Best Public Golf Courses in Boston

Butternut Farm is the one on this list you play for length. It measures 6,939 yards to a par of 72, rated 72.8 with a slope of 130, both the biggest numbers here. It is bent grass through the green, tee to putting surface, which is unusual on a public course at this price and is the main reason it holds up in shoulder season.

Recent rates have run about $38 to $70, and they move with day and time. It is walkable, there is a driving range and a putting green, and the season runs April 1 to November 1. Stow is roughly 30 miles west of Boston, so this is a drive rather than a stop on the way home. Tee times at Butternut Farm tend to be available on shorter notice than the metro's nine-hole courses.

Mark Mungeam built Quail Ridge in 2005 as a nine, but it is set up to play as eighteen: four tee decks, from a 3,068-yard championship set rated 35.2 with a slope of 134 down to a 2,340-yard forward set. Play the black and then the white and the second loop is a genuinely different course rather than the same nine twice. Golfers regularly call it the best nine-hole course in the area, and the staff draws praise as often as the layout does.

It is also the busiest course in this guide by a wide margin. Across nearly two months of observation, 41% of posted tee times were gone before they were played, roughly four times the rate at most other courses here. Book ahead. Recent rates have run about $31 to $68.

The recurring complaints are bunkers, rough and tee boxes wanting more attention, and slow rounds when it is full, which given the demand is most weekend mornings. Some golfers also arrive expecting a full eighteen and are annoyed to find nine, so know what you are booking. Check Quail Ridge availability before you plan around it.

The Francis family bought land in Marshfield in 1965 and farmed turf on it before Manuel Francis Sr. opened a golf course there in 1971. The bent grass on the greens came off that farm, and putting surfaces are what golfers here talk about first, frequently calling them among the best public greens in the state. The course itself is 6,251 yards, par 71, rated 69.1 with a slope of 115, with wide fairways and a reputation for moving people around quickly.

There are no carts. Green Harbor is walking only, all 18 holes, which is worth knowing before you drive down. The range runs Toptracer, there is a teaching pro, and the posted season is March 15 to December 15, the longest in this guide.

Recent rates have run about $31 to $54, and availability is good: only 7% of posted times went before their slot across 50 days of observation, so weekend tee times at Green Harbor are usually still there. The knocks are that it plays wet and holds standing water after rain, that stronger players find it easy, and that there is not much to do after the round.

Ross lived in Newton, and this was the course down the road. It opened as a nine in 1897, which makes it one of the oldest golf courses in New England, and Ross rebuilt it into eighteen in 1920. It ran as a private club until the finances failed and the city bought it in the late 1970s.

The card reads 5,305 yards to a par of 70, rated 67.0, and then the slope is 125, which is the whole point of the place. The yardage is short because the corridors are tight and the greens are small and quick, not because it is easy. Bent grass tees to greens, walkable, a teaching pro on site, and no driving range, so warm up somewhere else. It is one of two courses here open year round. See what is open at Newton Commonwealth.

Ponkapoag is 36 holes of public golf on the eastern edge of the Blue Hills Reservation in Canton, owned by the state and operated by the Department of Conservation and Recreation. Ross drew 27 of those holes in the 1920s and 30s and the course opened in 1936; his protege William Mitchell added the final nine in 1956, and Course No. 2, this one, carries both names on the scorecard.

It plays 6,545 yards to a par of 72, rated 72.0 with a slope of 126, on bent grass greens and bluegrass fairways. It is walkable, there is a range, a putting green and a teaching pro, and the dress code is simply appropriate golf attire. Season is April 1 to November 15.

Price is the headline. Recent rates have run from $12 to $45, the lowest floor of any course in this guide, and availability is wide open: only 3% of posted times went before they were played. If you want the most architecture per dollar in eastern Massachusetts, this is where to look.

Ross routed Leo J. Martin along the Charles in Weston in 1930. It is state-owned, run by the DCR alongside Ponkapoag, and it plays 6,320 yards to a par of 72, rated 69.6 with a slope of 120, on bent grass greens. Walkable, with a driving range and a putting green.

Then the season ends on December 1 and the same ground becomes the Weston Ski Track, which has run there every winter since 1974 with snowmaking on roughly 2.5 kilometres of trail and considerably more when natural snow arrives. It is the only course in this guide that has a second job.

The posted dress code is specific: no tank tops, no cut-offs, no work boots. Look up Leo J. Martin tee times before heading out, since it is one of the busier state properties in the spring.

Nahant Golf Club opened in 1923 to a Wayne Stiles design and now operates as Kelley Greens, so that is the name on the signage and the tee sheet. It is nine holes, 1,898 yards, par 30, which is an hour of golf rather than an afternoon of it, and golfers regularly report finishing in exactly that.

Water is in play early, the fairways are wide enough to forgive a slice, and the greens draw consistent praise for running fast and true. The ground is mostly flat apart from the raised first, and the staff gets good notices. It is walkable, there is a putting green and a teaching pro, no range, and the posted season is year round, weather permitting, which on a peninsula north of Boston is a real qualifier.

Recent rates have run about $14 to $28, the lowest ceiling on this list. The complaints are the fairways, which reviewers say need work, and how wet it gets after rain. There is no starter or ranger, so pace is whatever the group in front of you decides. See open times at Nahant.

South Shore Country Club was laid out in the early 1920s by Wayne Stiles and John Van Kleek, the firm behind a good deal of eastern Massachusetts golf between the wars, and it ran as a private club until the town of Hingham bought the property in 1988. The town has run it as a municipal course ever since, and it has kept the shape of the original: 6,444 yards, par 72, rated 71.0 with a slope of 128, the second-stiffest slope among the 18-hole courses here.

It is walkable, with a driving range, a putting green and a teaching pro on site, and proper golf attire is required. The season runs April 1 to November 1. Check tee times at South Shore.

The Boston Athletic Association built this as a private eighteen in 1928 to a Stiles and Van Kleek routing, running across the Stoneham and Woburn town line. Stoneham bought the part inside its own borders in 1972 and rebuilt it as the nine that is there today, 3,234 yards to a par of 35 on a hilltop, with old oaks lining several of the corridors.

Recent rates have run about $14 to $40, and it is one of the better-value rounds north of the city. Golfers report fairways and greens generally in good shape and drainage that has improved, and rate it moderate rather than punishing. The consistent gripes are the tee boxes, several of which are worn bare and sit under heavy tree cover, unrepaired ball marks on otherwise good greens, and bunkers that want softer sand.

Walkable, putting green, no driving range. The season runs from April 1 all the way to December 25. Unicorn tee times are worth checking late in the year when most of this list has closed.

Norwood is the newest course on this list, built in 1975 to a Sam Mitchell design, and the most forgiving: 6,009 yards, par 71, rated 67.1 with a slope of 112, the lowest of either number here. That makes it a reasonable place to take a beginner or to play a round without losing sleeves of golf balls, and it is bent grass on both greens and fairways.

Recent rates have run about $31 to $71, so check before you go; the top of that range is as high as anything in this guide. Availability is not a problem, with only 5% of posted times going before they were played. It is walkable, there is a driving range, and it is one of two courses here listed as open year round, which is most of why it is on the list. See what Norwood has open.