Woodland began as a five-hole member effort in the late 1890s and moved quickly toward a full course. The club’s own chronology states that Donald Ross was commissioned in 1901 to lay out an 18-hole course, with play on the completed course by 1903; the club also records that Ross “returned” after the club purchased additional land and re-opened the course in 1928 following his redesign.
Independent reporting tied to the club’s most recent renovation adds useful texture to those early years. Architect Tyler Rae’s 2020 project summary identifies Woodland as an original nine extended to a full 18 by Ross in collaboration with Alex Findlay in 1903, calling it the third course Ross “reworked” early in his career; Rae also notes that Alec Ross—Donald’s brother and the 1907 U.S. Open champion—served as head professional at Woodland, a connection that likely helped secure the commission.
The rail corridor that bisects the property shaped the early routing. Contemporary histories note that by 1907 Woodland had nine holes on each side of the railroad, a site reality that Ross had to solve with short par-fours and crossings in compact corridors—an arrangement that still frames play today.
By club account, the “new” Ross layout opened in 1928 after the land addition—this is the phase most members of the past century would have recognized as “Ross’s Woodland.” A generation later, Woodland undertook what the club characterizes as “the great redesign” by Geoffrey Cornish, re-opening in 1961; the Michigan State University Cornish archive lists 1964 for Cornish’s remodeling at Woodland, a minor but notable discrepancy in the historical record.
In 2020, Woodland implemented a master-plan renovation by Tyler Rae. Rae’s work built an all-new third hole, expanded all other greens, constructed 67 new bunkers, reset fairway and approach grassing lines, and removed significant tree cover—each move intended to better reveal the lines and options available on Ross’s landforms. The club ties this effort to a broader modernization that also included new irrigation, completed the same year.
Unique design characteristics (as seen at Woodland)
The site’s split by a rail line is not a trivia footnote; it explains Woodland’s sequence of compact, option-rich short par-fours near the clubhouse and rail boundary. The present first and third holes—301 yards and 316 yardsrespectively from the back markers—demonstrate how the course begins by asking for placement rather than pure length, a scale entirely consistent with a 1903-vintage Boston-area Ross working on confined acreage. (Yardages from the club’s scorecard/hole pages.)
Rae’s 2020 changes are also instructive for understanding what Ross had originally exploited. By expanding every green and repositioning grass lines forward into approaches, Rae re-opened ground-access into targets and re-introduced corner hole locations that had been lost to shrinkage—choices he made after studying early ground photographs and a contemporaneous article describing Woodland’s holes. The new third plays as a modern interpretation that sits comfortably in the flow of the old corridors rather than a stylistic outlier.
Specific greens continue to show front-to-back character and collar contours that influence approach selection. Although Woodland does not publish public green contour maps, contemporary assessments and member-facing descriptions emphasize sloping, exacting targets across the course; Golf Digest’s course profile highlights the “many sloping greens” that create the day-to-day challenge at Woodland. Golf Digest
The bunker scheme is now overtly strategic and varied in depth and placement—67 bunkers were built or re-built in 2020—with numerous hazards intruding into lines of charm off the tee and flanking the restored green-edges. Rae’s report frames the bunkering as part of revealing the original lines that had been obscured by decades of tree growth and contraction of playing surfaces.
As for clear surviving examples of Ross’s work, the caveat is that Woodland has been materially altered more than once (see below). That said, most corridors aside from the rebuilt No. 3 appear to follow long-standing lines; the course layout published by the club shows a continuity of hole siting that tracks with the older east-west organization around the rail, even if bunkers and green perimeters have been modernized. (This is an inference drawn from the club’s published course overview and history pages; Woodland has not published a hole-by-hole 1903 or 1928 plan in the public domain.)
Historical significance
Woodland matters within Ross’s body of work first because of its chronology. Both the club and Rae’s research place Woodland’s first Ross phase at the very start of his American career—“the third golf course he reworked”—and it sat within a Boston cluster where Ross had family and professional ties (Alec Ross was on staff nearby and briefly at Woodland). That early date, plus the 1928 return on additional land, gave Woodland two distinct Ross moments to study.
Woodland has also been interwoven with Massachusetts golf history. The club highlights three U.S. Amateur champions—Francis Ouimet, Jesse Guilford, and Ted Bishop—associated with Woodland, with Ouimet joining Woodland as a junior member in 1910; Ouimet would later win multiple Mass Amateurs and two U.S. Amateur titles (though those victories were at various venues). Woodland also hosted early Massachusetts Amateur Championships—including 1907 and 1915—placing the course in the state’s competitive rotation during the Ross years.
