Red Tail Golf Club

it’s a nice course and layout but the customer service is terrible. They don’t tell you when you book a tee time that they’re aerating, and actually aerated in a 40 yard circle around the greens today while we were playing — with the plugs everywhere it made play around the green near impossible. When we talked with them about this after the round, they were anything but apologetic. Same happened a few years back when they didn’t tell us about aeration. For the price they charge, a change in attitude would be a very good thing for them. They eventually offered us a $ 15 coupon off a future round, but neglected to mention it was off a full price round. since we’re seniors, and get a senior rate, using the coupon would actually cost us more than the senior rate! Caveat emptor — in my group’s opinion, off the list.

Course is in fantastic shape. The greens and fairways are immaculate and the course is challenging.
The administration of the course is J.V. though. When you’re paying $ 100/​round you shouldn’t have issues like no one being at the turn to take a sandwich order and the pro shop taking a personal call when you need to check in for a tee time. No cart girl was also annoying.

Worst staff ever, had issues from the start in the clubhouse, never been talked to like that in a golf establishment in my life. Golfed a holiday monday, surpassed the 5 hour point by hole 15. Despite having no tee times available till 130, and it being 93 degrees and humid, did not see 1 cart girl the whole round.
Payed $ 99 even though we had a «any-​day» groupon, which of course when you read the fine print they decide that they will re-​define any-​day to mean mon-​wed OR thur-​sun and monday holidays after 12. Wish they told me that when I booked the tee time and said I would be using my «any-​day» groupon, making it absolutely worthless. They gave me the money I paid for the groupon off the round, but I still had to pay the full price rather then my discounted groupon rate. I was told to just pay the whole price now and come back and use my groupon another time. I laughed in the guys face, I wouldn’t comeback here for $ 20. Shaker Hills and Butter Brook are closer to me and much nicer, and do not need to run groupons as they get more then enough play on their own.
Do yourself a favor, avoid Red Tail, as I feel the shape it was in, especially the greens, it would be overpriced at $ 50. So many nicer courses in the area for a fraction of the cost, and they know how to treat their customers

I have no idea why Red Tail commands top-​tier pricing.
— Hard synthetic mats on driving range
— Tees not mowed properly and most have dirt patches
— Greens not mowed or rolled or something — so they were extremely slow and bumpy. ok for a mini but not for $ 100.
— 2 hours 45 min to play 9 holes. I walked off the course in frustration after 9.
— No ranger anywhere to speed up play (waited on every single tee and approach shot)
— No drink cart on a Sat afternoon.
— $$$
I will not be back. Too bad because it’s a nice piece of land. Just seems mismanaged and resting on laurels from when they first opened.

The course is in great condition this year as they prepare for the MGA Amateur championship in August… but with any public course; if the golfers aren’t picking up/​fixing divots/​ball marks etc, ANY course is going to do downhill without constant maintenance. Thankfully Red Tail has committed to keeping the course as best as can be. The maintenance crew are fixing almost 20 ball marks on every green in the morning (sad that they have to), they’ve added in hundreds of tons of sand, cut back many trouble areas and allowing the fescue to grow all while keeping the course green. With the lack of rain that we’ve had in March/​April/​May, many courses are in rough shape. This year is the best the course has looked in the last 3 years (since I first played it).
The course is a 136 slope from the tips, if you’re giving bad reviews because you are 3 putting holes, then play better.
It’s a challenging course.
Layout is awesome.
Green roll fast
Get ready to have long putts if you miss your approach shot.
Enjoy the gorgeous views.
Grab a beer and the buffalo chicken wrap with onion petals… you won’t be sorry.

