Whitinsville was conceived by executives of the Whitin Machine Works as a purpose-built recreational course for their company town. The club’s own history places the commission squarely with Ross in the mid-1920s, noting that he initially hesitated to take a 9-hole assignment and accepted after being offered an 18-hole design fee; he then laid out and supervised construction.
The course opened in 1925; contemporary local reporting records a centennial celebration exactly a century later on June 27, 2025, confirming the opening date. The internal club history also preserves a long-circulated claim that Ross regarded Whitinsville’s “valley layout” among his “best efforts,” and that he singled out the two-shot finishing hole; the club does not cite the original document for those quotes.
Ross’s field sketches—cited by the Donald Ross Society analysis—indicate specific intended lengths that match the tactical shape of the holes we see today: a very long two-shotter at the 5th (~442 yards in sketch), a second long par-4 at the 9th (~425 in sketch), and shorter “drive-and-pitch” par-4s at the 4th and 8th. The same analysis points out Ross’s zig-zag pattern for holes (excluding the one-shotters) to avoid monotony, which Whitinsville’s routing clearly exhibits.
Unique Design Characteristics
Whitinsville’s nine holes are tightly interlocked but distinct, each leveraging a specific landform:
1st – A long, valley-floor opener that demands placement off the tee and a disciplined advance; out-of-bounds is sensibly set away from Fletcher Street, and the green finishing on higher ground sets a demanding tone for distance control from the first approach.
2nd – A short par-3 that, by club and Ross-Society accounts, is the course’s lone truly forced aerial approach to a perched, push-up target—classic Ross variety deployed sparingly here to heighten contrast with the running ground game elsewhere.
3rd – A diagonal tee shot over a brow to a sunken fairway framed by man-made mounds and natural slope; the approach plays to a compact green with subtle interior contour. The low “chocolate-drop” mounds to the left here and more dramatically on the next hole were formed from rocks taken out of the fairways during construction—exactly the inexpensive, practical solution Ross advocated when clearing stony New England ground.
4th – A mid-length “drive-and-pitch” with those distinctive rock-built mounds left; the preferred angle rewards shaping tee shots right-to-left to avoid the mounding and open the green.
5th – The routing’s longest two-shotter and one of Whitinsville’s strategic centerpieces, guarded by a string of cross bunkers that tighten or open the preferred lay-up depending on the line and length you choose from the tee. Ross’s sketch length (≈442) and the cross hazards deliver the “drive and long approach” test he explicitly championed.
6th – A medium par-4 complicated by a “hidden burn” that cuts the fairway—unseen from some tees—which forces a thoughtful lay-up distance and angle and then a precise approach over the stream channel.
7th – A one-shotter into a green fronted by a deep natural hollow—another Ross preference—so that even a slight miss short is firmly rejected.
8th – The sharpest dogleg on the course (and a second “drive-and-pitch” length in Ross’s own framework). Ross was an early adopter of multiple tee pads to vary angles; the Society analysis notes three tees indicated on his sketch here, a concept still expressed at Whitinsville in the alternate back-nine tees that change the second-shot geometry.
9th – A tumbling two-shot finisher played across water and up into a green with a pronounced false front; anything fractionally under-struck can roll back down into the fairway, leaving a nervy pitch. This hole has long been singled out in the literature as a national-caliber two-shotter; it has also been the focus of club lore about Ross’s esteem for the hole.
Across the nine, the surviving green sites—especially 2, 5, 7 and 9—express the course’s identity: modest in footprint, perched or front-defended, and keenly sensitive to exact approach trajectories, with the 9th’s false front and the 7th’s fronting hollow the clearest examples.
