Why this Donald Ross-designed muni is my favorite bargain in the game

As a golfer on a budget growing up in the Boston area, I chose courses by price, not pedigree. George Wright, a muni, became my go-to. In those days, I knew nothing about golf course architecture, but I knew I liked George Wright, which tumbled through a landscape of dramatic granite outcrops and outsize oaks, and commanded weekday fees of around $20. If you’d told me at the time that Donald Ross designed it, I’m not sure I would have recognized the name, but I guarantee that I would not have cared. 

In golf, though, as in life, time seeds appreciation for 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 draws me to George Wright, which landed on our new list of the best U.S. courses you can play for $100 or less.

The course is indeed the handiwork of Ross, who completed it in the mid-1930s, with funding from the Works Progress Administration, the most ambitious jobs program of the New Deal. He needed all the backing he could get. All stone and swampland, the site was not a natural for golf. Construction was a feat of engineering that involved the installation of 10 miles of drainage pipe and the detonation of some 60,000 pounds of dynamite. More than 1,000 men worked on the job, which cost an estimated $1 million, the rough equivalent of $22 million today.

For all that effort, nothing about the finished product feels forced. The course starts plainly, with a short, flat par 4, but quickly gains in intrigue, rising and falling on a tree-lined canvas. Bunkers are scarce; Ross figured the rollicking ground would be challenging enough. He was right. The course is rich in blind drives and quirky bounces, nowhere more than on the par-4 12th, which demands a tee ball over a ridge and down a slope that doubles in the winter as a toboggan run. The 13th returns you to tamer terrain, though there’s still lots of movement in the land. This also marks the start of what is, in my opinion, as fine a closing stretch as there is in municipal golf, all varied shots and delightful views.

I could go on. But I might as well go back to where I started. Nearly half a lifetime since I first played it, I’ve come to recognize George Wright for the elite golf experience it provides, replete with priceless pedigree. The bonus is that it remains a steal.

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