Minnechaug Golf Course

A course that has always impressed me, Minnechaug has apparently suffered a setback—probably probably over the past three weeks—in course conditioning. The layout, which was in good condition the last time I played it on May 27, is now plagued by bare spots. These are most numerous in the landing areas of most of the fairways on the par-4’s and the lone five-par. Worse still, the rough tends to be very sketchy in many places—especially under the trees. Fringes around the greens had some patchiness, and the greenside rough was acceptable but uneven. The one true bright spot was the greens themselves, which are definitely being watered (as I witnessed) and were still in very good condition, and putted smoothly.

The problem with weak conditioning—when it reaches this stage—is that if begins to compromise the entire layout. A couple of examples: A) when I hit my second shot on the par-five third, off of a bare lie in the rough, my 5-hybrid landed on the right side of the fairway, but proceeded to bound uncontrollably on that entirely bare right side under a tree (it never would have gone even close to that far under normal conditions); and B) on the next fairway, I hit a smooth, controlled draw up the right side of the fairway, but it again rolled uncontrollably all the way over to the left side and into the left rough, where I was blocked on the approach by tall trees.

The bottom line is that the course does not play the way it was designed, and the excellent Cornish layout here is no longer really the Cornish layout. It’s just that simple. Any course in such shape invariably drops to fair or poor in playability (which is central and essential to a true experience).

So today this felt more like a practice area rather than a golf course. Now, I really like Minnechaug (it’s become a rota course for my son and I) and am fully expecting that it will make a return to form this fall under better conditions, and, of course, I’ll come back. I did notice that a lot of grass seed has been put down in the bare spots.

It’s worth noting that the course is not utterly burned out, as the photos I’ve taken show. In fact, a couple of the fairways are average to good overall. But I deliberately did not include the worst holes here—and there are three or four bad ones.

All told, it was still nice to get out and smack the golf ball around and work on my short game. And I enjoyed playing the beautiful final stretch of holes here, which are mostly in good shape. Everyone was pleasant in the pro shop, and Covid-19 precautions are certainly respected. Minnechaug was also quite crowded today: the parking lot was nearly full when I arrived, totally full when leaving.

So, this all adds up to a cautionary recommendation. What you’ll get out of playing here right now, until the course recovers, may well depend on your expectations.

Course has really gone downhill this year, and not because of the pandemic (they've done a nice job keeping the place open and functioning somewhat normal). The behavior and etiquette is now way below what you'd expect even at a cheap public course like this one. First of all the people in the golf shop are very friendly but they need to get someone at the front desk who knows how to pace the groups instead of just sending people out randomly. Foursomes that are walking should not be going out in front of twosomes in carts. Pair people up at busy times. And there's no point in having tee times if anyone can just show up and cut you off. Nothing like making a tee time then finding two groups on the tee in front of you that showed up no tee time and were told to just go out.

They also need to send someone over to the far holes occasionally just to keep things honest and moving. You've got people blaring music driving carts like crazy (check out the 8th green), playing 3-4 balls, looping around and playing holes multiple times, etc. I've seen a ranger on No. 5 a couple times who was perfectly friendly but doesn't seem willing to address pace of play issues. It should NEVER take 2:30+ to play nine holes here during the week.

I like playing here, just not worth the aggravation lately. Clean up these issues and this is a solid course at a great price.

the fairways were burnt but this time of the year you have to expect that. we just looked for the nearest grass and put our ball there. greens were in great shape. can't beat the price and when you want to play a quick 9 yuo can usually get right on

The greens were well kept but the rest of the course was either sand or hard dirt. Barely any grass left on the fairways. Won't play here again

I’m gonna keep this simple. Imagine the desert. Then imagine your lawn after a couple days in the sun with no rain. It’s burned obvisouly. Now think of that and the desert combined but as a golf course. Wouldn’t recommend. Wanted to play here because it was cheap. Looks like I’m not the cheap one. Maybe bring a watering can to help out the course.

Waited 25 min between tee shots. 4Some in front played so slow, three groups backed up. Ranger watched the whole thing on hole 5 and said nothing. Didn’t want to play a 4 hour nine hole round so asked him if they gave rain checks. His response was “youshould have asked them to play through”. Cool. So I should have done your job. Not the response I was looking for from a ranger that sat and did nothing as the FOURTH group closes in behind. Couldn’t get refund through them or Golfnow because of 24 hour cancel policy. I live local and played it prob 40 times last year, pre-COVID, when no one went. I don’t feel this was a good way to treat a regular and won’t be going back unfortunately.

Decent affordable course tee boxes and grass needs work but that’s probably due to the lack of rain and no irrigation system

Great course. Very well maintained I was expecting a so so course and was greeted with a fun beautifully laid out course. We be back time and time again. Also I live in Springfield Area so the fact I’m willing to drive over a hour for the course should tell ya something

Very nice course. Appreciate the layout very good course for a beginner. The last to holes are beautifully layed out. The amenities could be way better however the course itself very noice!

Challenging and accommodating. Perfect course to practice your game and relax.

My husband and I went to go play what we thought we be a quick round of 9. The course is in great condition and we were looking forward to our round. We are very experienced golfers so we are aware 9 hole public courses are for all degrees of golfer.

When we first teed off we were behind a group of 4 that were on the slower side. It wasn’t a big deal but the group behind us complained and an employee came out to handle the situation. The group of 4 let us play through where we came to find a group of another 4 ahead of them who were beyond rude. They could see that there were 3 groups backed up behind them and they would continue to take their time, taking multiple practice shots, acting like they had all day, just pretty much hacking it. They spent 30 minutes in just the middle of the fairway before getting to the green. We called the pro shop to let them know and they said they would take care of it. Once we caught up to this group, they still didn’t let us play through.

At this point we finished hole 3 and an hour since we teed off had gone by. It was easily going to be a 4 hour round. My husband and I decided to go in and call it quits after that. When we went into the pro shop to tell them that we wanted to come back another time for our round, they refused to compensate us or apologize. They told us they didn’t want to talk to that group about keeping pace.

We were pretty disappointed and will probably not return.