'It’s on Green Hill Road, you can’t make that up': Yes, there's a Worcester Golf Club in Pennsylvania

Central Massachusetts golfers are well aware that Green Hill Municipal Golf Course and Worcester Country Club are located in Worcester.

But here’s a strange coincidence that you probably don’t know: There’s also a Worcester Golf Club in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and believe it or not, it’s located on Green Hill Road.

They are golf courses with unusual links.

Green Hill head pro Matt Moison and Worcester CC head pro Andy Lane were surprised to hear about that when this columnist told them. So was Worcester Golf Club co-owner Cindy Asher.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” Asher said.

“It’s fun,” Moison said. “I like it. I love strange coincidences, and that’s a nice strange coincidence.”

“It’s on Green Hill Road, you can’t make that up,” Lane said. “That’s almost too ironic to be true. There’s got to be a connection.”

If there is a connection, none of the aforementioned threesome has discovered it.

Asher said she didn’t know how Green Hill Road in Collegeville got its name. Green Hill Municipal Golf Course, an 18-hole public course which opened in 1929, was named after the Green family which sold the property to the city where the golf course and Green Hill Park are located.

I learned of these similar golf club names from George Kelley, a Worcester resident who was in Pennsylvania for a cousin’s wedding in October. He was looking for a driving range when he and his wife, Dr. Elise Jacques, noticed a street sign reading, “Worcester Golf Club,” with an arrow pointing in the direction of the club. Below it was another street reading, “Green Hill Road.” They snapped a photo, and Kelley was excited to show it to me last fall before he hit balls at the range at Green Hill Municipal.

Unfortunately, Kelley passed away last November and didn’t get to enjoy reading this column about the golf clubs with an unusual link. But this column is dedicated to you, George.

Tatnuck CC member Bob Spellane was in Collegeville a year or two before the pandemic and noticed the sign, so he visited the club, spoke to the owners and brought home a Worcester GC golf towel and brochure. However, he said he didn’t realize the club was located on Green Hill Road until this columnist told him this month.

It should come as no surprise that while Worcester is spelled the same in both locations, it’s pronounced differently. Asher said the first name of her club is pronounced in three syllables, “WOR-ses-ter.” Our city is pronounced “Wu-ster” or some might even say, “Wu-sta,” or “Wis-sta,” but out of staters often mispronounce it “WOR-ses-ter” or even “WOR-ches-ter.”

“I just think it’s fun,” Asher said, “because nobody pronounces our name right, but we know how to pronounce your name.”

“Not that I want to get in a battle with the people who can’t pronounce Worcester correctly,” Moison said, “but they’re not pronouncing Worcester correctly.”

Both communities were named after the city of Worcester in England and that’s pronounced “Wu-ster.”

Nevertheless, Moison gets calls from out-of-town salespeople who mispronounce Worcester as WOR-ses-ter. Sometimes when he calls out-of-town vendors, Moison purposely mispronounces Worcester as WOR-ses-ter because he thinks that’s probably how they would pronounce it.

Worcester Country Club was actually founded in 1900 as Worcester Golf Club before the club moved to its current site off East Mountain Street in 1913 and changed its name. Immediate past U.S. President William Howard Taft hit the ceremonial first tee shot at the opening dedication on Sept. 29, 1914. The 18-hole private country club is rich with golf history, having hosted the first Ryder Cup in 1927, the 1925 U.S. Open and the 1960 U.S. Women’s Open.

Worcester Golf Club in Pennsylvania is located in Collegeville, a borough of about 5,000 people located 25 miles northwest of Philadelphia and home to Ursinus College. The nine-hole public golf course at 1600 Green Hill Road is also located in Worcester Township and opened in 1997. The club closed for a year before Asher and her husband Lance bought it six years ago and brought it back to life.

“It was a disaster,” Asher said.

Green Hill is hilly, but Worcester GC is not.

“It’s a nice walkable course,” Asher said. “It’s pretty flat. Since we’ve reopened and repaired it, people love playing a nine-hole course. They love to see that it was not turned into a development and that we’re taking the best care of it as we can.”

Moison said Green Hill and Worcester GC should send their scorecards to each other.

“Maybe we can do a little tournament with them where we can post scores digitally back and forth,” Moison said. “It would be fun.”

“We’d be up for it,” Asher said when informed of Moison’s tournament suggestion.

Here’s an idea for what could be at stake for such a tournament: For a set amount of time, the loser of such a golf tournament would have to pronounce Worcester the way the winner does.

“It would be fun,” Moison said.

By the way, in addition to Worcester, Ma., and Worcester, Pa., there are communities named Worcester in New York, Maryland, Missouri, Vermont and Wisconsin. There is also a Worcester in Jamaica and a Worcester Summit in Antarctica.

In addition, there is a Worcester Golf and Country Club in Worcester, England, and World Golf Hall of Famer Gary Player designed Worcester Golf Club, an 18-hole course in Worcester, South Africa.

Willie Ogg had a connection with Worcester CC and Green Hill. He was head pro at Worcester CC from 1921-1946, a founding member of the PGA of America and its first vice president. He helped bring the first Ryder Cup matches to Worcester CC. Ogg was also the original designer of Green Hill.

Asher said she had never heard of Green Hill, but her club often mistakenly receives emails requesting tee times at Worcester CC in Massachusetts and even at Worcester Golf Club in South Africa. She’s never been to Worcester, Mass., but she and her husband own a house in Massachusetts on Big Pond in Otis in the Berkshires.

Moison said about 15 times a year golfers show up claiming to have made tee times at Green Hill Municipal Golf Course when they’ve mistakenly booked them online at Green Hills Golf Course, an 18-hole public golf course in Clyde, Ohio. Some even show him what they believe is their confirmed tee time messages on their cellphones.

“I always look at it,” Moison said, “and say, ‘Well, you’re not going to make that 8 o’clock tee time out in Ohio. It’s kind of far away.’”

Moison does his best to get them on the course anyhow.

Mass. Four-Ball on tap

Brandon Parker and Taylor Fontaine of Worcester CC finished a shot out of first place in the Mass. Four-Ball last year, and they will give it another try in this year’s tournament on April 25 and 26.

Last year, Parker and Fontaine shot a 67 at Duxbury Yacht Club and a 62 at Marshfield CC to finish at 13-under 129, one shot behind Sutton native Ryan Riley of Thorny Lea in Brockton and Matt Mott of Plymouth CC. Riley and Mott are not playing in this year’s event together.

Parker and Fontaine are scheduled to tee off at 8:47 a.m. at Bayberry Hills Golf Course in West Yarmouth on Tuesday, April 25, and at 1:47 p.m. at Hyannisport Golf Club on Wednesday, April 26.

Quite a few golfers from Central Mass. are scheduled to compete in the event. The last Mass. Four-Ball champion from Central Mass. was Tatnuck CC’s Tim Umphrey, who in 2018 combined with his UConn teammate, Jimmy Hervol of Hopkinton CC, to win in a playoff at the Captains GC in Brewster. The four-ball returns to the Cape this year for the first time since then.

Matt Leger and J.C. Guthrie of Oak Hill CC in Fitchburg won in 2015 at George Wright GC and William J. Devine GC in Boston.

Ideas, comments welcome

You can suggest story ideas for this golf column by reaching me at the email listed below. Comments are also welcome.

—Contact Bill Doyle at bcdoyle15@charter.net. Follow him on Twitter@BillDoyle15

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: They're not only golfing at Green Hill, Worcester in Massachusetts