Orchards Golf Club

Set in South Hadley, Massachusetts, immediately adjacent to Mount Holyoke College, The Orchards Golf Club is a private, walking-friendly Donald Ross course on 160 acres of rolling, wooded terrain. Today the club offers a full driving range, a large practice putting green, and a short-game area that includes a “traditional Ross” style practice bunker; the clubhouse complex provides dining, a golf shop, lockers, and patios overlooking the course. The club regularly hosts state and collegiate competitions, a reflection of its long association with women’s golf and its location within the Five College area of the Pioneer Valley. From the back (Championship/Black) tees the course plays 6,527 yards, with a flexible carded par of 71/72; for championship play the USGA has set the course as a par 71 (6,473 yards), most notably for the 2004 U.S. Women’s Open won by Meg Mallon. Membership is private; local media identify The Orchards as the only private club in Hampshire County, while the club’s own page emphasizes a member-centric operation with outside management engaged by the College. The playing character is defined by Ross’s routing across sloping ground, modest-scale bunkering restored over time, and a creek that threads several corridors—features that keep the course strategic rather than brute, even after a century of tournament use.