Braintree Municipal Golf Course

According to the facility’s website, this course was established in 1932, with nine holes. In 1955, the Braintree Town Meeting voted overwhelmingly for the town to purchase it. In 1967, the town decided to expand the course to 18 holes. Construction was completed in time for the 1971 season.

The land that is now the Braintree Municipal Golf Course was once the property of the Hollingsworth Family, who owned and operated paper mills on the Neponset River. The family purchased the former Revere Copper Works, on the Monatiquot River in Braintree, and invented a new type of paper, made from discarded rope, called manila. Later the company developed machines to make manila paper into bags. This profitable business merged with the Scott Paper Company in 1954.

The Hollingsworth family established a home on Washington Street, with a 300-acre farm across the street (today’s golf course). It remained in the family until the 1920’s. In 1930, Archie C. Burnett purchased the farm with the intention to build a golf course and a club house — the Monatiquot Golf and Country Club. It opened in 1932, with six par-4 holes, two par-3 holes and one par-5 hole. Today’s Holes 1, 9 and 18 are pretty much the same as when they were established (with different numbers).

Burnett’s descendants expressed an interest in selling the property in the 1950’s, potentially to developers. Some of the reasons the town elected to purchase it were that it would help maintain open space, reduce residential development, help with flood mitigation, and allow future commercial development. The town sold 36 acres of the property to the Walworth Manufacturing Company.

The course was expanded to 18 holes in 1971, and upgraded in the 1980’s and 1990’s with a new clubhouse, as well as new cart storage and course maintenance facilities. Remodeling and renovations have continued through the years.