The International: Pines Course

About the club

The Pines Course at this complex west of Boston was a novelty when it opened in the late 1950s because it measured over 8,000 yards, the longest course in the country. As part of their reconstruction in 2024 under new ownership, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw whittled over 1,000 yards off the scorecard and completely rerouted the design. What’s novel about the Pines now is a set of intensely contoured greens, some of the most severe in the Coore/Crenshaw portfolio, a few of them borderline outrageous. The 12th hole, by contrast, is refined. The wide dogleg pivots right through pines and drives that don’t hug the inside line will scamper left off a hogsback out of position. The hole feels as British (London, that is) as anything you’ll find in New England with the fairway sliding smoothly into a low green rippled at the edges and set in a heathland-like clearing of short grass, a lone fescue-covered hummock providing a light touch of strategic intrigue. Like a good links, the hole can be played in different ways and is unlikely to inflict serious damage to the score, but a four here requires strong driving and short game finesse. Bold and brash can be fun, but the confidence to be calm and speak softly is sometimes a golf hole’s most appealing quality.