Allendale Country Club

Allendale Country Club is a semi-private 18-hole course designed by Geoffrey Cornish in 1956, set in the South Coast region of Massachusetts near New Bedford. The course has earned recognition as a top-ranked layout in Southcoast Massachusetts, offering a well-conditioned layout on bentgrass greens that welcomes both members and public play.

Allendale Country Club was established in 1956 in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, in the South Coast region of the state between New Bedford and Dartmouth. The course was designed by Geoffrey S. Cornish, ASGCA, a prolific and influential golf course architect whose career shaped New England golf in the second half of the twentieth century. The golf course first opened for play in 1961, five years after the club's founding, reflecting the time required to assemble the property, arrange financing, and complete construction on what would become one of the South Coast's most durable golf institutions. Geoffrey Cornish was born in Winnipeg, Canada, and educated at the University of British Columbia and the University of Massachusetts, where he earned degrees in agronomy.

He learned course design during an apprenticeship under the legendary Canadian architect Stanley Thompson — work interrupted by Cornish's service in World War II, including the Normandy invasion. After the war, he established his own practice in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1952. In a career that spanned the entire second half of the twentieth century, Cornish designed and remodeled more than 250 golf courses, the vast majority in the northeastern United States. By 1980 he had planned more courses in the New England states than any other architect in history. He became a member of the American Society of Golf Course Architects in 1967 and served as ASGCA President in 1975.

He received the Donald Ross Award from the ASGCA and the Distinguished Service Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. He was inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame, and co-authored The Architects of Golf, a landmark reference work on the history of course design. Cornish died on February 10, 2012, in Amherst, Massachusetts, at age 97. Cornish's design philosophy favored working with the existing terrain rather than moving large quantities of earth, integrating the course into the landscape rather than imposing a layout upon it. At Allendale, he crafted an 18-hole layout that embodies these principles, with a par-72 design that stretches to 6,764 yards from the championship tees and includes multiple tee options to accommodate different ability levels.

The course's rating of 73.4 with a slope of 133 from the blue tees reflects a genuine championship test, while the shorter tee positions make the course accessible to a broad range of players. Allendale operates as a semi-private facility, combining a membership base with public access for daily-fee players. This model, which the club has maintained throughout its history, has given Allendale a stable financial foundation while serving the broader South Coast golf community. GolfAdvisor has recognized Allendale as one of the best places to play in Massachusetts based on player reviews.