Berkshire Country Club’s present course took shape in stages, and Donald Ross’s role was focused and surgical. In 1916, the club engaged Willie Park Jr. to lay out a new eighteen; club minutes recorded acceptance of Park’s plan with the caveat that only fourteen holes would fit on the existing acreage, and Park’s fee was entered at $196.75. In 1921 the club acquired additional land west of Bernville Road, and the completed eighteen opened in spring 1923, establishing Berkshire as the first full 18-hole course in Berks County. That foundational timeline derives from the club’s own archival synopsis.
Ross’s documented design work arrived later and targeted a single hole. The club’s history records that in 1929 “Golf Course Architect Donald Ross redesigned the tee and green placement on hole #3.” No other Ross work is identified by the club in that period, and the hole-specific entry stands out amid the general chronology. A separate local history compilation cites a Reading Eagle notice from November 22, 1920 reporting that Ross “consulted on the design” of Berkshire; because the newspaper reference is summarized second-hand, it is best treated as an antecedent advisory visit rather than a dated construction phase unless the underlying article or drawings are produced. In short: Park planned and built the course between 1916 and 1923; Ross re-sited No. 3’s tee and green in 1929, with a possible consult noted in late 1920.
There is no public evidence that Ross returned for a broader Berkshire phase after 1929. The club’s timeline proceeds directly to event history (late-1940s Reading Open; early-1950s Women’s Eastern Open), and later to infrastructure projects. If Ross correspondence, invoices, or additional hole drawings survive, they have not been published; absent such documents, the conservative conclusion is that Ross’s only confirmed construction change at Berkshire was the No. 3 tee/green relocation in 1929.
Unique design characteristics tied to Ross
Ross’s imprint at Berkshire coheres around one hole—No. 3, a par-4 that today plays 377 yards (back tees) with the widest fairway on the course and no bunkers, using elevation change and uneven stances as its defenses. The club’s hole notes attribute the strategic premise to Park; the club’s history, however, specifically states that Ross repositioned the tee and green on this hole in 1929. Taken together, the two records describe a par-4 whose current tee-to-green geometry—a generous landing that yields a ten-yard uphill approach into a surface sited on rising ground—owes its placement to Ross even as its hazard philosophy (no sand; lie and contour as the hazard) aligns with how the club characterizes Park’s original thinking. Because there is no published “as-built” for 1929 beyond the club’s summary entry, the best inference is that Ross respected the corridor while altering the start and finish points to accentuate the uphill second and stance-based difficulty that define the hole today.
No other Berkshire hole is claimed by the club as a Ross alteration. The course’s most conspicuous natural features—the quarry used at No. 6 and No. 9—are explicitly presented by the club within Park’s oeuvre, as are the many false fronts and elevated targets described across the back nine (e.g., a pronounced false front at No. 14, a two-tiered target with false front at No. 15, and deep flanking bunkers at Nos. 12–15). Those characteristics remain essential to Berkshire’s identity today, but they are Park-derived rather than Ross-driven. Measured strictly by club-documented authorship, the clearest surviving example of Ross at Berkshire is therefore Hole 3, because it is the lone hole where the club attributes a specific, executed change—the 1929 tee and green relocation—to Ross by name.
Historical significance within Ross’s work
Berkshire matters in the Ross record as an instance of his episodic consultancy in Pennsylvania on courses originally authored by others. The club’s own timeline pins Ross to a single, surgical intervention in 1929, rather than a wholesale redesign; a local research summary places him in Reading as early as late 1920 in a consulting capacity. In the state’s inventory of Ross commissions—which ranges from original designs (e.g., Aronimink, Jeffersonville) to remodels—Berkshire belongs to the latter remodel/adjustment category, and at a granular scale (one hole). This distinction matters for directory readers because Berkshire’s landmark tournament history—including the PGA Tour’s Reading Open (1947, 1948, 1950) and the LPGA’s Eastern Women’s Open (1951–1955)—was contested on a course viewed primarily as Park Jr. in authorship, with Ross’s contribution acknowledged but limited to No. 3. The Reading Open winners’ roll—Dutch Harrison (1947), Ben Hogan (1948), Sam Snead (1950)—and the Eastern Open champions (e.g., Beverly Hanson, 1951; Betsy Rawls, 1952–53; Louise Suggs, 1955) anchor Berkshire’s competitive pedigree.
Modern course directories and independent profiles continue to list Park Jr. as architect of record and to mention mid-2010s work by Ron Forse/Jim Nagle. Within Ross scholarship, Berkshire therefore functions less as a canvas for “Ross features” in the plural and more as a documented case of Ross moving a tee and a green on a Park routing—a useful reminder that Ross’s Pennsylvania footprint includes surgical refinements as well as full designs.
