How Brookline Golf Course Getting Closer To Realizing Its True Potential

Brookline Golf Course has an unfortunate distinction in that when you say the words "Brookline Golf Course," the first thing most golf fans are going to think of is The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

The Country Club, of course, is one of the most prestigious, famous golf courses on the planet. It has hosted some of the biggest events in the sport's history on its hallowed grounds.

Brookline Golf Course, meanwhile, sits literally on the other side of the fence, trying to fend for itself as a municipal golf course in the affluent town of more than 60,000.

Brookline Golf Course will never be The Country Club, nor does it aspire to be that. Rather, general manager Justin Lawson and his team are doing all they can to make the most of a tremendous piece of property and get the rest of the Boston golfing community to see what they see in the 18-hole course nestled in the Putterham section of town.

"We have this really cool ecosystem; how can we improve and at the same time, how can we make it better for our golfers?" Lawson told NESN during a visit to the course earlier this summer. "Being a public golf course, we share that responsibility to the environment and our residents to find that balance."

That work is ongoing, but it's not like Brookline is in a state of disrepair -- far from it, actually. It's an affordable 18-hole course in one of the priciest parts of the entire country. There's a wonderful driving range that is almost always packed. Lawson's staff, led by director of instruction Duncan Smith, knows its stuff. The on-site hospitality is top-notch; the on-site restaurant, Hemlock Grill offers a mean fried chicken sandwich and delectable barbeque. And it's hard to beat the view of the 18th provided by the patio off a clubhouse with century-old charm.

Lawson and his team have worked tirelessly to perfect the things they can control. The issue, especially in recent years, has been the things outside of their control. The 2023 season was challenging. Lawson says the course lost 40 days of operation from July through the end of the season amid unrelenting rain storms. Outside of that, a soggy summer forced the course to operate as a nine-hole course for much of the year.

The rain itself -- July 2023 was the second-wettest on record in Boston -- is an issue. It's made worse by Brookline Golf Course's topography, soil type and layout. The Country Club is on the high ground of the property, and the water literally flows down into its neighbor.

That's accentuated by outdated, ineffective drainage. When it rains in Brookline, there is simply nowhere for the water to go. Sometimes, it leaves parts of the course underwater and unplayable. Even if the course is open, drainage issues leave puddles that better resemble ponds. The watershed impact is undeniable, with an ever-expanding neighborhood draining into the course where there's only one exit point. Putterham becomes Puddleham.

The math is simple, too. You make no money when you're closed. A nine-hole course doesn't make as much as an 18-hole course. And that doesn't even take into account the pace-of-play issues that can dog a place like Brookline when carts aren't fully utilized or groups have to play around (or through) massive puddles.

But the work is being done. The town's park and recreation commission in late 2019 approved a landscape master plan for the course. The hope is that work begins in earnest this winter. Brookline has worked in conjunction with esteemed local golf course architect Mark Mungeam to address two main issues: drainage and routing.

"Part of our master plan is to look at this golf course as a restoration of the original drainage system with some modern improvements," Lawson explained. "If it rains, there's nowhere for the water to go."

The specifics for those fixes are complicated, at least to the layman. A combination of drains, pipes, dredges and sand are the tools available to Mungeam and his team. They hope that can make a difference and get them back to, no pun intended, level ground.

As for the routing, anyone who plays Brookline for the first time knows the current layout is, well, inconvenient. The opening hole is on the other side of the driving range and can't even be seen from the pro shop. As part of the overhauled rerouting, the current 13th hole would become No. 1, a move that makes so much sense it's hard to believe it hasn't been that way forever.

The hope is to maximize resources and efforts, which is something Brookline has proved it can do. Brookline works in tandem with The Country Club on various efforts. A prime example of that came in 2022 when TCC hosted the U.S. Open. Brookline's fairways were used as a parking lot; as a result of that partnership with the USGA, the greens on Brookline's signature par-3 12th hole got a makeover.

The work is far from done, but there's light at the end of the (hopefully dry) tunnel. Brookline Golf Course might not be perfect, but "perfect" and "muni" rarely go together anyway. The ideal muni, though, is a fun course on a cool piece of property that is accessible and affordable. It makes the most of what it has.

Brookline Golf Course has the potential to be just that, and it's just about there.