Club History
In 1894, golf was introduced to Stockbridge by Joseph H. Choate Jr. and Eliot Tuckerman. Three holes were laid out in a meadow east of Church Street. Later that summer nine holes were laid out at Bonnie Brae, which belonged to Miss Katherine di Pollone. As Choate later recalled: A primitive nine holes were laid out and mowed on the relatively flat fields on Prospect Hill. The heavy topsoil produced only an apology for turf: yet more and more people played with increasing enthusiasm. Officially, if informally, the club was founded on September 26, 1895. This date most certainly makes it one of the oldest golf courses in the United States. The Adams Meadow was bought for $5,000 by Joseph Choate, Sr. (soon to be Ambassador to the Court of St. James), expressly for the building of a golf course. Some time later, the Dwight Meadow (presently holes 2, 3, and 4) was leased by the fledgling Golf Club. Both meadows were deeded to the Laurel Hill Association under the terms of the will of Emily Tuckerman, and continue to be leased by the Club from Laurel Hill to this day.
In 1897, the first Stockbridge Golf Club Men's Invitational was held, which makes it arguably the oldest invitational tournament in the country. At its inception and until the advent of World War II, the Invitational was a match play individual championship. After the war, the best ball format was adopted. Another nine holes were added in 1900, the same year the Club was incorporated, during the presidency of Dr. Charles McBurney. In 1931 the Club purchased 32 acres from James L. Karrick and shortly thereafter a new course was laid out with 6 of the holes on the Karrick tract (presently holes 5 thru 10). Completed in 1934, the course has remained essentially the same, with minor renovations such as shaping, contouring, refinements, and the installation of an irrigation system in late 1994.
Significant milestones in the evolution of golf at Stockbridge include the establishment of a Berkshire County individual championship in 1901 that led to the founding in 1904 of the Allied Golf Clubs of Berkshire County. The annual Women's Invitational Tournament with its 1927 start makes it one of the oldest such tournaments in the country. It was renamed the Rosamond Sherwood Invitational in 1987 to honor Rosamond Sherwood who was undoubtedly the Stockbridge Golf Club's "Woman of the Century" with a 60-year span as a championship golfer and driving force in women's golf and involvement at the Club. Rosamond was also the first woman to be a Governor of the Club, a post to which she was re-elected time and again.
The records and memorabilia are not as informative on tennis, but beginning in the early 1920's, with three courts in play, the game became an important part of the Club's activities. By 1970 increased tennis play created a need for additional courts and two new ones opened in 1972. The tennis equivalent of the golf invitational is the Labor Day Mixed Doubles initiated in 1957. In more recent years an expanded program of tournaments and tennis camp for children have been added to the busy annual calendar.