Country Club Of Billerica

Origins

Long before it was a golf course, the land at 51 Baldwin Road was farmland. The 120-plus acre parcel had belonged to the Mears family and, later, the Ferren family and their ancestors, who worked it for generations before anyone thought to route fairways across it.

That changed in the late 1960s, when the Ferren family — Francis and his sons William, Daniel, Paul, and Michael — decided to turn part of the farm into a golf course open to the public rather than a private club restricted to a membership roll. The course opened for play in 1971, a period when daily-fee, family-run courses like this one were expanding rapidly across suburban New England to meet growing demand for affordable golf.

Design Philosophy

The course was laid out by Philip Wogan, a Massachusetts-based golf course architect who spent his career designing player-friendly, daily-fee public courses across New England after taking over operations at the Essex County Club in the late 1950s. Billerica is one of more than forty layouts credited to him in the region.

The routing reflects that daily-fee, public-access intent: a front nine that plays comparatively open and forgiving, followed by a tighter, tree-lined back nine with more elevation change. The par-69 layout tops out at 5,798 yards from the back (Blue) tees, with White and Red tees offering shorter options — a spread of yardages meant to accommodate a broad range of playing abilities rather than test elite golfers.

Development

Despite its "Country Club" name, the facility has operated from the outset as a daily-fee public course, with membership offered as an option rather than a requirement to play. Over the decades since 1971, the club has expanded its non-golf offerings, adding a function hall for weddings and banquets and "The 19th Hole" lounge and sports bar, diversifying the property's use beyond the golf course itself.

Today

Country Club of Billerica continues to operate as a public course today, drawing local recreational golfers, weekday leagues, and seasonal members, alongside its banquet and function-hall business. The founding Ferren family's goal — an accessible, affordable place to learn and play golf — remains the course's stated purpose.