the track, with water right and bunkers left. At 583 yards from the members’ markers, it is no cupcake as far as length is concerned, and I needed to crush my tee shot and then hammer a 3-wood just to leave myself with a short iron in.
The par-3 16th is classic Coore and Crenshaw, too, asking golfers to hit a wedge to a raised and well-contoured green. And the next two holes provide a perfect coda to the round. No. 17 is a meaty par-4 that doglegs to the left, boasting three fairway bunkers on the right and wetlands on the left as well as a two-tiered green that is just begging to be three-putted. And I enjoy how the par-5 18th offers a chance for a round-ending birdie, provided, of course, that you avoid the fairway bunker on the right with your drive and hold the green with your approach.
All I can think about as I walk in from my round with my caddie is what a terrific addition this version of the Pines is to New England – and how it enhances the already stellar golf course portfolio of Coore and Crenshaw.
I’d play it again in a second.