Current condition / integrity
By the club’s own accounting, the routing still traces its Park-era corridors across both sides of Route 183; the scorecard lists a present championship yardage of 6,401 yards at par 71, with the distinct front-nine par-3 finisher (No. 9) over quarry, and back-nine sequencing that retains the short-par-four/long-two-shot contrasts highlighted on the club’s hole pages. A $3 million infrastructure program began in 2016, upgrading irrigation (with a new river-fed holding pond) and rebuilding the greens at Nos. 7, 13, and 15—none of which intersects Ross’s No. 3. In practice, that means Ross’s documented work sits outside the most recent green reconstruction.
Separately, Forse Design has been retained for planning and restoration guidance: independent documentation shows a Forse master plan dated October 2020, and informed commentary notes that Forse/Nagle have worked with the club over many years to recapture lost green edges and re-present historic features. Because neither the club nor the architects have released a public, hole-by-hole “as-built” for those efforts, their direct effect on No. 3 (Ross’s hole) cannot be enumerated from public sources; the 2016 construction targets did not include No. 3, and the club’s current Hole 3 description remains consistent with the wide-fairway / uphill-approach identity noted above.
Quantitatively, the documented extent of Ross’s Berkshire work today is one hole (No. 3) in terms of tee and green siting. The remainder of the course—greens, bunkers, and routing—derives from Park’s 1916–23 build and subsequent club-directed modernizations. Berkshire thus presents, in present tense, a course where Ross’s tangible authorship is limited but traceable to a single hole; all other classic features described by the club (e.g., false fronts at 14 and 15, deep flanking bunkers at 12–15, the quarry at 6 and 9) sit outside Ross’s scope.
Sources & Notes
Berkshire Country Club, “History” (club timeline: 1916 Park Jr. engagement; 1921 land purchase; 1923 opening of full 18; 1929 Donald Ross tee/green relocation at Hole 3; Reading Open hosted 1947, 1948, 1950; Women’s Eastern Open 1951–55; 1976 Jack Nicklaus exhibition; 2016 irrigation/greens work at 7, 13, 15).
Berkshire Country Club, “Golf Course” (hole-by-hole notes and present yardages; Hole 3 described as widest fairway, no bunkers, uphill approach; quarry use at Holes 6 and 9; false fronts and deep bunkering described on Holes 12–15; page headline lists current championship yardage of 6,401).
Berkshire Country Club, “Bcc scorecard [1].pdf” (official scorecard: total yardage 6,401 from blue tees, par 71; hole yardages including No. 3 at 377 yards from blue).
Wikipedia, “Reading Open” (tournament venue years and winners; Berkshire host in 1947, 1948, 1950 with winners Dutch Harrison, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead).
Where2Golf, “Reading Open” (venue/winner corroboration and dates, including Berkshire years and scores).
Wikipedia, “Eastern Women’s Open” (LPGA event at Berkshire 1951–55; winners including Beverly Hanson, Betsy Rawls, Louise Suggs).
Golf Compendium, “Eastern Women’s Open (LPGA)” (narrative context for the event’s venue history and winners, confirming Berkshire as host 1951–55).
Villanova University (Joseph Bausch), “The Berkshire Country Club (Reading, PA)” (photo essay including image caption: “The most recent (October 2020) master plan from Forse Design, Inc.”).
GolfClubAtlas forum thread, “Berkshire CC (Reading, PA): a super fun Willie Park, Jr …” (observer note: Ron Forse and Jim Nagle “working with the club over the last 15 years” to bring back lost features and recapture green space). Secondary/enthusiast source; used only to indicate the presence of ongoing architect involvement beyond the club’s own 2016 construction notes.
Pennsylvania Golf Association, “Berkshire Country Club” (club background; land acquisitions in 1916, 1921, 1928 supporting expansion to 18 holes).
pagolf.org
Golf Chronicles PDF, “Golf Comes to Berks County” (citing Reading Eagle, Nov. 22, 1920: Ross “consulted on the design” of Berkshire Country Club). Secondary citation of a newspaper; used here to flag the consult claim as an unverified antecedent to the club-documented 1929 change.
GOLF.com Course Finder / directory profile (notes Park Jr. authorship and references Ron Forse renovation work circa 2015; corroborates LPGA Eastern Women’s Open hosting). Directory source; used to reflect how contemporary listings present authorship and recent work.
Disputed / uncertain points
• Ross’s presence before 1929: A local historical summary attributes a 1920 consult to Ross via the Reading Eagle. The club’s official record, however, identifies only a 1929 construction change (No. 3 tee/green relocation). Without the original 1920 article or Ross drawings in hand, the 1920 consult remains unverified and is presented here as possible advisory work rather than a dated build phase.
• Scope beyond Hole 3: An enthusiast catalogue asserts “remodel in 1919” and mentions Ross hole drawings; no such scope appears in the club’s public history, and the only confirmed Ross work in club materials is Hole 3 in 1929. Until primary plans or minutes are published, this directory treats Berkshire as a Park course with a Ross single-hole adjustment.