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CC of New Bedford is doing a lot of work on their greens.
Hey Everyone,
Welcome to the 40 new subscribers to the newsletter! Over the last 15 months, this newsletter has grown 4x, and I’m stoked to keep adding new golf sickos to the mix.
I played Shaker Hills CC this week with some friends who are prepping for the Mass Four-Ball, which will be out there in a couple of weeks. It’s cohosting the event with Marlboro CC.
Shaker Hills is a tough course. I was struck by the difference in how the course looked when I checked it off in 2020 (Course No. 2 of the quest). A lot of trees have been removed, and it’s created some stunning sightlines. It’s also very expensive these days. Today, we will look at dynamic pricing, which they use.
I also visited, but didn’t play, CC of New Bedford. The course is closed right now for a big renovation job. Every green is being “touched” and some bunkers are being added while existing bunkers are being improved and built up. John Sanford, the lead designer, showed me around.
It’s been fun visiting courses like Farm Neck and CC of New Bedford to speak with the designers Mark Mungeam and Sanford. They have been very gracious with their time considering they aren’t on property every day. Sanford flies up from Jupiter, Florida, every Monday and returns home on Wednesday to oversee the two-month project.
This week, I’ve got some news and notes, a couple of plugs, and then some general thoughts on dynamic pricing for tee times, which is starting to show up more and more in Massachusetts.
News and Notes
Pro Golf
🏌️♀️ Michael Thorbjornsen and Karl Vilips teamed up with a T4 finish in the Zurich Classic last week. After earning just $86,000 in his first nine starts, he’s piled up $480,000 the last two events, after a T2 at Punta Cana and the T4 at the Zurich Classic.
For the third week in a row, Thorbjornsen is playing. He shot 64 in the opening round of the CJ CUP Byron Nelson and sits three shots behind Scottie Scheffler who fired a 61.
🏌️♀️ Megan Khang finished T40 in the Chevron Championship in Houston last week. She shot 73-69-75-74. Alexa Pano also made the cut and finished T67 with rounds of 73-69-76-78.
At the Black Desert Championship in Utah, Khang is T20 after a 68 in the first round. Pano shot 72 and is T86.
🌽 Davis Chatfield continues to play good golf. He’s T4 after the first round in Tulum Championship. Live Scoring
🇵🇪 The PGA Tour Americas is in Peru; Jimmy Hervol and Chris Francoeur are both competing. Hervol shot an opening round 70 (T26) and Francoeur shot 75 (T118). Live Scoring
🏅 This week, the PGA Professional Championship was played in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Liam Freidman of Wollaston GC was the best finisher among the Massachusetts pros who competed.
College Golf
📚️ I created a round-up for the Division 1 Conference results involving Massachusetts teams and individuals who flew the coop. You can read that here.
Some notables:
Vanessa Zhang of Harvard won the IVY League individual title by five shots with rounds of 67, 68, 70 (-11); she will represent Harvard as an individual at Ohio State GC from May 5-7 in the Columbus Regional.
Rebecca Skoler (Needham, Mass.) will tee it up for the University of Virginia, which earned the No. 2 seed in the Charlottesville Regional at Birdwood Golf Course.
Isabel Brozena (North Reading, Mass.) helped Xavier win its seventh straight Big East title. Brozena and her squad will also play in the Columbus Regional.
Vanderbilt earned the No. 3 seed in the Amherst Regional at Poplar Grove GC in Virginia from May 12-14. Ryan Downes (Longmeadow, Mass.) and John Broderick (Dedham, Mass.) could potentially be in that group that competes for a spot in the National Championship.
Amateur Golf
🇺🇸 The U.S. Senior Open Qualifying at Longmeadow CC saw 15 players earn a spot in Final Qualifying. 2008 and 2009 Mass. Amateur champ, Brian Higgins, a new member of the senior circuit, found his way inside the cut line. So did Kernwood CC professional Frank Dully (Salem, Mass.), and amateurs Keith Burch (South Deerfield, Mass.), Doug Briggs (Andover, Mass.), James Burke, (Newton, Mass.) MassGolf has a recap of all the action.
⛳️ To qualify for the U.S. Open, players have to advance through 18-hole local qualifiers and then survive “The Longest Day in Golf” - 36 holes in one day - to earn a spot in this year's national championship at Oakmont CC.
At Crumpin Fox on Thursday, A Welshman who just finished his freshman year at Harvard earned medalist honors with a 69. Cooper Griffin (Weston, Mass.) also nabbed one of the four spots with a 71. Full Story.
