Why Massachusetts Golf Is Terrible...

[DDBowdoin]

The season is ending down here and I realized one thing while I was playing this weekend... the golf here is terrible! I will of course elaborate on my statement and try to justify my thread.

I feel that in MA, at least eastern MA/Greater Boston, we have an extremely limited selection in terms of courses. I recently played Shaker Hills, which has at one point been rated the best public course in MA, and while I sat in the fairways I thought to myself... is this course really worth $80 for a twilight rate. I ultimately determined that it wasn't and have come to realize that are really only three options that we have in this state.

1.) THE BEST The best courses here are obviously private... but honestly, you'll need 50 grand up front for an initiation fee and the clubs are incredibly tight with membership. They don't care how much money you have but rather who you are... essentially your social status is everything.
- The Country Club
- Boston Golf Club
- Blackrock Golf Club
- The International
- Brae Burn Country Club
- Charles River Country Club

2.) The Best We Can Do OVERPRICED public courses are a plenty here in Massachusetts. I am starting to think that many of these courses will be forced to lower their green fee's or go out of business as the rounds per year drop and our economy weakens over the near future. Now, some of these courses are great but their price tag is so steep that it's just a treat for normal golfers to experience once or twice a season.
- Pine Hills
- Shaker Hills
- Granite Links
- Red Tail
- Blackstone National

3.) The Pits ... here's where the normal folks play. Our local muni's see a great deal of play and they offer very little if any education to its patrons concerning maintenance and care for the courses they frequent. It doesn't take long to teach people how to fix divots and ball marks... that included providing simple tools for repairing marks. If you only offer a 12 dollar tool a vast majority of people are going to pass and try to fix their mark with a tee. I personally believe that this will only hurt golf because it makes our rounds day in and day out miserable experiences. I have several friends who at one point reached single digit handicaps only to eventually quit due to frustration with course conditions and long, 5 and a half hour rounds.

I have become frustrated because there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel. I have family in Texas and Florida and they are constantly sending me emails with pictures of their local tracks that cost them 35 on the weekend and from what I see rival some of the best public courses here in Massachusetts. I guess I live in the wrong state... damn blue bloods!

[Grogger31]

You obviously didn't grow up in New England. I'm in CT and it is exactly the same thing. Land is too hard to come by and outrageously expensive.

[DDBowdoin]

I was born and raised here but I guess I'm just coming to realize how it works here... I'm only 23

[Chief Broom]

Surely there has to be something between #2 and #3?

I live in the south and we have plenty of high priced top notch places to play, but once you get away from the major metropolitan areas (or prime golf destinations) you find much more amenable, low cost options available. You also might need to lower your standards somewhat. Golf is golf and it doesn't require a perfectly groomed course in order to play well. I play at a local muni that isn't anything to get excited about, except for the fact that it is cheap to play there. I think that a lot of golfers get spoiled from playing at nice courses. Certainly if you drop $85 or more for a round you should be playing at a very well maintained and highly groomed course, but should that become what you expect when you play a round? It's not for me. I place even more emphasis on affordability than I do on the course itself. We've got some courses in my area that aren't much more than old cow pastures that have been converted into 9 hole layouts. They are cheap and the conditions are rough, but it's still golf.

[bogeyhitter25]

I personally love New England. But when I get older I might want to move more southward, just so I can play more. But yeah, the rates aren't the best up here.

[Grogger31]

I was born and raised here but I guess I'm just coming to realize how it works here... I'm only 23

Ah, youth ...

Surely there has to be something between #2 and #3?

Few and far between. Golf in New England is extremely pricey. Private club memberships are for the very wealthy. Semi-private seasonal memberships at a decent track will run you over $100/round (unless you are retired and play 3+ times a week). Nice public courses are usually packed, expensive, and take 5+ hours per round. Munis are rock hard, unwatered, unmaintained, unmitigated disasters (at least the few I've played).

[dave s]

As a guy who ALWAYS dogs the weather here in NE Ohio, we can play some pretty fine tracks for not much money. We're a bunch of cheap you-know-whats around here. Raise prices to what we think is unfair, most won't pay. Simple economics.

I really feel for guys like you that have to pay so much to play a decent track. REALLY nice around here is still under $50. We have a couple of newer tracks that are in that $60-80 range. They don't get a whole lot of play. Garbage is $15-20 walking ... IF you can find it! The closest course to my home isn't really nice, but it's only $16 for 18 walking weekdays and after 3pm on weekends.

Suggestion for you: Take a couple of trips to FL each year if you can swing it. I realize that you'll be paying to fly and stay, but the golf in and around Orlando and Tampa is ver good quality and reasonably priced. They should be better quality than the $80 courses in your area, but TWO can play for that price in FL ... or LESS!

Example: We like this Paul Azinger design course in the New Tampa area. Fairly new course, interesting layout, fun to play, etc. My wife says 'how much?' as we're heading to the first tee. I say, '$68.' Apologetically, she says she'll treat me to a nice dinner for having to spend over a hundred bucks on golf. I said, 'no, it was $68 for BOTH of us!' She laughs and says *I* can buy dinner too!

dave

[DDBowdoin]

In terms of public golf you'll easily go from 50 directly to 85+...

My only problem with munis are their greens, I can deal with chewed up fairways but when you have to watch putts constantly keep a line then a foot to 8 inches from the hole just jump to the left or right it makes you question your handicap.

I was fortunate enough, after saving for the year, to play Ballybunion and Lahinch and in the two rounds there I drained three putts from 30-35 ft for birdie... which is something I can only dream of here on my local tracks.

