Current conditions around Boston

[youngun87]

Anyone have any info on courses that are in decent shape? I know a bunch of places are aerating…

 

anyone play GW recently or know when they plan to aerate? 

[Imp]

Almost everyone aerates around now (+/- 1 week from this week) so end of May they are pristine for the rest of the year.

 

Also, lots of courses punched late last year because of the Sept/Oct rains. So, going to be interesting to see how they turn out after all is said and done.

 

Have not played GW yet this year.

Edited May 7, 2024 by Imp

[jdl]

Courses I've played so far:

 

KettleBrook - in good shape, hadn't punch yet (few weeks ago)

Poquoy Brook - very wet in places as usual. Fairways are a little "furry" probably because they can't mow too close yet. Greens are nice, haven't been punched yet (Saturday)

Butternut - lots of work being done but in decent early season shape. Not punched

Green Hill - they punched their greens last week I think

Juniper Hill - typical early season conditions, I think they are starting to punch this week. They are going to be working on 16/17 greens on Riverside at some point but that hasn't started yet

Edited May 7, 2024 by jdl

[jimb6golf]

Played Wentworth, Poqouy, Heather Hill, and Maplegate so far. They're all just coming out of winter conditions with mushy fairways but greens seem to be good.  Doesn't seem like they've aerated yet and not much mowing yet either, but that should change in the next couple of weeks I would imagine.  Hopefully the courses start to dry/ firm up and they can cut the greens closer pretty soon once the grass really starts to grow more.  With all the rain we've had over the past 6 months (and surprise it's raining today) we should see some nice conditions later this month.  And thankfully (note the sarcasm) all the courses raised their rates for summer conditions. Now if they could only rake their bunkers, hmmm.

[jdl]

On 5/8/2024 at 12:32 PM, jimb6golf said:

 Now if they could only rake their bunkers, hmmm.

LOL, the first few rounds at Butternut I noted to my friend how nice they looked for once. We both predicted it wouldn't last and of course yesterday around half of them are full of water and will be mud pits soon. No need to even put out the rakes....

[trilinkrealty]

I played George Wright a couple of weeks ago and the greens were recovering but rolling well.  Should be fantastic now.

 

 

[cbbaron]

Played Pinehills multiple times b4 my trip to AZ last week fairways great greens recovering from being aerated but rolled quickly playing Jones next Sunday hopefully greens will be fully healed

[jdl]

Played Passaconaway Saturday. For a course with a ton of power lines, well...they've added another set of power lines! The entire front 9 we had this going on:

 

 

Course is in good shape though!

Edited May 13, 2024 by jdl

[vandyfan]

I'm headed out to Boston next week for a conference and hoping to get on George Wright either monday afternoon or tuesday morning (or both!). I generally prefer playing munis with character so I am avoiding Granite Links at my own peril. Is William Devine worth it as a backup if I can't get on GW? 

[cbbaron]

11 hours ago, vandyfan said:

I'm headed out to Boston next week for a conference and hoping to get on George Wright either monday afternoon or tuesday morning (or both!). I generally prefer playing munis with character so I am avoiding Granite Links at my own peril. Is William Devine worth it as a backup if I can't get on GW? 

I would play Braintree or South Shore over Franklin Park

[trilinkrealty]

On 6/7/2024 at 10:13 AM, vandyfan said:

I'm headed out to Boston next week for a conference and hoping to get on George Wright either monday afternoon or tuesday morning (or both!). I generally prefer playing munis with character so I am avoiding Granite Links at my own peril. Is William Devine worth it as a backup if I can't get on GW? 

 

 

Definitely do what you can to play GW, one of my favorite courses.  Even if everything is booked give them a call.... it seems like there is always less people than actually booked.  Franklin Park is also really good, similar but much more wide open.

 

South Shore CC is very good as well but good luck getting a tee time before 5pm

[Imp]

@vandyfan And then?

[mr.haha]

hit up shaker hills, kettlebrook and the international in the past 3 weeks. shaker and international were in AMAZING shape. tee to green.

Kettlebrook was in good shape too but greens were running at a 8. soooooo slow. fun course just to mess around.

