Swinging COURTESY FRIEL GOLF MANAGEMENT 80 Years Making and Remaking Coonamessett Golf BY LES GARRICK hen Arnold Palmer, Casper’s team in an 18-hole bet Arnold Palmer $50 that the reigning US best-ball competition, in which the pro would not par the WOpen and Masters the team member with the hole. According to Hatchville Tournament Champion, lowest score posts the team’s resident and Coonamessett launched his drive at the par 72 score for that hole. golfer William Orsi, who Coonamessett golf course, the Clauson, a large man with witnessed the event, Palmer soaring white ball carried the big ideas and an ego to match, then asked Clauson if he would aspirations of club president, predicted that this event would like to double that bet if he Harvey G. Clauson Jr. On that establish Clauson’s Inn and made birdie. Clauson agreed, warm, humid August 13 in Country Club, run by his Palmer birdied the hole and 1960, in the bucolic village of brother Donald Clauson, as one Clauson paid him $100. Hatchville, Palmer, Billy of the leading golfing centers in In 1960 this golf course Casper, the 1959 US Open New England. was an integral and successful winner, and some regional During the round, on the par part of an inland resort on COURTESY GARETH JENNINGS. talent were playing an afternoon 4 365-yard 14th hole, known the northern end of 158-acre Coonamessett Club circa early 1940s. exhibition match before a crowd as “the volcano” because of Coonamessett Pond. Harvey G. Top: Newly restored hole number 9 showing water hazard. of 2,000. Palmer’s team beat its elevated green, Clauson Clauson Sr. had purchased the 30 | IN SEASON Enterprise Newspapers • May 2011 COURTESY HARVEY G. CLAUSON, JR. Clauson’s Inn and Country Club brochure cover. At left: Arnold Palmer (5th from left) and Billy Casper (3rd from left) and others with Harvey G. Clauson, Jr. (6th from left) at an exhibition on August 13, 1960 held at Clauson’s Inn and Country Club. COURTESY HARVEY G. CLAUSON, JR. 32-year-old resort in June 1957 According to George and foremost the product of from the Coonamessett Ranch Clauson, his father, Harvey beautiful pieces of ground.” Company, a land venture of the Clauson Jr., had earlier paid Tom Doak, “The Anatomy of a family circle of the late Charles Palmer and Casper each $1,000 Golf Course.” 1992. R. Crane begun in 1916. to appear for this exhibition, but Coonamessett golf course Mr. Clauson was well known the financially successful pair was laid out in 1928 and 1929, nationally. As recently as 1956 tried to buy their way out of toward the end of the first golf he owned the Blue Hill Country the engagement. The two pros boom of the 20th century; Club, the site of the PGA were held to the commitment the second was in the 1980s. COURTESY DONNA JEWETT championship. The purchase, and thus the Palmer - Casper Aristocrat Devereux Emmet Some of the Dupee family golfing, circa 1950s. in aggregate about 400 acres, exhibition match became the and English immigrant Alfred included the golf course and most newsworthy event staged Horace Tull, both of New the Coonamessett Inn, as well on this course in its then 31- York, designed the course. Tull as a motel on the north side of year history. and his local helpers relied on the natural setting, the rolling landscape, with a few hills, overlooking Coonamessett Pond and the abundant stands of pines. Among those pines Tull set the greens, well- guarded with sand traps. Fortunately, the sandy loam drains well but retains enough moisture to support healthy fairway grass. The first nine holes, which opened in the summer of 1928, started near the Coonames- sett Inn, then the only resort building, which also served as a COURTESY GARETH JENNINGS pro-shop. To accommodate the middle-class summer vacation- Above: Falmouth Playhouse. ers who weren’t able to pay stiff annual dues, the greens fee was At right: Ruins of the Falmouth a reasonable $1.50. The second Playhouse, which burned on nine holes at Coonamessett February 28, 1994. were carved out of pine and scrub oak in the fall of 1929 so COURTESY DANIEL SMALL that play could begin on July 1, 1930. It included a limited fairway irrigation system, which Route 151 and all of the guest Coonamessett still pumps water from a pipe cottages. Tragically, Harvey extending into Coonamessett COURTESY HARVEY G. CLAUSON, JR. G. Clauson Sr. died as a result Ranch Company Pond. The new first hole was Harvey G. Clauson, Jr. with friend. The Indian logo was adopted of a fire in his home in the Years: 1925 to 1957 adjacent to the new clubhouse, by the Coonamessett Resort in the 1940s, supposedly to reflect Maravista section of Falmouth which had a lounge and show- the Algonquin word “Coonamessett,” which is said to mean “place in May 1958. “Most great courses are first ers. A new road approached the where large fish are found.” 