Playing the newest course and "the worst" course

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Sean Melia
August 29, 2025

The 11th at The Pines at The International

Hey Everyone,

What a week! I was fortunate to play The Pines at The International this week. It’s the first course I’ve had to play twice to check it off. I played the original Geoffrey Cornish design in 2021 (course No. 64). Now I checked it off as course No. 157.

The Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw design opened in June and only recently started allowing guest play. The club hosted the media on Monday, and somehow, I snuck onto the tee sheet.

It’s an exceptional course that will only get better as it grows into itself. The wall-to-wall fescue grass will make the course play firm and fast. Greens were already fast and true, and the green surrounds featured short grass and rugged bunkers.

There are some North Carolina sandhill vibes out there, and there’s also a hint of places like Boston Golf Club and Old Sandwich. OS is the only other Coore Crenshaw in Massachusetts.

I put this together last year when the club had me out to tour the project. Paul Celano was kind enough to let me slap a mic on him as he showed me around. The closing stretch of golf is dynamite. Far more to come about my visit in the coming weeks.

On top of that, I got to play some golf with one of my oldest golf friends. My majors podcast cohost, Paul Burke, had me out to Indian Ridge CC. While the course has seen better days, it’s wild to think I’ve been playing golf with him since I was 16 years old.

Golf, as always, is the best.

News and Notes

Pro Golf

🏙️ The LPGA Tour is at TPC Boston this week. The field is stacked, and if you are planning on going, I put together a little viewing guide of some good spots to watch some golf.

I’ll be there on Friday walking around and trying to catch a glimpse of the best women in the world. Say hi if you see me!

Megan Khang shot 71 (-1) and Alexa Pano shot 73 (+1) in the first round.

🌽 No Korn Ferry Tour this week, but last week Richy Werenski finished T5 in the Boise Open. Davis Chatfield is the real story though. He finished T15 and is seventh in the season-long points race. The top 20 get their PGA Tour card next year. There are four events remaining. So he’s in a strong position.

🇨🇦 Chris Francoeur finished T16 in the weather-shortened Manitoba Open. They only squeezed in 36 holes. Now he’s out at (deep breath) CRMC Championship presented by Northern Pacific Center. He shot an opening round 68 and is T38.  Live Scoring

College Golf

⚓️ Believe it or not, college golf is back. Vanderbilt is playing in the Carmel Cup this weekend at Spyglass Hill in Pebble Beach. Tough life! Mass Amateur champion, Ryan Downes, is out there to kick off his sophomore year. Live scoring

🐸 In addition, Connecticut Women’s Amateur champion Yvette O’Brien cracked the TCU roster as a freshman and is playing in the Carmel Cup on the women’s side. I’m willing to cross state lines and celebrate some New England golf every now and then…

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Amateur Golf

🏆️ Megan Buck defended her Mass. Women’s Amateur title at Oakley CC this week. She shot 75-75 (+8) to beat Shannon Johnson by two shots. Johnson is playing some good golf, although she would rather have a trophy than moral victories, she has runner-up finishes in the Mass. Women’s Amateur and the Mass. Women’s Mid-Amateur this summer. In September, she’ll head out to Monterey Peninsula C.C. to play in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur. She won that championship in 2018 and was also the runner up in 2016. Mass Golf has a recap of Buck’s come-from-behind win.

🇺🇸 Doug Clapp and Brendan Hester both reached the Round of 64 in the U.S. Senior Amateur at Oak Hills CC in San Antonio, Texas.

🏌️‍♂️ Listen, there might be some Bay State Golf magic going on here, but BSG subscriber Jake Ratti qualified for another USGA event this week. The more likely story, he’s just very good at golf.

He paired up with Andy Luther to shoot 64 at Pinehills Nicklaus Course to earn medalist honors in the U.S. Four-Ball qualifying. Jared Winiarz | Danny Frodigh and David Spitz | Benjamin Spitz won the last two spots in a 5-for-2 playoff on Thursday morning.

Plugs

I’ve enjoyed making these YouTube videos over the last year or so. I picked out ten courses that I think are worth your time before the season ends. From expensive spots to courses for under $30 all over the state! Go watch and subscribe!

The conditions are bad, but the potential is high.

If you’ve been on golf social media in the last two weeks, you might have seen that MyGolfSpy decided to make a list of the worst golf courses in America. Three of the top five are in Massachusetts. Leo J. Martin (Weston, Mass.) took the top spot, and WBZ even did a segment and sent a reporter to play the muni in Weston. Norwood CC (No. 3) and Ponkapoag (No. 5) rounded out the Bay State representatives.

I knew the story broke contain when non-golfers started sending me articles about the original article.

The temporary green on the 15th hole.

