It’s a big week for places named Oak Hill Country Club — two premier championships venues in their own respect. The Oak Hill CC near Rochester, New York, is hosting the PGA Championship for the fourth time in its history. But back in the Bay State, Oak Hill in Fitchburg has been announced as a future host site for a flurry of championships and one-day events.
Mass Golf announced Wednesday that Oak Hill will host three championship events over the next decade, among them the 2026 Massachusetts Women’s Amateur and the 2031 Massachusetts Open. Next year, the club will host the 2024 Massachusetts Super Senior Amateur for the first time from September 30-October 1.
Oak Hill, which has been a longstanding and gracious host of Mass Golf championships and qualifying events, as well as a supporter of the Mass Golf Member Day program, will continue to host one-day events in off-championship years (2025, 2027-2030).
“Our club really looks forward to continuing our relationship with Mass Golf, and we’re so fortunate to host a number of events in the future,” said Dr. William Coakley, President of Oak Hill Country Club.
Like its New York counterpart, Oak Hill features an early 20th century Donald Ross golf course (Oak Hill in NY has two). Wayne Stiles laid out Oak Hill’s original front nine, which opened for play on the Fourth of July in 1921. In 1925, the club hired Ross to design the back nine on the newly acquired land across the street. He then redesigned the front nine. Each nine is separated by a road and has its own character.
“We have a challenging front nine with rolling fairways that are quite doable in the golf sense but characterized by tough greens,” said Henry St. Cyr, former Oak Hill club president who currently serves on the Mass Golf Board of Directors. “The game changes on the back nine. The holes get progressively longer and narrower with woods on both sides… and the greens are as tough on the back as they are on the front.”
Perhaps the most famous past champion at Oak Hill is Gene Sarazen, who won the first Mass Open played at Oak Hill in 1935 just months after sinking a double eagle on Augusta National’s 15th hole, which was dubbed the “shot heard ‘round the world.” Club champions Joanne Catlin and Jim Ruschioni have won more than 40 club championships combined and have also had tremendous success on the statewide stage.
Past Mass Golf Signature Events Hosted at Oak Hill CC
When the Mass Open returns to Oak Hill in 2031, it’ll mark the eighth time playing host, which would give them the most all-time. (Worcester Country Club and Oyster Harbors have also hosted seven apiece). The club most recently hosted in 2011 and 2021, each featuring close finishes down the stretch.
“It’s an incredible honor,” Coakley said about the club earning hosting honors for the 8th time. “It means so much to have it coming back within a decade. We’re proud of the way our course held up in 2021.”
Oak Hill has hosted the Women’s Amateur twice (1994 and 1999). In the first edition, then-WGAM president Anne Marie Tobin won her fourth of a record seven titles. Five years later, Laura Torrisi outlasted Oak Hill’s own Catlin in the longest final match in event history. In the 18-hole contest, Catlin and Torrisi ended up playing 25 holes to determine a winner, and Torrisi clinched the match with a conceded par on the seventh playoff hole. Perhaps another iconic finish awaits in three years.
“We have a strong women’s golf program at Oak Hill,” Coakley said. “It’s a big and growing part of our culture, and hopefully we have a lot of our members in the field.”
Massachusetts Women’s Amateur Future Sites
Mass Open Future Sites
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