For at least twenty, if not thirty years, Ponky has been the subject of great debate, but that's as far as it gets... debate.
Massachusetts politics,nepotism,patronage, and yup, corruption have made any attempt at actually doing something over there impossible.
I know of two very well connected and wealthy patrons of golf that tried to make a change at Ponky even to the point of endowing a trust to renovate both courses, they became disgusted and gave up.
The two golf courses are spectacular pieces of land, and GCA, I think #1 with its elevation changes is the better of the two. The Tufts archives has some pretty extensive info on Ponky, a first class restoration would certainly put the place on the golf map again.
One of my Service Stations was directly across the street from Ponky and it was quite a site in those days to see a dilapidated 3 wheel golf cart with a tiller for a steering wheel and a 55 gallon drum strapped on the back of it weasel its way through traffic to cross Rte 138 to fill that damn drum with gas.
The guy that had the job of filling that drum was Andrew Morse, who later played on the old Hogan and Nike tours for quite a few years, he actually played in a couple of U.S. Opens too.He would drive this farting, smoking, piece of crap through that traffic shaking his fist at the drivers to get the hell out of the way, it was hysterical. I used to turn my back and pray that he made it across the street again without an explosion, I couldn't watch the return trip it was too nerve wracking. At least the MDC paid cash for the gas in those days, if I had to submit vouchers I'd still be waiting for the money.
Someday, all the bad guys will die and something will get done.