31 | IN SEASON Enterprise Newspapers • May 2011 New and current clubhouse exterior. PHOTOGRAPHS BY LES GARRICK Rolling landscape and pines of Cape Cod Country Club. At left: New and current clubhouse interior. Building was moved from Coonamessett Pond side to its present location during the Clauson years. clubhouse from County Road economic conditions during Reservation, recreation for same year they built on golf part of an outstanding resort, (Boxberry Hill Road). Later it the 1930s, the Coonamessett both enlisted personnel and course land the Coonamessett Coonamessett golf course had would also be the entrance to Resort was hopping. There was officers became an important Club, a barn-like recreation the aroma of exclusivity. the parking lot for the Coon- polo every Sunday at 4 PM at social concern as well as a facility with dance floor/ During the 1940s, according amessett Club and its successor, the only polo grounds on Cape business opportunity. The skating rink, bowling alleys, to Bradford J. Faxon, his father, the Falmouth Playhouse. Cod. And yet, in 1939, the Coonamessett Resort was game room, dining room and the late Raymond Faxon, The most picturesque greens fee was only $2. ready for them: in February lounge. The club became the leased the golf course from the hole, the new 145-yard 9th, Transportation to Hatchville 1941 John O. Crane and his new golf course headquarters. Coonamessett Ranch Co. as a demanded calm nerves to shoot improved in June 1940 with a sister Frances Anita Crane, Club members would also be business venture. Before that, from a small, slightly elevated new three-lane road between the owners, built 25 cottages able to use the other resort Ray and his brother George ran tee, over a wetland between North Falmouth and Sandwich along both sides of Boxberry facilities such as golf (including caddie camps at Coonamessett Round Pond and Coonamessett Road. As thousands of trainees Hill Road. These were rented a night driving range), tennis, and at Woods Hole Golf Pond to a sloping green flocked to the expanded initially to military officers and dining. Because of its Club where he later became a guarded by three sand traps. Massachusetts Military and later to vacationers. In the superb location and being member. Faxon, a successful At the time a writer for The Falmouth Enterprise said that this was “a truly championship course sporty enough for the man who plays in the low 80s— and yet pleasant and practicable for the novice.” As the Coonamessett resort matured, nearby farms provided fine produce and dairy. To the west of the resort, until 1935, Brae Burn Farms had its headquarters on the corner of Hatchville and Boxberry Hill roads. Thereafter, Hjalmar Jensen, who purchased 100 acres of Brae Burn land, farmed from 1936 to 1953. His wife, Betty Jensen, operated a bed and breakfast at the farmhouse LES GARRICK LES GARRICK where some Coonamessett Relocating sand traps to pre-World War II position on Hole 9. Aerating the greens with a machine that leaves plugs. This is done Inn waitstaff lived during the to loosen compacted soil to make more room for and increasing summer. oxygen to the roots. It usually takes a couple weeks for the holes Despite the abysmal to fill in and grow over. 32 | IN SEASON Enterprise Newspapers • May 2011 financier and public utility The current clubhouse, a Steps Realty Trust. Steps sold trimmed. executive, is remembered for his rustic structure, was once a the golf course in September Scott McNeil commented generous donations to several building called “the snackery,” 1977 to John Gilgun of Woburn on their rather ambitious plans Falmouth institutions. used for parties and clambakes and golf professional Ernest in these challenging economic During World War II the on the shore of Coonamessett Doherty, who renamed the times: “The course is making Coonamessett golf course Pond. It was moved by the course Cape Cod Country Club. money but not as much as we sponsored fundraising Clausons in three parts and The new owners invested in new would like; as a result, plans for tournaments to support Army reassembled at the site of a fire- machinery and upgraded the a new irrigation system are on Emergency Relief, a charity to damaged clubhouse. antiquated electrical controls in hold.” help soldiers and their families Golf courses are not static. the pump house. John Munroe, head in financial need. After the Course managers try to Doherty built a condominium professional and general war the Coonamessett Club balance beauty with a layout on Boxberry Hill Road near the manager, reflected on the past became a veterans’ convalescent that rewards a good shot and 16th green in 1982.