Ponkapoag Golf Course

The updating/​overhaul of course #1 is complete. They did an unbelievable job. It’s going to be tough to top it. Great job done by the state.

Possibly the worst I have ever played as far as condition goes. Got to the third hole called the clubhouse asked for a refund because of how bad the condition the course was in, I was told they never give refunds the greens were aerated but the wors job t I’ve ever seen it looked like Gophers had done it. The fairways were pure dirt, no grass the sand traps were filled with leaves instead of blowing the leaves out they blew them into the sand trap. this was not because of the time of year, I also tried this course in July and was told it was under repair wait till I see it after September Well, I’ve seen it the lot he last time .save your money they are a rip off, that’s all they want is your money and you stand no chance of getting it back. I really feel like they stole it from me they could have let us know how bad the greens were and how bad the fairways were but as I said it was all about stealing your money especially after asking for a refund after playing only two holes the answer I got was its not my problem. the story about seven million dollar renovation its bs, its 9 holes only to be played on Friday and Saturday only to be walked no golf carts and you stand no chance of getting a tee time for the 9 holes. In ending I hope someone else doesn’t have their money stolen from them like I did stay away from Ponkapoag their thieves. All they had to do was refund my $ 31

If I could give 0 stars I would. Worst condition course I have ever played. Greens were good but everything else was like playing on burned up farmland including tee boxes. Hard ground was difficult to even put a tee into.
A few nice holes but hard to see any good due to poor condition of course.

August 2012***** (not 12 – 2014) my reviews reposted somehow
I don’t really know how to review a golf course but I will describe my experience. there are two 18 hole courses here. I played nine on «course number 2» it has been dry here and the course shows. however the greens fees can’t be beat. played with my 13 year old son, so I really didn’t want to spend a lot. this place is VERY REASONABLE! However on many of the holes we tee’d off on crab grass. they had just aerated many of the greens on the loop we played.
it is a municipal course and it shows by employment attitude (much like the skating rink here in the winter)
I see the bad reviews here, and I don’t get it I paid $ 19 for a weekday 9 hole loop, my son was $ 12 i guess you get what you pay for, but this IS a value. Don’t expect the course to look like a $ 100 a round course. the fairways were well kept, they course looked good for the middle of a fairly dry summer
one complaint: Crabgrass on many of the Tee boxes! really! a few were so thick that I think that they planted it!
I would play here again!

Cheap and terrible… but you already knew that.

This course is fairly cheap with relatively lax rules regarding open containers. Prices are very reasonable here. Greens are often beat up a bit. I’ll probably come back here.

For all those out of staters, or first timers, we are talking about hallowed ground here.
Ponky has been as much of our lives as our first kiss, our first Bud, or our first car…
She is the grandmother we always come back to visit. I first played here when I was about 9 years old. CYO tournies, N E Juniors, lots of rounds and memories. Ponky helped shape my golf and my upbringing.
Think of a painting hanging on the wall, Some people see just a canvas strewn with paint. Others, find a vision of deep beauty, a swan rather than a duck.
Look around next time you play Ponky. She may be a duck to you, but I see the swan everytime I go.

I will never play here again. The course could be great — it’s got «great bones» as they say about houses — but the upkeep is atrocious. Fairways ran the gamut from muddy to sandy to just plain NOT THERE — that’s right, on two holes (the 17^th being one) there were simply NO fairways, just a collection of weeds, crabgrass, and shorter rough down the middle of the hole.
A few good holes along the back nine and a $ 30 weekend fee for 18 holes do not make up for the ABYSMAL wait times on every hole while playing behind very bad golfers who took 5 – 7 practice swings, only to hit 15-​yard dribblers. This was the rule, rather than the exception, as I saw multiple groups with these sorts of players.
Staff was friendly but not golf-​intelligent, they are employees of the Dept of Conservation and Recreation as the course is on public land in the Blue Hills. There was one super cute girl at the snack bar, which was nice.
Greens were good, rough was alright, sand traps were an embarrassment — not well-​defined, concrete and rock showing through in some places. Also, a ton of blind tee shots which is really tough to deal with on a new course. There were also massive drainage pipes just sitting behind several greens, along with a large amount of standing water and muck.
If you want to play a quick 9 after work, this might be ok, provided no one else is there, but I’m guessing you’ll be dealing with a long wait for a very poorly maintained golf course.

