Concord Country Club engaged Donald J. Ross in mid-1913 to plan a new nine-hole course on the former John Brown Farm, a mile south of the club’s original Nashawtuc Hill links. Construction followed promptly and the new course opened on July 4, 1914, with temporary greens and a rustic, “primeval” setting that contemporary accounts noted included deer tracks on the greens. Ross’s first-phase holes are traceable in today’s routing as Nos. 1, 8, 9 and 13–18; the club’s centennial history identifies these corridors as “substantially intact,” albeit lengthened over time. Ross also recognized site materials and utilities that shaped his design and construction: the property contained clean, fine sand suitable for bunkers and access to spring water for irrigation. These discoveries, documented by the club, help explain both the presence and texture of Concord’s early hazards and its ability to maintain green sites through New England summers.
By the late 1920s the club had the members and means to expand. The board authorized “construction work on the new tennis courts and additional golf holes” at the 1928 annual meeting, and Ross was rehired to complete the full course. Work proceeded in 1929, and a gala on the club’s 35th anniversary in October 1930 marked the opening of the unified 18-hole layout. Club records later remarked on the character of the finished course—“small, raised, contoured greens… slopes that punish the imperfect chip… carefully placed spacious bunkers”—observations that correspond with the greens and bunker placements golfers still face.
Club and local sources also preserve a tradition that Ross returned shortly after the 1930 opening to offer minor refinements. While the club history confirms the opening date and scope, the specifics of any late-1930 touch-ups are less well documented and should be treated cautiously (see “Sources & Notes”). What is unambiguous is that Concord’s two-phase build—1913–14 and 1928–30—produced the essential framework of the course that survives today.
Unique design characteristics
Ross’s Concord is best understood through its individual holes. The opener (No. 1), a reachable par five from a high tee, introduces two traits that recur throughout the round: an elevated, canted putting surface and deep flanking bunkers that narrow the preferred angle for the approach. That green site and its side hazards align with the club’s early description of “raised, contoured greens” and “carefully placed spacious bunkers,” and the hole sits within the footprint of Ross’s 1914 work.
The front nine’s most exacting terrain appears at No. 4, where the fairway pinches between rough slopes before ceding to a ravine; the approach plays to what the club itself calls an “almost island green.” It is one of Concord’s clearest uses of native relief to create a forced carry that still allows multiple lay-up lines, and it reads much like the sort of natural hazard treatment Ross favored on the hillier portion of the property in his 1929 construction phase.
Concord’s one-shotters showcase Ross’s green-contour variety. The downhill 6th uses a prominent interior ridge to divide the putting surface into two distinct sectors, turning hole location into the strategy; the 12th presents a classic false front that sheds timid tee balls into a hollow well short of the target. Both holes are guarded by bunkers situated to capture the predictable miss, reinforcing the necessity of choosing the correct landing zone on the putting surface rather than merely hitting the green.
Among the most revealing survivors of Ross’s original corridors are the closing stretch. The par-5 17th bends along a creek and a right-side pond in the lay-up and approach zones, rewarding those who challenge the inside line from the tee; the slightly uphill 18th finishes at an elevated green pocketed by two deep front bunkers, with out-of-bounds left tightening both shots. These holes, called out in the centennial history as part of the 1914 core retained in the modern routing, still exhibit the strategic diagonal hazards, perched greens and demanding recoveries that members have negotiated for decades.
Historical significance
Within Ross’s Massachusetts portfolio, Concord represents a mature, two-stage commission that bridges his pre-war suburban work with his late-1920s projects. The club’s willingness to re-engage him for the second nine suggests satisfaction with the strategic flavor of the 1914 holes and a desire for cohesion across the expanded property. In the state golf scene, Concord has long served as a championship venue: it has hosted the Massachusetts Amateur multiple times (1995 centennial, 2007 and 2022) and regularly stages USGA final qualifying (including the 2024 U.S. Amateur). Those selections implicitly attest to the course’s enduring shot values and its ability to present varied demands at tournament speeds without wholesale architectural re-engineering.
Current condition / integrity
Substantial elements of Ross’s routing and green sites remain, especially on the 1914 corridors—today’s Nos. 1, 8, 9 and 13–18—though most holes have been lengthened and many bunkers adjusted from their original dimensions. In recent decades the club has undertaken measured restoration and refinement. Multiple sources note that a Ron Prichard restoration roughly a decade and a half ago refocused the course on its Ross DNA. More recently, superintendent-led projects have emphasized tree removal to reopen angles, chipping areas around greens, fairway expansion (over four acres), and updated grassing lines—changes aimed at re-expressing width and recovery while preserving Ross’s green-to-hazard relationships. The club’s current card lists the Black tees at 6,703 yards (par 70), with other sets down to 4,829, reflecting practical elasticity within the historic framework.
Even where features have evolved, the course’s identity remains legible. The severe false front at 12, the interior spine at 6, the ravine carry at 4, the diagonal water influence at 17, and the strongly defended, elevated 18th green form a representative cross-section of Concord’s Ross heritage. Day-to-day maintenance practices—expanded short-grass surrounds and firm, fast greens—now accentuate those original design cues rather than obscuring them under trees and rough, which had crept in during the mid-to-late twentieth century.
Citations
Concord Country Club, History of the Concord Country Club (club centennial booklet, with PDF excerpts documenting the 1914 opening; the 1928 authorization; the October 1930 18-hole opening; and the identification of surviving early holes).
Concord Country Club, online hole-by-hole descriptions (accessed via “View Course”), which supply current yardages and describe key features on holes 1, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16–18.
Mass Golf, championship releases and features documenting major events hosted at Concord CC (Massachusetts Amateur 1995, 2007, 2022; 2024 U.S. Amateur final qualifying; 2025 Massachusetts Women’s Amateur).
Golf Course Industry, “Quietly better over time” (June 2022), on the two-phase Ross build—late-1920s second nine and the 1930 18-hole opening—and Concord’s placement among Massachusetts Ross courses.
Golf Digest course listing noting a Ron Prichard restoration at Concord CC “about 15 years ago.” (Scope and exact year not specified.)
Mass Golf, “Continuous Improvement Is the Norm for Concord Country Club,” describing recent in-house work: tree removal, chipping areas, fairway expansion, and grassing-line changes.
Concord Library Oral History (Harold Cahoon), recollecting that the second nine began in 1929 and opened in 1930 under Ross’s plans; useful as a contemporaneous local memory source.
Disputed/uncertain points: A GolfClubAtlas thread asserts that Ross returned in November 1930 with suggestions; while plausible given the opening that October, the club’s published history does not itemize those changes, so this remains a reasonable but unverified detail. The timing and scope of a modern-era “Prichard restoration” are referenced by Golf Digest without a dated project report; the club’s own materials emphasize more recent superintendent-led refinements. Both items are flagged as such here.