History

From the Norfolk GC website:
According to Alan Forbes’ Sport in Norfolk County, Norfolk Golf Club was launched at Islington about 1893, close to its present site. The course was laid out on some 70 aces of pasture land in the Islington section of Westwood, MA, owned by the heirs of Benjamin Weatherbee. Mr. Forbes notes that “a long bench served as the clubhouse.” There is an anecdote that, during a match held on these pastures, a cow swallowed up one of the player’s golf balls. The player hit the cow with his club until she gave up the ball, whereupon his opponent claimed that each whack counted as a penalty stroke against his score. Only at Norfolk!

The Norfolk Golf Club was formally organized in the early summer of 1896 at the home of Charles W. Wolcott on Court Street in Dedham. The Honorable Winston Warren presided and was elected the club’s first president.

The Honorable Secretary of The Country Club invited Norfolk Golf Club to a meeting at the Exchange Club in Boston on December 11, 1902 to form an association of Massachusetts Golf Clubs. Officers were elected and it was voted that an association be formed of clubs belonging to the United States Golf Association (USGA) in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A constitution and by-laws were drawn up and Norfolk was voted to be admitted to the association as a charter member of the now Massachusetts Golf Association (MGA). Norfolk Golf Club received its charter and was incorporated in the Town of Westwood on June 12, 1913. A deed found at the Norfolk County Registry of Deeds
dated August 7, 1913, indicates that Clinton P. Parker of Dedham, for one dollar and other valuable considerations paid by Norfolk Golf Club, conveyed to the club the parcel of land known as the Weatherbee Farm (43.95 acres). On January 7, 1922, the Dedham Transcript ran an article on the plans to build a new clubhouse. That building burnt to
the ground in July of 1988.

Other Clubs I have worked:

Older pictures of Blue Hill CC and Norfolk GC have been difficult to find. Conversely, The Country Club’s rich golf history is well documented. Here’s a small collection of various historical photos I’ve come across.

The Weatherbee pasture, c.1918, before Blue Hill CC, taken from Dedham St. looking towards future clubhouse.

Some text I found, from 1997 Canton Bicentennial Book:

Proceeding further down Pecunit, we find another well established Ponkapoag recreation facility, The Blue Hill Country Club.

The Club had its origins in the 1920′s when a group interested in golf, including Benjamin Morse, Herbert Fenno, Howard Capen, Charles Reynolds and Joseph Draper, requested the services of Eugene Skip Wogan, a protege’ of course designer Donald Ross.

When Wogan came to Canton to survey the property of the future course, he stood on the site of the present clubhouse and remarked that he was sure it would be one of the prettiest courses in all of New England. This is certainly true today.

A company headed by Charles Reynolds constructed the nine hole course which opened in August 1925. Other Wogan-designed holes were added the following decade. The fairway watering system installed in the 1930′s, may have been the first of its kind in the Greater Boston area.

The course today is essentially the same as the original with the exception of an additional nine hole regulation course constructed in 1961. Ownership of the Blue Hill Country Club, however, passed from the Clausen family in the 1940′s to Messrs. Covich and Corkin who owned it in the 1950’s, and in turn sold it to 250 members.

Disaster struck the Club on New Years Eve 1955. During the party, the clubhouse caught fire, requiring responses from several surrounding towns. Despite their efforts, the clubhouse burned to the ground. However, the Club members were determined to rebuild. Incredibly, they succeeded in rebuilding, just in time for the PGA Championship which the Club hosted just seven months later. It was the third clubhouse to be built and the one that stands today. Incidentally, the winner of the PGA tournament that year was Jack Burke Jr., who went on to win the Masters that same year.

Blue Hill is widely considered to be one of the best maintained courses in the area. Perhaps this reputation explains why the LPGA has selected Blue Hill as a tournament site since 1991. The Club has certainly seen its share of celebrity. Henry Kissinger, Al Haig, Sammy Davis Jr., and Mickey Mantle have played the course as well as former Presidents Ford and Carter.