Im not sure about the other reviews but I was paid for nin holes today and promptly asked for a full refund which was given… The greens are too poor for butting and slow, very bumpy, have great big brown patches and have a bad smell. The fairways are unkept, no sand in the traps, I wouldnt golf here for free!!! This course SUCKS!!!

Coming from Las Vegas I guess I’m a golf snob now but this course really is horrific. The course is difficult to navigate and is not well marked. They don’t allow carts and somehow ran out of wheeled caddies (no clue what these are called). Walking a crappy course makes it 10 times worse. Throw in a DIRT, yes I said DIRT, filled green and this place really is awful. The only reason I can’t give it 1 star is because they have a 9 hole twilight $ 12 special. Big whoop, wanna fight about it?

This is an unspeakably bad course. How on earth someone could let a Donald Ross design fall into such utter disrepair is absolutely beyond comprehension. I cannot stress this enough — DO NOT PLAY HERE.
We teed off on a Saturday morning, fully expecting to be held up by the obvious crowd of people that would want to play at a DR course. However, we found no crowds! Delighted, we teed off and started down hole #1 — by halfway through the third hole we were starting to see exactly why no one had bothered to set up tee times at Ponkapoag. I’ll address each horrible part of the course one at a time.
Fairways: The fairways were in terrible, terrible condition. Apart from hole #1, which was in a decent enough shape, we were finding finding our balls in pothole sized holes in the ground — in the middle of the fairway! There were barely a few patches of green here and there — mostly, we found ourselves hitting out of dirt, dead, dry grass, and if you can believe it, on a couple of occasions, out of sand filled holes in the ground the size of manholes — not fairway bunkers, for those that might be confused, but actual holes that had been filled with sand and dirt! Other than that, there was plenty of crabgrass, weeds… you name it. Even a couple of fairways with large portions under swampy water that hadn’t drained.
Greens: To call the greens at Ponkapoag «greens» would be like calling a dirt road the I-​95. Perhaps four out of the nine holes we suffered through had greens that were fully covered with grass — not manicured or even mowed, but at least they were covered. The rest were just splotches of grass interspersed with large patches of sandy dirt, clumps of crabgrass, pebbles… basically It looked like someone had decided to stick a flag and dig a hole on some barren, half mowed piece of turf. Absolutely unusable.
Signage: Distance markers? You were fortunate if you found one. On one hole, the 100 yard marker was a *traffic cone*. It was only having a laser rangefinder that saved us from completely guessing what club to use on each hole. Oh, and Hole Signage? Nope. After the sixth hole it’s a crapshoot which way to turn — no signs, no cart path markers, nada.
All in all — an awful experience. I don’t believe that Ponkapoag should be called a golf course unless you’re using the term in the loosest sense possible.
DO NOT PLAY HERE.

This is better than a three star course as it’s been rated here. Id probably go 3.5 stars but since that’s not an option Ill go 4.
The good, the layout is really interesting here. It’s a nice Donald Ross design and they have 27 different holes to play. Definitely four stars on the layout.
The price is also great, we paid $ 27 for 18 holes on a Wednesday morning.
Could the course be a little better maintained? Sure. There are some brown spots out there on the fairway, the tee boxes could use some work and lastly there is no drinkable water on the course. Those are the negatives.
The greens are in good condition but they are fairly slow.
The maintainence is still decent though, this is a pretty good course. I will play many more times for sure. If they put some money into this course, they would have a real gem on their hands.

