Westford, Mass. - Golfers like the new, nine-hole Butter Brook Golf Club, and so do rare salamanders. Whether adventurous players and endangered newts will co-exist on an 18-hole version of Butter Brook GC will be decided this summer. The former cattle and hog farmers who developed the course continue to negotiate with the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program.
Designed by architect Mark Mungeam, Butter Brook Golf Club opened in late April on a rolling piece of wooded terrain in this northwest suburb of Boston. The owners, Ed and Betty Kennedy, have been bowled over by the response to Mungeam's design.
"Golfers love it," Ed Kennedy said. "The first three or four days, I walked around and asked people what they thought of the course. A bunch of them gave me great big hugs."
Construction of the second loop is scheduled to commence this fall, provided Ed Kennedy can reach an agreement with the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP) about the blue spotted salamander, a protected species now doing its level best to propagate in and around a vernal pool on land adjacent to the would-be back nine.
Mungeam worked around a similar pool on the front nine, where newts are thriving. Mungeam, a
partner with Uxbridge, Mass.-based Cornish, Silva & Mungeam, has experience accommodating rare salamanders.
"They seem to prefer proposed golf course sites; they've been identified on several other
projects we've done," the architect says. "Salamanders were found during the planning of Shaker Hills [GC in Harvard, Mass.], Olde Barnstable Fairgrounds [GC on Cape Cod] and Cyprian Keyes [GC in Boylston, Mass.]. In every case we worked around them - with the utmost care, of course. They're endangered but maybe they're not looking in the right places. They seem to be on most of the proposed golf course sites I see."
Construction of Mungeam's 1997 design at Cyprian Keyes was complicated by issues similar to Butter Brook's, but the marbled salamanders found there are protected and flourishing.
Mungeam's back-nine design provides the pool in question more than 600 feet of elbow room; Bay State statutes normally mandate that protected wetlands and vernal pools be given a 100-foot buffer. But the NHESP hasn't been moved, and the situation remains in limbo, though Kennedy and Mungeam are confident a compromise (perhaps involving a swap of adjacent town land) will be reached.
With three par-3s, three par-4s and three par-5s, the experience varies and, at 3,342 from the tips, there's nothing short about it.
Butter Brook is the latest in an eclectic group of current projects designed by Mungeam. Mungeam recently finished restoring the Donald Ross-designed, Wayne Stiles-revised Country Club of Pittsfield in Western Massachusetts, while last month he presided over the grand opening of Hudson Hills Golf Club in Newcastle, N.Y., the first public course to open in Westchester County for 65 years.
"The 7th is a personal favorite of mine: the way it sets up off the tee, the way it's a gambling hole, with its green setting in the bowl ready to collect shots," Mungeam says. "Overall, I think there's a real maturity to Butter Brook. The site was densely wooded when we found it. The white pines
that dominate the site are so big and the style of bunkering is very much in harmony with these trees. I'm thrilled to hear that people think it has a classic, old world feel. The credit for that goes to Tim Gerrish, our associate designer in charge of this project. He gave the bunkers a very
dramatic look with jagged edges, never a straight line. I've kidded Tim a lot about having to be drunk to paint such uneven lines, but I know it takes a keen eye to get it right. As they mature, these bunker edges will look even better - less manicured and more vintage.
"The land here was so good, with lots of existing hollows and rolls, but I'm also proud of the routing - the way we laid out the holes across the terrain. The course is very enjoyable to walk. Because of the cross bunkering which juts into the fairway and creates the winding fairways,
most holes look hard but play much easier. There's always a place to play the ball and not be penalized. It's not overly penal and requires a good deal of thought. We feel that good players will find the back tees very challenging."
Mungeam meanwhile is busy creating the private Quail Ridge CC in Acton, Mass. Also under construction is the spectacular Golf Club at Oxford Greens in Oxford, Conn., where he's working with Billy Casper Golf Management on a daily-fee course in a new Del Webb community. Also in Connecticut, Mungeam is authoring a complete renovation of New London Country Club.
Source: Phillips Golf Media
