The International Golf Club in Bolton, Massachusetts, has long been known as home of the longest golf course in the U.S., the 8,325-yard, par-73 Pines Course.
On Labor Day weekend, however, the International will become known for another reason — for hosting an event on the LIV Golf Invitational Series that has drawn interest and controversy in its first season.
Last weekend, the first LIV Golf event held in the U.S. — the first overall was held near London — drew protests at a nearby park outside Portland, Oregon, from about a dozen survivors and family members of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The protesters condemned the golfers for playing in a league funded by Saudi Arabia.
Many golf fans weren’t as bothered. Traffic backed up for hours to Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club on the final day of the 48-player, 54-hole, no-cut event. The tournament had to stop selling tickets.
The International has something in common with Pumpkin Ridge — both are owned by Escalante Golf, a private equity firm based in Fort Worth, Texas, that owns close to 20 golf courses in the U.S.
The International has time to work on potential traffic problems, but the controversy of the LIV Golf funding likely will linger. Critics say the Saudis are using LIV Golf to sanitize their image of abusing human rights. The PGA Tour has suspended players who compete in LIV events, but many golfers found the LIV money too good to pass up.
Phil Mickelson reportedly was paid $200 million to join LIV, Dustin Johnson received $150 million, and Bryson DeChambeau got more than $125 million. Prize money for each event is $25 million, and first place pays $4 million. By comparison, Tiger Woods has won $120 million over his entire PGA Tour career. Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed and Sergio Garcia are other big names playing in LIV Golf events.
Steven Hoogasian, 61, of Shrewsbury has been a member of the International for nine years. He said has no problem with the LIV golfers making a lot of money, but he’s not a big fan of LIV Golf, and he’s not thrilled that the Oaks Course will be unavailable to members for a week or two because of the LIV Golf event. He’s not sure he’ll attend.
“I’d rather play golf than walk around and watch it,” he said. “Having said that, if I can’t get out anywhere that weekend, I might just go to watch these guys play a course that I play every day.”
Hoogasian’s best score at the Oaks Course is a 1-under 71.
Hoogasian knows of International members and others in the local golf community who are looking forward to the International hosting the event, especially now that the PGA Tour no longer stops at TPC Boston.
“I think it will draw,” he said, “and I think there’s a certain attraction to seeing it at a course that you’ve played and seeing how the pros play the holes that you’ve played. So I think there will be some interest.”
Hoogasian said he wasn’t surprised to hear about traffic problems approaching Pumpkin Ridge because he’s played there, and it’s hard to get to because it’s in the middle of nowhere.
Hoogasian isn’t sure if the financial backing of Saudi Arabia will keep too many fans from attending.
“I’m not a big fan of Saudi Arabia,” Hoogasian said, “but the president of this country is going over there pretty soon to beg them to make more oil, so apparently we have no problem buying oil from them.”
(President Joe Biden recently said he won’t ask Saudi Arabia for more oil, but he will visit the country this month.)
Escalante Golf purchased the 36-hole International out of bankruptcy in late 2020 for $10 million.
“This is the crown jewel of Escalante,” International general manager Steve Brennan said. “That’s how they’re looking at this.”
Brennan started as general manager on February 8, 2021, and has worked hard with his staff to restore the International to its former glory.
Brennan, 55, already returned The Club at New Seabury, Massachusetts, to profitability after bankruptcy, and he turned clubs in Tampa, Florida, and Richmond, Virginia, around financially as well. He had been serving as a consultant in golf course construction in recent years, but Brennan reached out to Escalante when he learned that the firm had bought the International.
Members lost dues and couples lost wedding deposits when the International declared bankruptcy two years ago. Hoogasian lost annual membership dues of $8,800 for himself and his wife, Meg. Just a few weeks ago, he received a settlement check for only a few hundred dollars.
“I was stunned to see that,” he said. “Two years plus had gone by, and a check just came in the mail. I was like, ‘What is this? This is the settlement? Wow, what a sport offering me $300 or $400 versus $9,000.’ But is it what it is, I guess.”
The current owners and staff had nothing to do with those financial losses, but they must work to rebuild the club’s reputation.
“We can’t deal with the past because we can’t change it,” Brennan said. “That’s how we have to look at it.”
Asked how he felt about the club hosting an LIV Golf event, Brennan said only that the International will host a media day on Aug. 1. The International isn’t running the LIV Golf event. Greg Norman and an outside organization, the Par 5 Group, are.
Brennan believes the future of the International is bright with Escalante as the owner. Bill Coore and two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw have been hired to build a new golf course in place of the Pines Course, once known as the world’s longest golf course.
Nine holes of the Pines will close later this month so construction of the new course can begin. The second nine will close in the fall. The new Pines Course is scheduled to open in 2024.
The LIV Golf event at the International will be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend, September 2-4, on the Oaks Course, a Tom Fazio design that opened in 2001. That will be the week after the PGA Tour’s Tour Championship, and there’s no PGA Tour event scheduled that weekend.
Last year on the Oaks Course, architect Tripp Davis worked with a construction company to strip and laser level the tees. Brennan said about 175 yards were added to the course. The bunkers, which stand out because they are filled with crushed limestone, were renovated as well.
At the practice facility, the tees were also stripped, laser leveled and seeded, and the target greens were moved and reshaped.
“They’re doing a lot of good things,” Hoogasian said. “I’ve been a member of a bunch of different clubs before, and this is probably the first time that I’ve had an owner who is not only doing what they said, but actually exceeding it. Usually, they give you all kinds of promises and fall way short.”
Brennan said the International has more than 200 members, including 70 who had belonged to the club at the time of the bankruptcy in May 2020, and he hopes to boost membership to about 600.
The clubhouse, encompassing the pro shop, dining room, locker rooms and administrative offices, has been renovated. The 54-room lodge has been converted into 15 suites for members and their guests.
After the Pines Course has been replaced by a new one, the clubhouse will be torn down and replaced as well.
The former clubhouse-banquet facility adjacent to the current clubhouse is no longer used and will eventually be torn down as well. So will the golf bag storage facility.
Escalante will eventually spend about $50 million on the International, including the $10 million purchase price, $10 million-$15 million on the redesign, reconstruction of the Pines Course, upgrading the Oaks Course and practice area and construction of golf cottages.
The International caters to golfers, not families. There will be no pool, tennis, pickleball, outside weddings or outside events except for the LIV Golf event.
—Contact Bill Doyle at bcdoyle15@charter.net. Follow him on Twitter @BillDoyle.
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