Many of the nice public courses around range from 2500-3000 for a season pass, which means you have to play a great deal of golf to make it worth the money spent. I may join a public course next season only so I can play a few holes every night after work and if they have the luxury of having a grass range

[Grogger31]

Yes. My wife is a 2nd year player ...

Wrong thread, perhaps, chief?

[Bo the Golfer]

In terms of public golf you'll easily go from 50 directly to 85+...

Hey DD-try Gannon in of all places Lynn. Once you get out there you feel like you're in the backwoods of Maine. They get a lot of traffic (residents pay like $800 for a membership) but they keep it in great shape and the green are always great. As for golfing in Mass, I think you are right on in your assesment. It's either hacker havens or the $85-100 tracks that are no where near worth it.

[Chief Broom]

Munis are rock hard, unwatered, unmaintained, unmitigated disasters (at least the few I've played).

Well the way I look at it is if I can learn to play well under less than ideal conditions, then I should be able to do much better when I do get the chance to play on a really nice track.

[jonanthans]

Man, I really feel for you guys. If I had those conditions to deal with, I'm not sure I would have picked the sport up. That seems like it makes the game a chore rather than an enjoyment.

Here in Louisiana, we have a lot of really nice courses, and even the munis are pretty well maintained. I play a lot at a local muni that is 7200 yards, really soft greens and well maintained, pay $33.00 to play all day, cart fee included.
And it's rarely what you would consider crowded. Of course, in June/July/August, the 100+ heat along with the 90% humidity make it hard to even get out on the course, so that is definetly a setback.

[case31]

1.) THE BEST ...

Just tell them you're Francis Ouimet's great-great grandson and see if you get comped.

[DDBowdoin]

I actually caddied there all last summer when I graduated from college... looped one day played twice a week

Thanks a lot Brookline... haha

anyways, I'm emailing clubs informing them of my interest in their club requesting membership information and if I could have a tour / play the course. We'll see what happens, what a giant joke this will turn out to be!

[BCEagles722]

Couldn't agree with you more DD. Not sure if you've played them before, but if you go a little west of the city (30-45 min), you can find some nice, and most importantly, affordable courses (Butter Brook and Stow Acres are the two I've played). It's a little bit of a drive, but it's definitely worth it.

[907golfer12]

DD:

I would first like to say that I feel for you, but I have it much worse then you, trust me.

Here in Alaska there are only 6 eighteen hole courses within an hour of my house, and there is one other that is 6 hours away, and that is all that we have here. Our golf season starts at the end of May and ends in early October, thats maybe 5 months of playing on a real course.

During the winter we can hit in an indoor range about 100 yard long, and you hit off of crappy mats, the kind that you can't tell if you hit it fat or not. So in order to play during the winter we have to go down south. Plane tickets cost a lot, hotels cost just as much, and a trip down south for a few days can cost thousands of dollars. To add to that, we cannot drive a few hours and be in a new, warm state to go play around. It takes a week to just drive to the Washington-Oregon area, and they don't have the best winter golf.

At all of the courses here, no one replaces a divot, not one fixes a ball mark, no one throws down seed on a par 3 tee box, the marshals don't do their job. I mean all of the marshals at my home course do the job for the perks, they just ride around the course saying hello to everyone. Our greens are as long as your fringe, and you cannot have a ball spin and stop within a reasonable time, let lone spin a ball back.

I guess what I am trying to say is be grateful that you don't live in Alaska

[DDBowdoin]

I have to feel for you my friend...

I couldn't find a grass range here if my life depended on it, there is one at a local course here in Boston (Granite Links) but the range goes straight into a strong, strong wind so you have no sense of distance whatsoever.

This is the course where I play most of my golf at. I play here mostly because its cheap, 17 for 9 holes and the starters will let you make as many turns as possible.

http://ponkapoaggolf.com/golf/proto/ponkygolf/

the really funny thing about the webpage is that all of the pictures of the main page aren't the course, who knows where they got those.

A revamped Ponkapoag could attract attention from the Professional Golf Association, which has expressed interest in the course. The economic benefit of such an event would be substantial, with the potential to generate substantial money for the state and local economy.

Ponkapoag was one of the first public golf courses in the United States. Legendary golf architect Donald Ross designed the 18-hole championship course as well as the first nine holes of the facility’s second course. Today however, Ponkapoag rates as one of the worst golf courses in the country and is plagued by irrigation and drainage problems, which limit playability. Sports Illustrated featured Ponkapoag in a 1988 article on the worst golf course in America, noting at one point that the “150-yard markers aren’t 150 yards from anything in particular.”

The sad thing about a place like this is that the course has a great lay out and has an amazing lay out, its just the worst conditions I've really ever seen.

[pshizz]

Couldn't agree with you more DD. Not sure if you've played them before, but if you go a little west of the city (30-45 min), you can find some nice, and most importantly, affordable courses (Butter Brook and Stow Acres are the two I've played). It's a little bit of a drive, but it's definitely worth it.

i love butterbrook. i live in wellesley and play leo j pretty much everyday in the summer, then nehoiden (wellesley college's course when it comes hs team) which is rather nice. On my team everybody belongs to brae burn, wellesley cc, the country club, charles river, woodlawn, and its so ****ing annoying. I played pine hills today, and it was gorgeous. Im going to look into getting a membership over at sandy burr, its nice and reasonably priced, however for some reason blackstone national keeps e-mailing my mother about memberships, so we might do that as well.