Historical Significance
Within Ross’s corpus, Whitinsville is an unusually complete nine: the routing is purpose-built to its valley, not a remnant or temporary half of a larger plan, and it stacks the full Ross repertoire—drive-and-pitch par-4s, two bruising long par-4s, one-shotters with distinct demands, a strategic stream crossing—into a tight footprint without resorting to filler. The course has been a frequent touchstone in rankings of nine-hole designs. In 1997 Sports Illustrated named Whitinsville the clear No. 2 nine-holer in the U.S., explicitly citing Ross authorship, the strength of the 9th, and (importantly) the course’s subtle Ross green deception; SI also quoted architect Brian Silva, who had restored the bunkers, praising the land and design. More recently, GOLF’s global nine-hole list in 2020 prompted local coverage noting Whitinsville’s high placement, and the club currently amplifies recognition from Golfweek as a 2023 “Best Private Course.” Club materials and local reporting also repeat Ben Crenshaw’s inclusion of Whitinsville’s 9th among his “Best 18 Ross Holes”.
These notices matter because they reinforce what the ground already suggests: Whitinsville has been treated more as a conserved artifact than a canvas for reinvention, so its standing owes to integrity and clarity rather than novelty.
Current Condition / Integrity
Multiple sources stress that the course has “changed little” since 1925, and a close look at the hole-by-hole fabric supports that view: original green sites, the stream crossing at 6, the cross-bunkering at 5, and the steep false front at 9 remain core tests. That said, Whitinsville has undertaken measured restoration and agronomic work:
Bunker restoration (1990s): By 1997, Sports Illustrated identified Brian Silva as the architect who had restored Whitinsville’s bunkers—an early, restrained intervention in the modern restoration era.
Master plan and light-touch restoration (2009 onward): In 2009, the club engaged Gil Hanse to prepare a restoration master plan. Reporting and superintendent testimony describe the scope as minimal intrusion: tree removal to reopen historic corridors and vistas, fairway expansion to recapture strategic width, selective greens “recapture” at edges, and bunker edging—work implemented over the next several years under then-superintendent David Johnson (who later moved to The Country Club).
Further restoration/green work (mid-2010s): Ron Forse’s firm lists Whitinsville as a restoration/green-reconstruction client, and third-party course directories placed a Forse-led restoration here circa 2015.
Today the club employs alternate tees to vary back-nine angles, and the staff has continued to pursue tree management and detail work consistent with the Hanse plan. Public-facing club statements emphasize that any added length (new tees) has not altered Ross’s design intent. The overall picture is of a course whose routing and most defining hazards and green sites remain substantially intact, with modern work focused on revealing rather than reimagining Ross.
Sources & Notes
Whitinsville GC — History page (club history; company-town origins; Ross commission; “valley layout” and 9th-hole anecdotes).
Whitinsville GC — Course Tour (holes 1–9) (hole-specific features: rock-pile “chocolate-drop” mounds at 4; cross bunkers at 5; hidden burn at 6; fronting hollow at 7; false front and water carry at 9; O.B./Fletcher Street context at 1). (Representative hole pages cited here: 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9.)
Donald Ross Society – Whitinsville analysis (Steve MacQuarrie) (Ross quotes paired to Whitinsville’s soil, zig-zag routing, hole lengths from Ross field sketches, deep ravines, and use of multiple tees at 8).
Telegram & Gazette (June 20, 2025) (centennial column noting opening date “June 27, 1925” and century milestone).
Sports Illustrated (Oct. 27, 1997), “Small Wonder” (ranks Whitinsville No. 2 nine-holer; identifies Brian Silva as having restored the bunkers; praises land/greens; highlights 9th hole).
Telegram & Gazette (Sept. 19, 2020) (local report on Whitinsville’s high placement in GOLF’s global nine-hole list; also notes the 2009 Hanse master plan and its implementation by superintendent David Johnson).
Golf Course Industry (June 9, 2022) (interview with David Johnson describing the 2009 Hanse restoration plan and its light-touch scope: tree work, expanded fairway lines, greens recapture, bunker edging).
Club + Resort Business (May 1, 2023) (notes, citing T&G, that Hanse developed a 2009 master plan to restore Whitinsville).
Forse Design — Client list (shows Whitinsville GC as a restoration/green-reconstruction client; corroborates subsequent restoration involvement).
NewEngland.Golf (May 28, 2021) (interview excerpts with Whitinsville’s head professional; notes added tees for length but “design hasn’t been altered”; reiterates 2009 Hanse “restore Ross’s intent”).