Seemed like we had the place mostly to ourselves but there’s a reason why. We were passing through town and had carved out the afternoon for a round. The day turned out surprisingly chilly with temps in the 40s and a fairly stiff wind. We were here though and played as planned. At first I thought it might have been a mistake when the snow flurries started flying on the second hole.
The course is quite beautiful even in early spring before the trees had filled in. There’s plenty of elevation change and a good selection of tees to choose from. Some tees were moved around due to course work so at times we were hitting from the tips and other times from the ladies. I found the course challenging but fair. I scraped together a few pars including the stunning par 5 18^th hole that tempts a good drive to try for the small water protected green in two.
I was a bit surprised that they have electric carts with some of the steep hills on the course but they held up fine. There were free balls on the range to warm up but I hate wasting my few good swings there.
The clubhouse was cozy especially with the fireplace to thaw us out. Our server was super nice and took very good care of us. We sampled the usual wings and fries things like onion petals and everything was hot and fresh.

I thought the greens were in great shape. In the Fall, the course is very pretty. It’s a bit of a drive from the South Shore, but we got a $ 60 rate for the afternoon so it was worth the drive. The course layout is interesting. I would go back. Afterward, we grabbed a bite and the food was fine.

Just played Red Tail for the first time. I’m a bit of a golf snob and have played many public courses in the Boston area. Generally, I have been disappointed with the quality and cost of golf in this area. Red Tail is pretty far outside Boston (con) and expensive ($ 99, another con), but relative to the competition, the fantastic layout, and the good balance of challenge with ease of play, I found it to be really rewarding. Just played (early October) and the conditions were really good — not perfect, but i don’t expect every tee box to be in absolutely great shape. Greens are a challenge, but were also in good shape and demanded shot making. I will definitely play here again. Can’t comment on some of the other reviews whereby management was criticized, but the course alone is a nice gem in our area.

This place is a train wreck. Management can’t seem to do anything right. They laid-​off many of their grounds crew in an attempt to cut costs. As result the course is suffering, made apparent by the failing fairways and greens. The tee boxes are fast becoming as bare as bunkers. Poor treatment of even the club members; when the management tried to cap the number of rounds a full paying member could play, 48 members resigned their memberships. Is it any wonder the course is losing money? How competently run can this place be?

Greens are awful — Ponkapoag quality. Red Tail charging regular rates for these conditions is disgusting. For the money, it’s atrocious. I won’t be back until I know they’ve addressed this.
Great layout. Great in the past. Great potential.
Roll and cut the greens and it’s a 4 star course. Touch up the tees, fairways and edge areas and it can be 5 stars.

As a traveling salesman I get the opportunity to play a lot of different public courses all over the country and Red Tail is always one of my favorites, the layout is just fantastic; elevation changes, risk/​reward options and always a bail-​out area near their big undulating greens which are always lightning quick; however due to a pretty harsh winter in New England it looks like Red Tail took it on the chin a bit.
Green fees were reduced to $ 59 due to the recent aeration of the greens, so it was a great deal for a world class public course.

Golfed there this morning, real early. Like to play fast and it worked out nice. 3 ½ hr round. I play here about 15 times a year but think the staffs arrogance gets the better of them sometimes. This morning, a maintenance worker followed us for 15+ holes, watering all the greens and fairways as we teed off and played each hole. 15 holes! Crazy. I worked as a course maintenance guy in hs and knew then that you work backwards… hole 18, 17, 16, etc. with the purpose of not creating a miserable golf experience for one group. Check there, it was miserable. I almost asked for my money back but didn’t need the weekend aggravation. Greens were slow and in decent shape. Nice layout, but I’m using the international and pinehills moving forward. $ 100 for an aggravating morning takes red tail off the list for awhile.

three stars BUT…
look, this place would be a slam dunk five star course if they could get their conditions in shape. or if it cost $ 50 instead of $ 100. you can throw all the bag drop guys and free range balls in the world at me. save it. use the money on your greens.
i’m still giving it three stars because the layout is just awesome. it’s really that good. so if you can get out there on a discounted rate (or on someone else’s nickel) it’s still worth seeing. lots of thought off the tees, lots of trouble lurking. rolling fairways mean you might end up with a trickier lie than you had anticipated. it’s tough, but fair. really well designed, i think.
but yeah, it’s rough around the edges right now. bad patches that replaced sod didn’t take. pock marked greens — and one that just belonged to the ants. some soft teeboxes. well, you get the idea. mostly stuff that wouldn’t phase you too much on a course that cost half as much, put if i’m paying a premium price, i expect pristine conditions. for your own sake, red tail, get it together.

