The par-3 17th at George Wright is part of one of the best closing stretches in county golf.
City of Boston
As a golfer on a budget who grew up in the Boston area, I chose courses based on price, not provenance. George Wrighta muni, became my go-to. In those days, I knew nothing Golf course architecturebut I knew I liked George Wright, who drove through a landscape of dramatic granite outcrops and towering oaks, and commanded weekday fares of about $20. If you had told me then Donald Ross I designed it, I’m not sure I would have known the name, but I guarantee I wouldn’t have cared.
However, in golf, as in life, time breeds an appreciation for the things we took for granted in our youth. Some 40 years later, I still love a bargain. But affordability is not the only feature that attracts me to George Wright, who sat in our place new list of the best US courses you can play for $100 or less.
The course is truly the handiwork of Ross, who completed it in the mid-1930s with funding from the Works Progress Administration, the New Deal’s most ambitious jobs program. He needed all the support he could get. All stone and bog, the place was not natural for golf. The construction was an engineering feat that involved the installation of 10 miles of drainage pipe and the detonation of approximately 60,000 tons of dynamite. More than 1,000 men worked on the job, which cost about $1 million, roughly the equivalent of $22 million today.
For all that effort, nothing about the finished product feels forced. The course starts clear, with a short, flat par 4, but quickly gains in intrigue, rising and falling to a tree-lined canvas. Bunkers are few; Ross realized that the rolling terrain would be quite challenging. He was right. The course is rich with blind drives and odd jumps, nowhere more so than on the par-4 12th, which calls for a ball over a ridge and down a slope that doubles in winter as a slide run. Day 13 brings you back to tamed ground, though there’s still plenty of movement on the ground. It also marks the start of what I think is as good a closing stretch as there is in municipal golf, all different shots and cool looks.
I could go on. But I might as well go back to where I started. Nearly half a lifetime since I first played, I’ve come to know George Wright for the elite golf experience it offers, full of priceless pedigree. The bonus is that it remains a steal.
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