Next door in Connecticut, high school senior and Maryland commit Robby Rosati (Stratford, Conn.) shot a three-under 68 and Paul Pastore (Stamford, Conn.) shot a one-over 72 to advance at Woodway CC. Full story.
Plugs
📰 My latest course reviews of Holyoke CC and Southampton CC are available for all subscribers. Premium Subscribers receive these reviews early before they are posted to Instagram. They also get access to additional thoughts about the course with extra photos. This helps me add a bit more context beyond what the Instagram caption allows. If you want to support the work I’m doing, you can upgrade here.
🏌️ Peter Marchetti of SwingPass joined me on the podcast to discuss his company and its efforts to provide a mix of competition, fun, and community through an array of events, including a season-long points race. Listen here.
Swinging Prices: How Dynamic Pricing Is Changing Weekend Golf in Massachusetts
If you’ve booked a flight, a hotel, or a concert ticket in the last decade, you already understand dynamic pricing. Now, it’s coming for your tee time.
Golfers in Massachusetts are starting to feel the squeeze as the supply of courses shrinks and the demand spikes. That $95 Saturday round you were eyeing? It might be $105 by Monday night—or $177 by Thursday.
I’ve spent the last few months looking at rates for various courses in the area. From the most expensive to the dirt cheap. That part was easy. Figuring out what they actually charge? That’s a different story. Some courses publish clear rates at the start of the season. Others require you to poke around the tee sheet like you’re booking a flight out of Logan.
Here’s an example.
I played Shaker Hills on Tuesday, April 29 for $95. On Thursday, April 24 the round was listed at $99. I wasn’t sure if I was going to play, so I held off on booking.
On Sunday, I booked the tee time for $95. On Monday night, I checked to see if the tee time still had a fourth slot open (we were a threesome), and the price was $105.
It seems the game is afoot now with regards to booking times.
If you’d like the 9:40am tee time at Shaker Hills on Saturday, May 3, it was $177 on Thursday afternoon. That would make it the second most expensive tee time on mainland Massachusetts behind Taconic GC at $180.
On Thursday morning, the Shaker Hills rate before noon on Saturday ranges from $141-$177.
This is what the prices looked like on Thursday night for the same Saturday morning tee times.
I have NO IDEA how dynamic pricing works at a technical level. I understand the supply and demand of it all. I understand that the site can track the traffic and interest on certain days of the week.
The weather looks a little iffy on Sunday, May 4, with a chance of rain showers. So, what did the prices look like at Shaker Hills on Thursday afternoon?
They’re (a little…) cheaper than Saturday.
This is what they looked like on Thursday night.
The point of this isn’t to crush Shaker Hills. They just happened to be on my radar because I had to book a tee time there this week.
Red Tail also seems to be using dynamic pricing. They don’t publish their rates, and their tee sheet has different prices between Saturday and Sunday.
Golfers are planners. They almost have to be if they want to book a tee time on the weekend. They think a week ahead and ensure their buddies are lined up to join them for the day.
It’s tough to be a spontaneous golfer these days.
Dynamic pricing might help last-minute golfers secure a cheaper tee time. It might also push prices up on a Saturday in June when the weather looks bad on Sunday.
For now, a tee time is not just about availability—it’s about timing. As more courses adopt these models, golfers may have to treat booking like a chess match. Watch the board. Know the patterns. And hope for rain in the forecast that doesn’t come.
WORMBURNER COMICS
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When I’m not golfing…
I’m reading…
🐳 Moby Dick
😕 This Jordon Hudson and Bill Belichick stuff is just wild. $8 million in real estate under her name? Collecting rent and putting down $1 million for a $2 million apartment? Yikes. NYPost.
I’m listening to…
👑 Kings of Leon this week. A reminder of college parties on Caro St. at Holy Cross.
🌊 Enjoying Barry Can’t Swim right now, too. Absolutley a Peloton discovery.
😄 Lorde is back with a new single - “What was That”
I’m eating…
These Hoisin Garlic Noodles were spectacular.
Tatte’s makes a heck of a Buttermilk Biscuit.
I’m watching…
This new wave of documentaries that focus on the impacts of the Internet are fascinating. We watched Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing. There’s this blurred line between child abuse, labor abuse, and a cult that seems to appear in a lot of these types of situations—oh, and money. There’s always a lot of money, too.
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