Tour of Greater Boston

[CapeCodGolf]

I'm interested in playing a greater variety of local Boston / New England golf courses. I'd also like to do some competitive events - handicapped.

 

Anyone here a member of the Tour of Greater Boston or similar groups?

 

What has been your experience?

 

https://www.golfthetour.com/index.php

[Slippin_Jimmy]

I joined the Tour of Greater Boston mid-season last year.  I played in the MA Public Links Tournament last July and after that experience I really wanted to join a competitive league.

 

I played in about 5-6 tournaments last year and felt it was well worth it.  Will be re-joining this year.  The membership fee covers your handicap services, and then you can pick and choose what events you play in.  Typically TGB plays a private course on Mondays and a public on the weekend.  Members play about 6-10 events a season on average.  They'll post your scores for you after every event.

 

They book some really good places.  Honestly, the membership was worth it just for playing Myopia Hunt alone.  I never would have gotten within a mile of that place any other way.  They also usually get some other really good privates from my experience.  Mostly good people too, handicaps range from a few plus players to the high 20s, and everything in between.

 

DM me anytime if you have any questions.  If you decide to join, they have a thing where we'll both get a $20 credit if I refer you, would be happy to do that.

[CapeCodGolf]

19 minutes ago, Slippin_Jimmy said:

I joined the Tour of Greater Boston mid-season last year.  I played in the MA Public Links Tournament last July and after that experience I really wanted to join a competitive league.

 

I played in about 5-6 tournaments last year and felt it was well worth it.  Will be re-joining this year.  The membership fee covers your handicap services, and then you can pick and choose what events you play in.  Typically TGB plays a private course on Mondays and a public on the weekend.  Members play about 6-10 events a season on average.  They'll post your scores for you after every event.

 

They book some really good places.  Honestly, the membership was worth it just for playing Myopia Hunt alone.  I never would have gotten within a mile of that place any other way.  They also usually get some other really good privates from my experience.  Mostly good people too, handicaps range from a few plus players to the high 20s, and everything in between.

 

DM me anytime if you have any questions.  If you decide to join, they have a thing where we'll both get a $20 credit if I refer you, would be happy to do that.

 

Thanks for the great information. I'm going to join somewhere because it looks like a great idea to play some nice clubs with friendly competition. Did you look at any other options like The New England Series? I remember something like BAGS in the past but not sure if they are still active. 

 

https://www.bluegolf.com/amateur/programs/neat/index.html

[Slippin_Jimmy]

I've heard good things about the New England Series but didn't look into it last year.  I'm debating joining both this year.  Definitely doing TGB again.  NES has a higher membership fee ($175 to $130, I believe) and from what I have heard they are pretty similar.  The positive that I heard about NES is that they typically try to play with threesomes instead of foursomes for pace of play.

 

TGB has many pace of play rules and in my experience they do a nice job policing it, but you do get the occasional round where it can be a bit slow.  Using Myopia as an example again: I played with 3 double digit caps that day, and I'm not exactly Mickelson myself here, but playing the ball down at a course like Myopia with wind/fescue/etc., it can make for occasional slow play.

[Slippin_Jimmy]

Perhaps the biggest thing is the Mondays.  If your schedule allows you to play on the occasional Monday, then the leagues (TGB and/or NES) are a no-brainer.  But if you can't ever play on a Monday it's a different story altogether.

[crcraig]

I played on the Tour last year as well.  If you can't play any of the weekday events, it comes down to how much you value playing competitive, stroke-play, weekend golf on courses you could access yourself already.  If you can play weekdays, now you've gained access to a couple dozen private clubs that you probably couldn't get on otherwise, and you also get the competition.

 

It's a well-run organization with responsive owners.  The pace-of-play policy is described on the web site, and it's definitely enforced.  The caveat is that on those weekend tournaments, we're at the mercy of the general public course pace of play of the golfers that go out before us.  I've played rounds in 3:45 during the week, and I've played 5 hour rounds on the weekend.  Typical private/public dichotomy.

 

[CapeCodGolf]

15 hours ago, Slippin_Jimmy said:

Perhaps the biggest thing is the Mondays.  If your schedule allows you to play on the occasional Monday, then the leagues (TGB and/or NES) are a no-brainer.  But if you can't ever play on a Monday it's a different story altogether.

 

9 hours ago, crcraig said:

I played on the Tour last year as well.  If you can't play any of the weekday events, it comes down to how much you value playing competitive, stroke-play, weekend golf on courses you could access yourself already.  If you can play weekdays, now you've gained access to a couple dozen private clubs that you probably couldn't get on otherwise, and you also get the competition.

 

You both make excellent points about having the flexibility of playing on Monday's to get the biggest benefit to joining the tour. My weekend rounds are usually reserved for playing a friendly Nassau with a beer or 2. But I think I'll join for the ability to play some private courses and tap into some friendly competition.