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Brad Swanson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Anything of interest near Worcester, MA?
« on: August 10, 2010, 01:55:43 PM »
I read pretty much everything on here and have for the last several, but I don't recall a single post regarding a golf course of note near Worcester, MA.  I may be out that way for a few days in September and would appreciate any recommendations for golf nearby.  If the recommendations are "don't bother", that's worthwhile info too, although I hope that isn't the case.  Thanks.

Brad

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +3/-1
Re: Anything of interest near Worcester, MA?
« Reply #1 on: August 10, 2010, 02:02:16 PM »
Worcester CC hosted the US Open in 1925.  Willie MacFarlane won it, so the course didn't become famous like the places Jones won.

Oak Hill CC in Fitchburg, a Ross layout, is also worth playing.

Jay Cox

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Anything of interest near Worcester, MA?
« Reply #2 on: August 10, 2010, 03:03:10 PM »
On the public side, Red Tail is about a half hour away and is at least in the conversation for best public course in the state.  Wachusett is a relatively simple, but still enjoyable, Ross layout with a particularly good set of par 5 holes.

On the private side, I second all of the Worcester CC recommendations and would also recommend Whitinsville, about twenty minutes south and among the best nine-holers in the country.

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +3/-1
Re: Anything of interest near Worcester, MA?
« Reply #3 on: August 10, 2010, 03:20:13 PM »
I did not remember that Whitinsville was anywhere near that close.  I'd put it ahead of anything up there, but it's pretty hard to get on.

Jason Topp

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Anything of interest near Worcester, MA?
« Reply #4 on: August 10, 2010, 03:27:54 PM »
I found Wauchusett - a semi private in or near Worcester - to be an enjoyable Ross with many of his trademark holes. 

I also liked Shaker Hills in Harvard which I do not think is too far away.

Joel Zuckerman

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Anything of interest near Worcester, MA?
« Reply #5 on: August 10, 2010, 03:29:43 PM »
Red Tail is terrific, also consider Blackstone National in the public sector.  Some people like Cyprian Keys, though I played it years ago and have little recollection.

Cliff Hamm

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Anything of interest near Worcester, MA?
« Reply #6 on: August 10, 2010, 03:34:51 PM »
Haven't played it yet but Shining Rock in Northbridge (near Blackstone,  30 minutes or so from Worcester) was named 5th best course you can play (Massachusetts) by Golf Magazine.
« Last Edit: August 10, 2010, 03:48:32 PM by Cliff Hamm »

Mark McKeever

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Anything of interest near Worcester, MA?
« Reply #7 on: August 10, 2010, 03:41:07 PM »
You should hop in the car and play Dedham Country and Polo Club if you can.

Mark
Best MGA showers - Bayonne

"Dude, he's a total d***"

Brad Swanson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Anything of interest near Worcester, MA?
« Reply #8 on: August 10, 2010, 04:35:54 PM »
Thank you all for the suggestions.  Looks like I can justify bringing my clubs along on this trip.  I'm not familiar with any of the courses mentioned, but it looks like there are plenty of hidden gems (to me) to investigate.

Brad

Jason Topp

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Anything of interest near Worcester, MA?
« Reply #9 on: August 10, 2010, 04:55:28 PM »
Red Tail is terrific, also consider Blackstone National in the public sector.  Some people like Cyprian Keys, though I played it years ago and have little recollection.

I enjoyed Cyrian Keys although it is tight if memory serves correctly.  I know others are critical of it but I would go back.

Sean Leary

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Anything of interest near Worcester, MA?
« Reply #10 on: August 10, 2010, 05:30:17 PM »
Red Tail is terrific, also consider Blackstone National in the public sector.  Some people like Cyprian Keys, though I played it years ago and have little recollection.

I enjoyed Cyrian Keys although it is tight if memory serves correctly.  I know others are critical of it but I would go back.

Tight and very penal.

Other choices are better IMO...

Brad Klein

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Anything of interest near Worcester, MA?
« Reply #11 on: August 10, 2010, 08:10:58 PM »
Shivas, had you made it up that shlep of a hill at Holy Cross -- as I did for the 1988-89 academic year that I taught there -- you would have found, among other things, an on-campus cemetery for emeriti faculty. During that year I found that my entire department (Government) shared one long-distance phone bill, so all calls had to be marked off by a process in which they passed around the bill. The senior-most political theorist was a Straussian conservative who would accumulate pipe ash in his desk and one night, as I recall, his desk spontaneously combusted.

As for golf, I would amuse myself with field trips to Ross courses: Worcester CC in town, plus Whitinsville, only a half-hour southeast and far more accessible to the serious Ross student than Doak's comments above would suggest. Vesper CC, up in Lowell, about 40 minutes to the northeast, is another Ross gem that has gone through a wonderful restoration of late. And of course if you're out in that part of the state, it's only about another 40 minutes west to two more Ross beauties, The Orchards in South Hadley and Longmeadow CC just south of Springfield.

Wayne Freeman

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Anything of interest near Worcester, MA?
« Reply #12 on: August 11, 2010, 02:06:05 AM »
Worcester CC is a real gem and you should try to play there if you possibly can. It is the only course to host
  a men's and women's U.S. Open and a Ryder Cup....

Jeff Spittel

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Anything of interest near Worcester, MA?
« Reply #13 on: August 11, 2010, 08:12:02 AM »
Worcester is really good.  You should play it.  I'd have gone to Holy Cross were it not for that damn hill the campus is on.  Worcester has elevation change, for sure. There's gotta be 200 or 250 feet of elevation change on that course in total.  But nothing like that damn hill on the Holy Cross campus.  I don't think I could have handled that hill hung over....

That hill made for four years of drunken wipeouts. Good times.
Fare and be well now, let your life proceed by its own design.