The layout of this course is one of the best in Metro West. But the pace of play is one of the worst in the area. Each time I’ve played, it’s been a 6 hour round.
For the money they charge, you’d think they could afford a marshall or two.
If you’re going to spend this kind of money, play the International in Bolton instead.

I only wish I had read the Unilocal reviews prior to heading out to Red Tail today with 3 buddies. We paid $ 99 for 18 holes on a weekday! While it included carts & range balls, the course was in terrible shape and paying $ 99 for this course represents one of the worst values around.
The fairways were full of divots, the greens were furry, the traps were hard packed & had not seen a rake in days, and the waste bunkers looked like there had just been a monsoon. My eyes are still smarting from all the dust that was kicked up on the gravel cart paths. Our cart was clearly several years old and had a parking brake that would not work — a real pain on a hilly course like Red Tail. On top of that, they were running sprinklers on multiple holes but there was no one shutting them on/​off as we played through — we just had to dodge the spray.
I played this course several times a few years ago and love the layout. It used to be exquisitely maintained and was a real gem but I can not believe how badly they have let this course deteriorate. If you can get a deal on Groupon or a golf website, give it a try but you’d be crazy to pay $ 99 for this and I will not be going back until I hear from people that they have turned it around which, at this point, would clearly be a multi-​year endeavor.

This course has gone downhill fast. My buddies and I used to play it routinely. Went back there this last weekend for a late afternoon round and we were amazed at how bumpy and slow the greens were. The greens used to be outstanding.
To add insult to injury, once we reached the 12^th hole we ran in to 4 groups all bunched up on the same hole. Unbelievable!!! It was clear to all of us that the pro shop was putting golfers out on the back nine and just didn’t give a rats ass about the players already on the course trying to get the round in before dark. When we called to ask what was going on we were met with a «sorry, there’s no nothing we can do… and the rangers have all gone home.» Wrong answer Red Tail. Wrong answer.
It’s a pitiful shame to wreck what was once a GREAT course with shoddy upkeep and even shoddier staff. You won’t be seeing my group back… ever. 5+ hours? Up yours…

What an awful experience we had this weekend. I used to really like this course … and now will only play it when they reduce the rates from obscenely high to just very high. For a high priced course, no GPS on the carts, a very limited driving range, and the worst is greedy course management (asst. pro, etc.) that tried to maximize their cash intake at the expense of the satisfaction of their paying golfers!
After a frost delay last weekend (totally understandable of course), they put us out there in a shotgun style start (again, totally understandable). With 2 groups on each tee … it takes 3 – 4 holes to spread out a little and not be waiting on every shot. After 4 holes we were finally at a good spacing … they inserted another foursome in between so we were AGAIN waiting on every shot … then after another more holes of waiting on every shot we started to space out … then ANOTHER foursome was inserted in front of us (and they had paid a REDUCED greens fee as to boot). We finally finished in just over 6 hours!!!
Awful experience … and when i brought this to the Asst Pro’s attention, he said «they did they best they could» … not ‘very sorry’, ‘what can i do’ … or even ‘can i buy your group a drink’? or ‘discount for next year’ greens fees? nothing … might be a long time before i bring our group back there — there are a lot of nice courses around these days with better service, prices and course features.

Greens are in rough shape. Even when in good shape the greens are ridiculous with undulations. You are not rewarded for a GIR. Doesn’t seem worth the price for the conditions.