Boston area public golf

[Jerry Kluger]

I have a family event that I will be attending at the end of this month in Wellesley and I have a day open to play some golf and I was wondering if there is any public access course worth taking my clubs along to play?

[Evan Louden]

George Wright, Franklin Park, Butter Brook and Red Tail are my recommendations that are relatively close. Add Whitinsville and Wachusett if you can drive a bit.

Boston does not have a wealth of great public courses. I know.

~Evan

[Tyler Kearns]

Jerry,

If public is what you are after, George Wright is good.  An old Ross course that costs approx. $35 and is routed over some pretty good property.  I don't think they take tee times, it is simply first come first served.

TK

[PCCraig]

George Wright is your best bet. It's a pretty neat, and affordable, Donald Ross that is pretty close to downtown (10 min drive w/ no traffic).

[Brad Tufts]

Hi Jerry,

Evan's quartet is pretty good.

I would definitely say GW is your spot-on choice.  Franklin Park is fun too, but its a bit more of a museum piece.  BB is a new public with some fun holes, especially on the back nine.  Red Tail is probably the rankers' #1 public in Mass...but its a full-scale modern layout with huge features.

One note of caution....my club on the North Shore is not open yet, and the last e-mail update yesterday did not give an opening date for the course...which may mean its 7-10 days away.  I would call ahead to make sure any of the above courses are open.

If not, you can always try South Shore CC, a good Stiles course in Hingham that's probably open now, drive an hour to Providence and play Triggs Memorial (Providence's answer to GW, almost as good), or head to Plymouth for either Pinehills course...they opened a couple weeks ago.

[Amol Yajnik]

I have a family event that I will be attending at the end of this month in Wellesley and I have a day open to play some golf and I was wondering if there is any public access course worth taking my clubs along to play?

Jerry, as others have already noted, George Wright will be the best of the public courses that are relatively close to Wellesley and downtown Boston.  I got an email from them saying that the course opened last weekend.  I'd be more than happy to join you at George Wright or another public if my schedule allows, send me a PM if interested.

[Ricardo Ramirez Calvo]

I played George Wright in October last year. It's a very nice layout. Take you own clubs, because the rentals are prehistoric.

[Jay Flemma]

Red Tail wins by far and away.  Pricey, but terrific nonetheless.

[Rich Goodale]

Jerry

Firstly, I must admit that it has been nearly 40 years since I played public golf in the Wellesley area, but that being said, if you want someplace fairly near the out-laws that is cheap and cheerful and well above a Doak 0, try Leo J Martin in Weston (Ross) or Stowe Acres (North or South) in Stowe (Cornish).  I think you will be pleasantly surprised by any of the three.

Rich

[Stephen Pellegrino]

If you're up for an excursion, Sankaty is open to public play through May.  You'd need to get yourself down to Nantucket, but my 2 cents is that this would far and away be the best 18 hole course available for public play.

I would bet that you could get on Whitinsville without too much effort, but I'm not 100% on that.

After that, the quality drops.  Shaker Hills would probably be my next suggestion.
-Stephen

[Mark Steffey]

If you are going to be around the last Sunday in April whitensville is having a member preview

$25 gets you cart food beer 9 holes and a talk with members.  Learn what they've done.

Check their website for details

[Mark McKeever]

Without question, George Wright is the best choice.

Mark

[Pete Lavallee]

I played 18 holes at Whitinsville last Oct for $50 on Golf Now; best $50 I ever spent!

[Dan_Callahan]

A few years ago, I would have said Red Tail is the best choice. Today, I would recommend The International over Red Tail. Their Fazio course (Oaks) is open to the public (it had been private, along with the still private Trent Jones course). No idea what kind of shape it's in. I'm about 30 minutes northeast of there, and the courses around me (Renaissance and North Andover Country Club) have yet to open. A few publics opened last week, but they are in awful shape. It's been a rough winter/spring in New England.

[Stephen Northrup]

George Wright is the place to play in Boston.  Great old Ross, conditioning so-so, but with so many memorable holes.  I've played there a few times, and the last was probably four or five years ago, but I can remember vivid details of at least 13 or 14 holes -- the mark of a "great course" to me.