The Longmeadow, Mass. property has rebounded from being on the brink of being sold, after a member stepped up in 2009 to become its new owner and direct $10 million in improvements and a revival of membership interest.
This season, Twin Hills Country Club in Longmeadow, Mass. will modestly celebrate a half-century as one of the leading private golf clubs in western Massachusetts, MassLive.com reported. The club was established in 1964, and golf was first played there sometime during the spring of 1965.
“It’s a great milestone and we’re proud of it, but the members haven’t wanted a black-tie gala to celebrate,” Head Golf Professional John Steffen told MassLive.com.
The club is now back “on top of its game,” the website reported, after dark days that saw it teeter on the brink of being sold just a half-dozen years ago, MassLive.com reported.
The club was losing as much as a half-million dollars a year, Attilio Cardaropoli, who had been a Twin Hills member since the mid-1980s, told MassLive.com.
“There was so much uncertainty,” Cardaropoli said. “We didn’t know if we’d open up. We were under 100 members.”
As a result, rumors of Twin Hills being sold off to a housing developer nearly materialized, MassLive.com reported, as a group of 10 club members who had expressed interest in buying the club dwindled to one.
But because that “one” was Cardaropoli, MassLive.com reported, a solution still emerged that would preserve the club.
“I hadn’t thought about [buying] it [solely],” Cardaropoli told MassLive.com, “but I figured I’d take a shot at it.”
Along with his two sons, Cardaropoli took over before the 2010 season, and immediately set about making needed improvements, the website reported, pumping $10 million into renovations spanning from the parking lot to new plaques on clubhouse walls.
“It wasn’t really my plan, not to this extent,” Cardaropoli told MassLive.com. “But we do a little each year, to improve what we can.”
And those “little” efforts have helped the club rebuild its current membership to nearly 300, MassLive.com reported.
The efforts of the new ownership have certainly been appreciated by long-time Twin Hills members, the website noted.
“He [Attilio Cardaropoli] came in with a magic wand,” said Peter Sherman, a lifelong member. “He loves golf, he loves this golf course—and it shows.”
“I love the golf course and still do,” Sherman added. “It’s my home away from home, my sanctuary.”
Another original member, Sonny Rickless, told MassLive.com that Twin Hills “has just been the place for me to be; I couldn’t see myself anywhere else.”
The upgrades and expansion of the clubhouse have “made it unrecognizable to me inside,” Rickless added. “The club came back from the dead. It was going in the wrong direction and getting to where it is today [is] all due to Mr. Cardaropoli.”
The revival saved a club that was established during the mid-1960s as an all-inclusive option to other, less-open private clubs in western Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley, MassLive.com reported. While religious faith largely determined the composition of private club membership at that time, Twin Hills was created to be balanced, and billed itself as accepting to all prospective members.
“There was a real strict line between faiths back then,” Robert Bontempo, the club’s first head golf pro, told the website. “[But for Twin Hills], it was come one, come all. [If] other clubs were filled with members of [the same] faith, Twin Hills was open to all.
“One of the original owners was denied membership at another club,” Bontempo added. “So what does he do? He builds his own golf course.”
During its early years, MassLive.com reported, Twin Hills presented golf clinics, in conjunction with Spalding, the sporting goods company with a major manufacturing facility in nearby Chicopee Falls, Mass. (Spalding became a division of the Russell Corporation in 2003 and its major golf brands, including Ben Hogan and Top-Flite, were acquired by Callaway in that same year.)
John Steffen is the club’s fourth head golf professional, MassLive.com reported, having succeeded Tim Quirk in 2010. Bontempo, the original pro, was succeeded by Ron Mattson in 1970, and Mattson served in the position for 35 years.
Twin Hills’ course and grounds department has seen similar longevity, with only three superintendents taking care of the Al Zikorus-designed golf course over the course of the club’s 50 years. Current Superintendent Herb Watson was preceded in his position by Matt Kowal and Roy Mackintosh, who oversaw grow-in and maintained the course for 40 years, MassLive.com reported. Mark Christianson has also been on the grounds staff in various capacities since day one, the website noted.
“When we opened and for 40 years, Roy had the golf course in pristine condition,” Bontempo told the website. “Every blade of grass had its own ID.”
Mackintosh, Matt Kowal and currently Herb Watson have served as superintendents. Mark Christianson has been on staff there in various capacities since Day One.
Over the years the Twin Hills golf course has staged high-profile qualifiers for USGA championships, as well as state association events, MassLive.com reported. It was also not uncommon to see personalities such as Jerry Lewis, Mickey Rooney, Robert Goulet, Perry Como, Liberace, Robert Merrill, Ginger Rogers and Jerry Vale play as guests at Twin Hills.
The club still uses a variation of its original logo, a design of member Hi Neigher, who was a cartoonist and advertising executive, MassLive.com reported “We like the tradition of the logo, so we’re not re-branding; we care about our history,” Steffen said.
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