Edge Hill Golf Course has been the dream of owner Mark Graves ever since he strayed from the family farming business and attended college to study turfgrass management instead of agriculture. After college, Graves worked his way up the ranks of the golf course superintendents’ ladder earning positions at several high profile golf courses before being selected to restore the prestigious Sagamore golf course on Lake George, NY which had been dormant for more than 15 years. The scope of the project was significant and involved hundreds of employees and millions of dollars and was completed ahead of schedule and under budget. It was during this project that Graves realized that he had both the experience and knowledge to design and build his own golf course.
Graves’ parents were aging and could no longer keep up with the demands of the farm. During this time Edge Hill Golf Course evolved from a dream to a reality. On land that he had walked since childhood, Graves designed the course hole-by-hole combining his unique skill sets with his intimate knowledge of the property.
Work began with clearing and contouring the existing fields and woodlands in the summer of 1992. At the same time, the old family dairy barn was converted into a golf shop and snack bar with a large patio overlooking a stream fed pond. For two years, friends and family were pressed into service, laying irrigation pipe, hand raking greens and tees and picking rocks. The soft opening of the first nine holes took place in the fall of 1994.
Since the opening of the first nine holes in the spring of 1995, Edge Hill has been growing and maturing into one of the most beautiful and challenging golf courses in the Berkshires. Though Graves had been accustomed to unlimited budgets in the past, completing the front nine confirmed his thinking that a beautiful golf course could be constructed through hard work, patience and persistence.
While there was never any doubt that the back nine would be completed, it took Graves much longer than expected, with Mother Nature doing her best to slow down the project. Groundbreaking on the remaining nine holes began as the 2008 golf season came to a close. Since then, the remainder of the family’s 150-acre farm has been converted into nine of the most breathtaking and intricate holes on the property.
Once a sprawling dairy farm, Graves kept the family’s namesake and designed Edge Hill to work with the surrounding fields, rolling hills and woodlands to create the beautiful and challenging golf course you see today. The 18 hole version of Edge Hill is now open as of summer of 2014.