Donald Ross was a prolific golf course architect. Among the roughly 400 courses Ross designed 89 of them were in New England including 52 in Massachusetts.
However, did you know that Donald Ross was also a stellar golfer? Ross recorded four top-10 finishes in the U.S. Open between 1902 and 1907 while in 1910 he finished T8 at the Open Championship. In addition, Ross won five professional events including two Massachusetts Open titles.
Ross won the inaugural Massachusetts Open in 1905 at Vesper Country Club. Originally, from Scotland, Ross used a gutta-percha ball to post a tally of 320 and finish one shot in front of Arthur G. Lockwood.
Six years later in 1911 Ross once again captured the title at The Country Club in Brookline, two years before Francis Ouimet remarkably won the U.S. Open.
In a tight battle down the stretch with his younger brother Alex Ross and Mike Brady, Donald Ross made a “grand bogey” according to the Boston Evening Transcript on No. 15 before finishing 3-4-3 to win by two.
If you are wondering who won the Massachusetts Open from 1906-1910 and again in 1912. Look no further than Alex Ross, the winner of the 1907 U.S. Open at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. The Ross brothers dueled down the stretch in the 1909 Massachusetts Open with Alex scrambling for a bogey on the final hole to hold on for a one-shot victory at Essex Country Club.
Ross also added victories at the 1903, 1905, and 1906 North and South Open.
Oh by the way. The course Donald Ross won at in 1905. Vesper Country Club. He designed the course in 1894. And Essex Country Club? The course he lost to his brother on by one shot in 1909. Well, you guessed it Donald Ross also designed that course in 1893.
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