Me: I hit in the low-​to-​mid 90’s. I’m a lefty golfer in my mid-30’s. Always looking to play when I can. Looking for courses near Boston.
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I play here about a dozen times a year, and typically, Ponky delivers an enjoyable and affordable golfing experience not too far from Boston.
*** Some things I love about Ponky: ***
— Affordability: $ 30 gets you 18. Even the schwag in the clubhouse (cool Indian-​Head logos on their stuff) is moderately priced. Because of some «town-​red-​tape» issues, you purchase a cart separately from your greens fees $ 15/​pp I think?). I typically walk anyway.
— The layout: This course has wide-​open confidence-​inspiring holes as well as a few tight challengers that make you carefully select a club (like holes #2, #3 and #11).
— Availability: Last weekend, some friends and I wanted to play. We literally called 6 local courses that had tournaments going on that basically made them unavailable on a Friday. Ugh! Luckily, our old friend Ponky was there for us.
— Beer Cart: I don’t typically get boozed up while playing golf. But sometimes a cold one feels great on a sunny day. Not many public, cheap courses in our area have a well-​stocked beer cart piloted by a cute, friendly girl. Ponky does.
— Range: A cheap range with a decent practice green
— Parking: a Breeze.
*** Some things I’m not crazy about: ***
— Waiting: If you go at a busy time, be prepared to wait. There’s sort of a hairpin turn around holes #2 and #3. More than once, I’ve waited (not even on a weekend) for like an hour at the second tee. What a buzz-​kill as soon as you’ve started your round!
— The starter: He’s actually a pretty nice guy, but the man is like a million years old and seems to be generally overwhelmed. More than once, I’ve noticed that the back nine is empty while theres a line of 15 people waiting to tee off on the first tee. Trying to explain to this man that it mikght make sense to send someone off the back doesn’t work. The notion is lost on him.
— Bland course: I mean, I can’t complain too much here. It’s a cheap public track. But there aren’t many holes that you look at and say, «Wow. What a beautiful look.» Don’t get me wrong: it’s a varied course with plenty of variety, but no real gems. By contrast, a place like (similarly priced) Mount Hood in Melrose has a gorgeous holes that make you look forward to reaching them.
— Maintenance: Again– I can’t kill Ponky here. It’s reasonably maintained for a public track. Its just not great.
*** All in all ***
I hope to play a hundred more rounds at Ponky. On a sunny day, It’s a reasonably priced, fun place to play 18 if you live anywhere near Boston.

Good olé boy course. Told on phone no tee times first come first served. Showed up Sun am at 8am and was not let out until after 930. We sat and watched some old guy league/​nursing home outing send out group after group. The antique starter in the shed on the respirator decided to give us a tee time. Whaaa? Helmet golf, not well marked, many blind shots, guys just driving around picking up balls in the fairway its like a ^^&%^& SNL skit. But you get what you pay for. 30 bucks on a weekend cant expect too much. Joggers, dog walkers, hill dwellers just roaming around the course. Save yourself the aggrevation and play other courses within ½ hour drive. Canton, West Bridgewater, etc courses are FAR superior and much better overall experience. You go cheap you get cheap. Youve been warned.

Honestly I don’t know what these other reviewers are talking about, this is the worst course I have ever played. The only respectable part of the course are the greens, they are well kept and very even. The only downside to the greens are that they are a bit slow. Also the price is extremely cheap, but after playing it I wouldn’t spend 27 bucks for 18 here again.
The fairways are not existent. All there is are patches of uneven grass with massive areas of rock hard dead flattened grass. I honestly never even saw a single fairway.
The tee boxers were hit or miss, several were just all dirt and the others had patches of good grass with more patches of rock hard dirt.
I was honestly in shock that so many people were playing suck a terribly kept course. I recall my drive frequently landing in the area where the fairway would be only to be engulfed with a could of smoke after it landed. The bunkers were decent except for a few of them which were overtaken by grass.
The layout of the course is decent and it has some impressive holes if the owners took any pride whatsoever in keeping this place up.
The people playing here were extremely rude. My partner and I were stuck behind a slow group of 4 and when we asked to play through they stated, «In 4 years I have never let anyone play through. At Ponkapoag there is not etiquette.» We played through anyhow.
I honestly would recommend everyone to avoid this course. It is honestly the worst kept course I have ever played.

