Newton Commonwealth Golf Course — Restaurant in Newton

First, NCGC is a well-maintained course, short—but the many slopes and dynamic greens make it interesting, and reasonably priced especially for its central location. The reason that I’m rating this course as two-stars is its management, in particular, concerning safety. I’ll provide more details below, but the main take-away is across two rounds, a group behind us hit into our group (twice on a par 3 while we were on the green, the other time on the reachable par-4 6th before we were on the green), and the response from the ranger and/or clubhouse was negligible, and frankly, negligent.

In the first case, I wrote an email later to the manager describing what happened and asking that league members be reminded not to tee off on a par 3 if the group ahead is still on the hole (obvious, I thought, but the group behind us did this on both par 3 holes 7 and 9). Instead, the response I received was an email to our league about pace-of-play and tee times(?) That was in May. In the second case just this week (not in league), my colleague was seriously hurt by another player when she was hit by a 200+ yard drive. In this instance, we called the clubhouse, the ranger came out, talked to the group behind us, who acknowledged that they hit us but did not apologize. The ranger drove the injured player and me from the hole to the parking lot. An incident report was filed, but no other action was taken. It was accepted, in both cases, that the players were beginners unfamiliar with etiquette (despite being in a league, etc) or hit once-and-a-lifetime shots.

I have played golf for over twenty years, with people of a variety of skill levels and knowledge of the game and etiquette. I’m not writing this negative review because people hit into our groups—sometimes that happens, you can’t see the group ahead, you hit a wayward shot. In fact, over 14 rounds this season, it’s accidentally happened 5-6 times, maybe more. Not a big deal. Most people apologize, but not always, it’s ok. But these instances were egregious. They were instances where the group behind us hit into us, purposefully, off the tee, as we were in plain sight, within 120-220 yards.

No serious action was taken—they weren’t removed from the course, anything. No policy was implemented (and before writing this review, I wrote directly to course management first to ask). Their answer to my colleague: we can’t control bad behavior. Their answer to my email: they’ll look into signage to ask people to use commonsense. I’m sorry, but that is insufficient.

I’ve played at hundreds of courses, mostly public, and I’ve never encountered player behavior like this. My sense is that it’s because other courses won’t tolerate this kind of behavior. But at NCGC, you’ll see posted throughout the course all manner of signs about pace of play and your financial responsibility should you damage a car or house off the tee. I’m not certain why the management is holding players responsible for harming property but not people.

I really went back and forth about writing such a long review, but ultimately decided it would be best—especially now after seeing other reviews about the same types of occurrences. I’m writing this review after corresponding first with course management. While they were apologetic, ultimately, they have done nothing to directly address concerns about safety. I can’t stop thinking about what would have happened had my colleague been hit in the head or in the back. I hope things improve. I hope to be able to continue to play at the course—the course itself is nice in a lot of ways—but just to do so with the knowledge that the clubhouse and rangers will not seriously respond if the group behind you hits into your group off the tee on a par 3, or while you’re in plain sight...

This afternoon I went to play a round of 18 at the Newton Commonwealth Golf Course, when I arrived I paid $54 for 18 holes and a cart. As I am getting ready to tee off I am approached by 2 employees, and in a very condescending tone one of the employees asks me “Do you want to come in and pay?” In which I responded “and what makes you think I didn’t?”

I showed the employee my receipt and he went on his way. No apology or acknowledgement of his mistake. I was appalled by the question and the manner in which this employee approached me and conducted himself. As a Newton resident and someone who has been golfing at the course for years, that experience left a really bad taste. That employee is a poor representation of the course.

Response from the owner 6 hours ago Ouch - I will address this today Jimmy. That is not the kind of customer service we stand by and I am very surprised and disappointed. Did you at least have a good round and enjoy the beautiful weather? Jay Miller - Director of Golf Course Operations

It was hard for me to enjoy anything for the rest of my time at the course after being received in that manner. I think what you need to do Mr. Miller, is explain to some of the guys working there that they aren’t working at some private country club where they can afford to be as prejudice and non-inclusive as they want to be. When the word “public” is present in golf course its a different ball game.

Regardless, if that was the case or not, you have a much bigger problem there within itself if you have employees working there that think that is the way you go about speaking to anyone, let alone...

Pretty disappointed. Very good shape for a municipal golf course. Came here a few years ago and had a great time, but I guess that only extends to the first 9 holes. We showed up on time, and got moved to the back 9 because they were way behind. That’s fine. Except for the fact that for one of the holes on the back nine does not allow drivers for some odd reason despite having nets up. 3 holes later there’s a hole that warns you that you essentially aren’t allowed to play golf or else they’ll sue you, because there’s no nets to cover the cliff you shoot off of. The hole after that has a rubber turf mat, which was pretty terrible to say the least. On this hole we were then told that we needed to play “ready to play golf” and speed up, according to the pro shop. Pretty ridiculous considering that we were four golfers on foot, and there was only two people behind us on carts. I genuinely can assure that we were playing at above standard pace, and we literally timed our golf to be sure of this. The guys behind us proceeded to drive behind us, almost hitting us more than once. I’m giving three stars because the guys at the club house were helpful and I’m trusting them that they talked to the golfers behind us, and the course shouldn’t bear the weight of the absolutely incompetent and ridiculous golfers behind us. My hopes is that this was an anomaly for the course, but the simple fact is the back nine is just not at the quality of...