Wyckoff Country Club, the Donald Ross-influenced golf course that has anchored a stretch of Route 141 at the base of Mount Tom for well over a century, is closing for good on November 1. Owner Cesar Ruiz has announced plans to convert the 110-acre property into an upscale residential community rather than keep it operating as a golf course.
Ruiz, who purchased the property for $2.8 million in February 2025, said the development could appeal to Holyoke residents, people elsewhere in the region, and buyers from outside the area, according to a statement reported by Western Mass News. The site is already zoned residential, and the new community is planned with minimum building lots of 20,000 square feet — meaning, per the outlet's report, no zoning change is required to move forward. Engineering and traffic studies are currently underway, and the project is expected to generate roughly $1 million in real estate taxes for the city.
A Golf Season's Final Weeks
The golf season and the club itself will close on November 1, and all events scheduled for November 2 and beyond have been canceled, the station's report notes. Ruiz said he was sad about the transition but enthused about the property entering a new chapter, and he thanked the members and guests who had been entertained at Wyckoff over the past two years, per the same account.
The course's roots stretch back to 1898, when it was founded as Mount Tom Golf Club, before being redesigned in the 1910s and 1920s by golf architect Donald Ross, who designed hundreds of notable courses across North America during golf's golden age, according to Golfing Magazine. The land has already survived one major disruption: in the 1960s, Interstate 91 was built directly across the property, forcing a rerouting and the acquisition of southern acreage before the course reopened in 1968, altering several of the original Ross-designed holes, per the same outlet. The closure marks the end of a golf club whose roots date to 1898.
From Volleyball Hall of Fame to Housing
Ruiz's plans for the property have shifted dramatically since his purchase. He originally bought Wyckoff with an eye toward a sports complex and a relocated International Volleyball Hall of Fame, as reported by BusinessWest. The site was considered impractical because it borders a dense neighborhood and busy Route 141, and Ruiz later shifted those plans elsewhere. He instead invested about $250,000 in clubhouse modernizations and partnered with a regional chef to open The Heritage Greens Kitchen & Bar, a restaurant and event space that launched in May 2025.
Ruiz shifted his sports complex ambitions to a different location along Whiting Farms Road. In March 2026, the Holyoke Economic Development and Industrial Corporation granted his group a one-year extension of its purchase-and-sale agreement to develop that site. BusinessWest's March 2025 coverage said Ruiz intended to keep the Easthampton Road course operating as a country club.
A Familiar Pattern on Route 141
If the subdivision moves forward, it would not be the first time golf-course acreage near Wyckoff gave way to single-family homes. The adjacent Wyckoff Park neighborhood was developed in 1922 through a residential subdivision that absorbed portions of the original 1890s Mount Tom Golf Club layout, according to the Holyoke Canal Walk. J. Lewis Wyckoff, a benefactor of the course, was involved in the golf club and its redesign decades earlier.
Ruiz is a familiar name in Western Massachusetts business circles. He opened Golden Years Home Care Services and later sold it.