cheap. cheap. cheap.
you really do get what you pay for… which is just fine. leave the score card in the clubhouse, too many unplayable shots in play and the greens are downright awful. I haven’t bothered with course one in a couple years, but course two has a nice design with some fun holes. Call ahead though, seems like there is always some event/​camp going on, I have had to turn around a few times. A couple added features are the driving range, the putting green and pitching green… so even if you can’t play, you can still kill an hour working on your game. Conveniently located less than a mile from the highway.

Just got back from this little gem.
Wow! For 12 bucks after 4 pm, just wow. The greens were in unreal shape. The course itself wasn’t evenly green, but in most spots was fine considering how hot it’s been in the last month.
The tee boxes were a little rough on some holes, but what bang for your buck. Only real complaint I have is the lack of signage directing you to the next hole. When you have two courses and they overlap, one would think this would be a no brainer.
We found ourselves walking from the first tee to the fifth of the second course because they were one right after the other, but somehow the second tee is across the wallking path and about 60 yards away. Hmmm? Make any sense? No. Give me an arrow at least!
Loved this course, the people were friendly and the course was a sweet value. Pretty empty for a nice evening after work.
Will be back again, go there and reward a muni course that actually takes pride in itself!

i like ponky. i like it a lot.
our little ponky is a public course, so it’s not in the pristine condition you would expect to find at a private club. then again, you’re not paying $ 30,000.00 (or more) to join the club, then $ 5,000.00 (or more) in annual dues. nope. you’re paying $ 30 for 18 on the weekends (less after 3:00 p.m.), another $ 20 for a cart, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
this past year we primarily played course 2 which is fairly open, but has enough hazards, dog legs and changes in elevation to make it challenging. there were some holes that needed work — there is a really swampy area between the green on 2 and the tee box for 3 and the tee box on 5 was so swamped by end of season they had to move the boxes up about 100 yards — but otherwise it’s in decent shape.
towards the end of the season, they tended to let the leaves accumulate off the greens and in the sand traps which resulted in more than a few lost balls. then again, i suppose if i hadn’t hit the balls off the greens or into the sand traps, i wouldn’t have lost them.
the driving range is about the cheapest around at $ 7 for a large bucket. the pro shop is small, but the staff is friendly and knowledgeable about the course. there’s a little window in the clubhouse for drinks, snacks and beers.
as beginners, we would typically ask the starters where they thought we should go based on crowds and whatnot and they were always good about leaving room behind us. lots of room.
overall, if you’re used to the country club lifestyle, you’d probably give this place a 2. if you like getting a good day of golf in at an excellent value, you’ll enjoy yourself here.
ponkapoag is near the canton/​milton border about a mile off of exit 2a on 93, so it’s easy to get to from boston and most places south. if you’re so inclined, there’s a little deli across the street that sells beers and whatnot.

Bang for your buck for sure. The course is in alright shape and is definitely a good value… especially if you hoof it. Where else can you get a Donald Ross course for $ 30? This is a great place to go out and knock the ball around for a bit and anjoy an afternoon.
Another good thing about this course is that there is one 18 and another 9 hole layout, so if you go out as a single you can get out pretty easily and if you do need to wait, there is a putting green and driving range to kill some time.
The fairways and greens are in pretty good shape for the price but the sand traps are in rough shape in general. Its a definite hazard to get stuck in one. Since the course is a full size par 72 course over 6500 yards the value for the experience is definitely worth it.
I’ll be back a few times a year to knock the dust off the clubs every now and again.