In the professional women’s game, Woodland was the 1950 site of the Eastern Women’s Open—an early LPGA-era event—won by Patty Berg. Multiple independent sources confirm that single Woodland edition before the tournament moved to Pennsylvania.
Today, Woodland remains in the Mass Golf ecosystem, serving, for example, as a 2025 Massachusetts Open qualifying site and a 2024 Ouimet Memorial co-host, demonstrating the course’s continued suitability for competitive play following the Rae work.
Current condition / integrity
Because Cornish’s “great redesign” (club: 1961; archive: 1964) overhauled the course mid-century and because Rae’s 2020 work touched every green surface and the entire bunker set (plus one new hole), Woodland is not a high-percentage time capsule of Ross’s micro-features. Instead, the integrity today lies chiefly in routing scale and corridors that reflect the early property constraints (rail division), the use-patterns of short-to-medium par-foursnear the clubhouse, and in Rae’s restoration of ground-entry approaches and expanded perimeters that align with early-era play. (Rae states that his design decisions came from period photos and a hole-by-hole article from the first decade of the 1900s.)
What has been preserved: the overall site organization across the railroad, the modest-length opener (Blue 301 yards) and other early-round short par-fours, and several corridors that plausibly date to the Ross eras. What has been altered: all greens were expanded (not rebuilt wholesale, save for the new No. 3), the entire bunker set was re-imagined in 2020, tree lines were reduced substantially to recover width and vistas, and irrigation was modernized. On balance, Woodland should be regarded as a course where Ross’s routing logic and scale survive, while Cornish and Rae define the present green-edge and hazard language.
Condition/ratings today: Woodland plays as a par 72 at 6,743 yards (Blue); the club publishes rating/slope of 72.8/134 from the back set—figures consistent with the modernized hazards and expanded targets.
Uncertainties & disputes
Two items deserve flagging. Designer credit in 1901 is inconsistent across the club’s own pages: one club page attributes “Designer: Wayne Stiles. Year: 1901,” while the club’s history page emphatically credits Donald Ross with the 1901 commission and 1928 return. Without publicly posted minutes or plans, both claims persist; given Ross’s verified involvement by 1903 and again in 1928, this directory treats Woodland as a Ross course with later Stiles/Cornish associations, pending archival clarification.
Second, the date of the Cornish redesign appears both as 1961 (club history) and 1964 (Cornish project list). It is plausible that planning and partial works occurred in 1961 with reopening or additional phases recorded in 1964. Until club archives are published, the safest statement is that Cornish’s major remodeling occurred in the early 1960s.
Sources & Notes
1. Woodland Golf Club — “Our History” (club timeline with 1901 Ross commission; 1928 Ross return; 1961 Cornish; 2020 Rae/irrigation; Ouimet membership).
2. Golf Course Architecture — “Tyler Rae completes renovation work at Woodland GC” (67 new bunkers; all greens expanded; new No. 3; tree removal; early-career context; Alec Ross as head professional; Ross & Findlay extension in 1903).
3. Mass Golf — “How Golf Architect Tyler Rae Used His Findings in Massachusetts…” (Woodland identified as a 1903 Donald Ross & Alex Findlay layout and Rae as master-plan lead).
4. AllSquare (course history blurb) — notes that by 1907 Woodland had nine holes on each side of the railroad, underscoring routing constraints that continue to define the property.
5. Woodland Golf Club — “View Course” pages (yardages for present holes and published course rating/slope).
6. Golf Digest course profile (Woodland GC) — contemporary assessment noting “many sloping greens.”
7. Cornish Architectural Archive (MSU Libraries) — lists Woodland remodeling in 1964, offering an alternative date to the club’s 1961 entry.
8. Wikipedia — Massachusetts Amateur (host sites list includes Woodland 1907 and 1915; contemporaneous newspaper references compiled by Wikipedia editors).
9. Wikipedia — Eastern Women’s Open and GolfCompendium (event location: 1950 at Woodland, winner Patty Berg).
Disputed points:
• 1901 designer credit: Club “View Course” page lists Wayne Stiles; club “Our History” page credits Donald Ross and states Woodland became Ross’s third completed course by 1903. Pending archival drawings, both attributions are reported here.
• Cornish remodel date: The club shows 1961; the Cornish archive shows 1964. This directory treats the work as early-1960s, with the likelihood of planning/construction/phased opening explaining the difference.