The Ranch Golf Club

Played today with temperatures in the 40’s but wind chills in the 30’s. I love the course and layout. Today, the course was wet and you didn’t get any roll. Made it play extra long.

Definitely a great place to play in warmer and dryer weather. It started to snow and sleet on the last hole. But that’s New England weather. It was in the high 60’s yesterday.

Second time playing this fantastic 18 and it was nice to see the condition is still outstanding. Great variety of holes and the tee boxes, fairways, and greens were all in immaculate shape. Highly recommend making the trek out to the Ranch to have a phenomenal day of golf, especially when the weather is chilly and the members stay home.. We essentially had the whole course to ourselves and got a great hot deal as well! A+++ for the Ranch!

I booked a foursome at the ranch for November 10th on teeoff.com for $35/player. What a value, great course and conditions. Cart folks could not have been nicer or more helpful, not so much for the guy in the proshop but maybe he was just having a bad day. 5 1/2 hours on a late fall Wednesday afternoon sucked but someone in front of us had no one in front of them all day! The course is in great condition and the layout is good and fun.

Incredible bargain at $35. Top notch course. Very hilly, so not walkable for most. Conditions excellent. Staff very friendly and helpful. Restaurant was closed.

The Ranch offers a good challenge, some fun holes, a great staff, and a decent value for a daily fee course.

The course itself is situated on a great piece of land and takes advantage of the elevation changes and offers some great views. It’s a shame many of those views are spoiled by the ever-increasing number of houses built up against the course property. In fact the 15th green must have been a magical place before its majestic view of the valley below was interrupted by the new homes.

Conditions are good, but not perfect. I was expecting faster greens for this time of year but they were on the slow side and didn’t seem very consistent from one green to another. That said, putts rolled true and the rest of the course was well looked after. I appreciated that they seemed to not over-water the fairways which had plenty of roll to them.

The staff makes a strong effort to be polite, informative, and accommodating and I very much appreciated the sight of a ranger on the course, though pace was still far from brisk. My foursome finished in about 4:55.

The course isn’t overly difficult but you won’t easily shoot a low score here and really have to plan your aggressive shots. Overall I’d definitely come back for another round, though perhaps not worth the 2-hour drive each way.

I was fairly well sold on the Ranch before I even drove into its parking lot. This is one of those courses that you can get a wide-frame look at while approaching: some four holes are visible from the adjacent Sunnyside Road before you’ve reached the entrance. Any attempt to describe this panoramic view, however, really can’t do full justice to the sheer beauty of this layout, nor can photos. There is no substitute for setting foot on the property, and all the more so because the experience of playing this challenging and extraordinarily well-designed course should be, for most golfers, heady stuff.

The first three holes play across open, rolling terrain; four of the back side holes revert to the links-like style. This lends the course a welcome variety, because a small majority of the holes has a distinct woodland feel. The fourth, for example, is a stern par-4 running directly uphill, its fairway a well-bunkered avenue between tall trees.

It is, in fact, these long-playing or uphill par-4’s that can potentially do the most damage to your scorecard. Along with the fourth, that includes the 3rd, 7th, 10th, 11th, 14th, and 18th, all of which require precision (if you’re to stay out of trouble) as well as length to succeed. Even the shorter par-4’s, by virtue of their excellent green complexes, can create headaches if your approach shots miss their marks.

The par-threes range from 195-209, but only the water-guarded seventeen seems lethal. The back-nine five-pars will be genuine three-shotters for the vast majority of players. On the front-side, however, you may be able to take a crack at reaching the putting surfaces at the first and ninth in two, provided your tee shots are strong and straight. But unless you’re a power hitter, the approach shots will be risk-reward opportunities.

The holes I liked best on this first play were bookends, 1 and 18:

Most interesting hole: The first, 510 yards, par-5, named “Old Hickory.”

This great opener, flanked by a pair of expansive ponds on the left, has a huge double-fairway bisected by a humongous (hickory, I’m assuming) tree. The fairway’s right side, no picnic either, is lined by patches of snarling, deep rough. Not far from the green, the water edges into play on the left, and a prodigious, raised bunker protects the green’s right side. One mistake at the first hole may spiral quickly into a double-bogey start.

Best Hole: The last, 438-yards, par-4, dubbed “Overlook.”

What a finisher! Eighteen presents an inviting fairway from the tee, but take care not to drift too far right, where your ball will be slapped by a stone wall. The second shot, though, is key: the green is set in a small basin well below the fairway’s upper landing zone. Problem areas surround the green, so a fine approach will pay dividends. Aesthetically, this hole is also a gem.

I enjoyed my round here, as well, having hooked up with three amiable and personable playing partners from Hartford (initials C., S. and L.); we all had a very good time together.

Some Conclusions:

Damian Pascuzzo, clearly a thinking-person’s architect, is responsible for the design of The Ranch GC, which is now 20 years old. Golfweek ranks it number three among the top ten public-access courses in Massachusetts, where the competition is formidable. The conditioning, by the way, is first-rate here. With five sets of tees, and every hole a hardy one, I would recommend this course to any golfer. For those who appreciate long vistas of the Massachusetts countryside, with classic-looking golf holes rolling along boldly in the foreground, the Ranch Golf Club delivers a major bonus.

There were a few holes I was stuck behind two groups of players at the same tee box waiting over 25 minutes. It is a nice course but was torture waiting to hit in between holes!