The article is, frankly, lazy clickbait (which is why I am not linking to anything). Basically, it was a way to pick out funny, angry Google reviews from people who actually care about their local golf courses.

MyGolfSpy editor, Sean Fairholm, didn’t seem to have played any courses on the list.

The courses on the list were all in terrible shape, so if that’s how Sean Fairholm wants to pick on golf courses and generate clicks for the website, cool.

I have played worse golf courses in Massachusetts than the three that MyGolfSpy put in their rankings. That’s because there are plenty of courses with no soul or spirit. They take your money, run you through a conveyor belt, and spit you out on the other side of a boring, uninteresting golf course.

Even with puttable greens and actual grass, I find those types of courses worse than places like Ponky, Norwood CC, and Leo J.

If I were driving to play Leo J. Martin today, I’d be excited to play the 14th hole, an incredible par-4 over rolling land to a tiny green. I’d look forward to the second shot into the 8th green, and I’d look forward to seeing greens like the 3rd, 5th, and 6th, while also feeling disappointed and sad that the course is in horrible shape.

The exceptional 14th hole. Incredible potential here.

It’s in such horrible shape that I probably won’t go back until conditions improve. If it’s ever in better shape.

That’s where the article lost the plot for me. There are courses in Massachusetts that could be pristine, and I still would have no desire to return to them after checking them off the list.

When I played Leo J. Martin last month, I was paired with two retired men. The three of us didn’t know each other. One of them, Graham, was 89 years old. Leo J. Martin provided a way for him to be outside, socialize, and exercise. He paid $22 for a cart and nine holes of golf.

Maybe it’s easier to shit on a golf course when you haven’t been there and don’t meet the people that might need a golf course, no matter what kind of condition it is in.

The tee shot on the 12th hole.

Looking back down the 12th hole.

I asked my Instagram followers how they felt about the rankings in general. A fair number of people believed these courses needed to be shamed into growing grass and giving a damn.

Maybe this negative attention and shame lead to improvements at all ten of these courses around the country that MyGolfSpy called to the mat. The added anger for Leo J. and Ponkapoag is that they are owned by the state of Massachusetts, and it allows for conspiracies (they’re stealing money!) or general displeasure (government can’t run anything!).

Courses are closing across the country right now, even as the game is growing and demand for tee times is higher than ever.

Picking out ten courses and calling them the worst doesn’t seem in the best interest of the game. I can’t imagine the article is going to generate money for those courses to improve their conditions. Instead, it seems like it’s they are tapping into the negative energy of the Internet.

I can’t speak for the seven other courses on the list because I’ve never played them, but I’m willing to bet there are golfers, young and old, who need those courses because it’s a place that fills their bucket in some way, and they aren’t too worried about the greens being pure and the tee boxes flat.

The 7th hole. Another that makes you wonder, “What if?”

The par-3 third hole. The first real hint of Donald Ross.

Should Leo J. Martin, Norwood CC, and Ponkapoag be in better condition?

Absolutely!

In some world in the mid-1990s, Bethpage Black might have cracked this list of worst courses. But it was never a bad course; it was a good (great?) municipal course in bad condition until the USGA swooped in and helped resurrect it. Now people sleep in the parking lot to play it, and it’s hosting majors and a Ryder Cup.

If MyGolfSpy added the word “conditioned” to the rankings' title, it seems like it would be a fairer assessment of these courses because, as far as the “course” and the challenges they present over 18 holes are concerned. There is so much potential at each of the three Massachusetts courses that got dragged through the Internet mud, and MyGolfSpy addressed none of that.

That’s the worst.

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When I’m not golfing…

I’m reading…

🍸️ A blend of drinking and reading. U.S. Open has a star cocktail - The Honey-Deuce. This is not what got Danill Medvedev so riled up on Sunday… but maybe the crowd had a few too many…

I’m listening to…

🎵 Royel Otis might be best known for their covers (“Linger” by The Cranberries is their top song on Spotify.) Their new album with original songs, hickey, is really good.

I’m eating…

We’re out at my mom’s house as the final push on this kitchen renovation is done. So that means we cooked dinner this week!

🥗 This barbecue vegetable salad was outstanding and could feed an army.

🥣 Easy chickpea salad is a great Labor Day option if you’re going over to someone’s house.

🍔 If you’re making burgers this weekend, watch this NYTimes Cooking video on how to do it right either on the stove or the grill.

I’m watching…

⛰️ We started Untamed on Netflix. It’s set in the California wilderness. The opening scene is awesome, and intense. Eric Bana plays a flawed detective trying to solve a murder that, you guessed it, is bigger than just a single murder. There are some hints of True Detective in here. It’s not as good, but the show does a good job of making the national park one of the characters.

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