[jdl]

Shout out to a course I play a lot, Butternut in Stow MA. They've put a TON of work into the course this season and it's made a big difference. A lot of it is fixing some perennial problem areas that have drainage issues (left side of 7, forward tees on 8, etc) but also they've redone a lot of bunkers so there's actually decent sand in them. Lots of other smaller projects as well. Tee boxes are still something that could use some TLC but nice to see a course putting this level of investment in making their place better.

[jdl]

Was supposed to play Passaconaway this Saturday but we've canceled as one of our guys found out they punched their greens. And checking around seems like several other courses have also punched, like Kettlebrook. Maybe due to the excessive heat we've had recently? Can't recall too many courses doing this right in the prime golfing months.

[Imp]

On 8/13/2024 at 8:28 AM, jdl said:

Was supposed to play Passaconaway this Saturday but we've canceled as one of our guys found out they punched their greens. And checking around seems like several other courses have also punched, like Kettlebrook. Maybe due to the excessive heat we've had recently? Can't recall too many courses doing this right in the prime golfing months.

Almost every course in new england got screwed last september from all.the.rain (when they used to do it). So, they moved things a little... not like it;s going to rain like that every september. (references this month... dry as a bone). 

 

Anyhoo, playing there tomorrow and happy to hear the punching should be healed by now.

[jdl]

On 9/13/2024 at 10:47 AM, Imp said:

Almost every course in new england got screwed last september from all.the.rain (when they used to do it). So, they moved things a little... not like it;s going to rain like that every september. (references this month... dry as a bone). 

 

Anyhoo, playing there tomorrow and happy to hear the punching should be healed by now.

Whoa! May have seen you out there since we rescheduled to today. Greens have healed nicely but the super must have had a bad night because some of those pin placements were ridiculous.

[Imp]

On 9/14/2024 at 6:26 PM, jdl said:

Whoa! May have seen you out there since we rescheduled to today. Greens have healed nicely but the super must have had a bad night because some of those pin placements were ridiculous.

No kidding!!! Those pins were TOUGH. Hardly enything in the middle. 

 

I play on the Tour of Greater Boston and we were there starting around 11 through 1 for tee times. I was in the middle of the times starting at 12:20. Was a freaking long round though. Doubt they did it (pins) for us, but wouldn't be the 1st time a course toughened up for us. I couldn't get the speeds down at all. While I only had 30 putts, there were MANY long/lengthy comeback putts that I made (somehow). I was blowing it by the hole, a lot on the 1st try.

 

1st hole set my pace. In the closer the right fairway bunker, 100 yds from my drive. Take out my 100 yd club, and send it 130 over the green into the penalty area behind the green. Hitting 4, short of the green, 5 bad chip then chip again - get on for 6 and 1 putt 7. Ugh. Nice, 3 over on the 1st hole.

 

 

[jdl]

On 9/16/2024 at 9:29 AM, Imp said:

No kidding!!! Those pins were TOUGH. Hardly enything in the middle. 

 

I play on the Tour of Greater Boston and we were there starting around 11 through 1 for tee times. I was in the middle of the times starting at 12:20. Was a freaking long round though. Doubt they did it (pins) for us, but wouldn't be the 1st time a course toughened up for us. I couldn't get the speeds down at all. While I only had 30 putts, there were MANY long/lengthy comeback putts that I made (somehow). I was blowing it by the hole, a lot on the 1st try.

 

1st hole set my pace. In the closer the right fairway bunker, 100 yds from my drive. Take out my 100 yd club, and send it 130 over the green into the penalty area behind the green. Hitting 4, short of the green, 5 bad chip then chip again - get on for 6 and 1 putt 7. Ugh. Nice, 3 over on the 1st hole.

 

 

Yeah it was slow. We went out at 9:40 and waited on most holes. There was a 2some in front of us, 2 guys playing out of one bag. I think it was a guy giving his buddy an on-course lesson so it was pretty frustrating to be behind them. They really couldn't go anywhere but still maddening to see them standing on the green and not hitting shots. One of the guys in my group finally reached a breaking point on #9 and yelled at them to move on. They yelled back to "just relax" but fortunately quit after that hole. 🙂

 

And one of the guys in my group sent this out, pretty good....