Shining Rock Golf Club – 91 Clubhouse Ln. Northbridge, MA 01534
Rule #1 about Shining Rock: Avoid being added to their email list by any and all costs. I have received at least 4 separate emails that they have sent to me ten times apiece, all identical to one another. There are emails sent in the fall that still indicate it’s the summer.
Rule #2 about Shining Rock: Avoid Ranger Rick by all costs. (Rick’s not his actual name, but go with the flow.) He’s an older gentleman, and if you either A) Look under 30 years old or, B) Look like you have no clue what the fuck you’re doing, he will haunt you until the 9th hole (thankfully, I’ve never seen him once on the back nine, and I’ve also never seen him on a weekday after 2:00pm).
He will walk up to the tee box with you on the first hole to help you strategize your shot. He will ride around on a cart and stare at you like you just pulled your pants down and took a shit in the middle of the green. If you look incompetent, he will fuck with you.
Rule #3 about Shining Rock: Enjoy the experience.
This is an incredible course, and one of very few new courses in New England. The area generally is seen as unprofitable because golf courses can’t be open year-round, so this place deserves your business if not only for that reason – but it deserves your business even more because it’s as unique of a visual challenge as you’ll ever have.
On holes two, four, five, six, eleven, and twelve, you must clear 150+ yard obstacles to land your shot somewhere playable. They’re all legitimate ravines. Duffing the ball will not result in an enjoyable experience at Shining Rock unless you solely enjoy the visual aesthetic of golf courses and like to drink Budweisers and smoke bowls with your squad.
The third hole is a masterpiece of modern golf design – a Par-5 where you have no shot of reaching the green in two without a 260-yard drive. It’s the number one handicap hole on the course and is the ultimate place for a long hitter with a high handicap to win a hole in match play. It’s two-faced, though: if you screw up, you’re screwed.
The same goes for the fourth hole, not quite a masterpiece of design but surely a test of testosterone at the very least. If you’re a long hitter, you can hit the green in one with a solid 260-300 yard drive uphill and over trees. If your short game is your saving grace and you can’t drive the ball 230 yards, frankly, you’re screwed, and will be forced to drop in a drop area that plays about 100 yards to the green, which isn’t half bad for a third shot.
The fifth hole at Shining Rock Golf Club, a long Par-3 with a big green and trouble to the left and right.
The rest of the front nine is weird. The fifth hole (pictured above) is arguably the hardest hole on the course – a Par-3 that plays 200-250 yards for the men. If you’re playing the tips without a three wood or a two hybrid, you’re going to have to hit driver unless you’re comfortable hitting an iron and a wedge to reach a Par-3 green (I’m not, which is why I say).
Six is goofy but easy, as is seven, and the eighth hole – at least compared to the others on the front nine – seems like a throwaway, as it’s a straightaway Par-3 with no obstacles and a gigantic green. Nine is a tough but fair ending hole for the front nine, which is plays to a Par of 35, before you get to the back.
Ten and eleven are almost the exact same hole – short and slightly left Par-4s, and they’re followed by the second easiest Par-3 on the course, but frankly these are basically the three easiest holes on the back nine.
Supposedly the easiest of the three Par-5s on the back is hole number thirteen, a relatively short Par-5 in terms of distance to the hole, but you’re forced to clear a 200-yard ravine to even have a shot at the fairway. Despite the fact that it’s the shortest Par-5 on the course, it’s the most intimidating because it plays so much uphill with a “shining” rock abutting the right hand side of the fairway. I’ve tried multiple times to reach the green in two after hitting 300+ yard drives with no luck, as the fairway becomes more narrow as you come closer to the green.
Fourteen and fifteen are a nice break before the MONSTER, 600-yard Par-5 sixteenth, where without a 350 yard drive you can’t even see the green, never mind hit it. To combat it’s length, the fairway is open up until the 100-yard marker, which gives room for mistakes before you reach a green with woods to the right and left of it that provides little – if any – room for error.
If you’ve got your game figured out by the seventeenth hole, this is where you can really lower your score. Oftentimes, the wind will be with you when teeing off at, so it provides even moderate drivers the chance to reach the green in one, as the hole plays between 280-310 yards straightaway and flat. The green’s protected by bunkers, but it’s big and flat enough to flop a bunker shot out onto.
Eighteen would be an easy hole if there weren’t a pond to the right of the green that’ll even make big hitters think twice before trying to get there in two on this moderately long Par-5 where you are forced to aim at (and clear) a rock placed directly 50 yards in front of you off the tee into a blind fairway off the tee Be sure to club up two clubs on your approach shot if the pin is in the back and you want a makeable putt for eagle or birdie.
Best Hole? Hole number three plays as intimidating as any moderate-length Par-5, and is as true and fair as any risk/reward hole you’ll play anywhere, but one bad approach shot will put you in a perpetually bad position. If you’re further than 220 yards away from the green, do yourself a favor and lay up to the 150; you’ll thank me later. (9/10)
Toughest Hole? In contention for the award for Stupidest Hole at Shining Rock (but instead earning the award for toughest because, visually, it’s impeccable) is the fifth hole, a 240-yard Par-3 from the tips with a two tiered green and an incredibly large, dynamite-molded rock to the right of the green, kicking any tee shot that heads its way any which way it wishes. (9/10)
Easiest Hole? The seventeenth hole has to be the easiest because it’s at the end of the course, and if you have any kind of rhythm going at that time it should be an easy par because it’s short and the green is relatively flat. It’s also a risk/reward hole in its own way. (9/10)
The fourth hole at Shining Rock Golf Club – a short Par-4 where you hit must over a 200-yard ravine.
Stupidest Hole? On any given day, the sub-300 yard fourth hole can be your best friend or your worst enemy, and this is why it’s stupid. I would not be surprised to see someone get a hole in one here or score a 10 or higher after hitting their first and dropped second shots out of bounds, which is entirely possible on any given day. (6/10)
Clubhouse? It’s nice, but it’s incredibly small considering it also has a restaurant in it, but it’s clean, well-maintained, and well-stocked (unless you need to buy a set of clubs). (7/10)
Staff? Everyone’s been good to me here, but that one starter/ranger guy that I mentioned earlier is annoying. (7/10)
Greens? The greens are great: tough, well-maintained and true to the roll, but beware – they seem to aerate the front nine and back nine at different times in the fall, so sometimes they can differentiate in speed. (8/10)
Fairways? These are pro fairways. They’re not meant for someone who has trouble controlling their ball flight. There’re a lot of divots sometimes, but that’s only because it’s a public course. (9/10)
Rough? This rough isn’t especially tough, but it’s grass and it’s cleanly cut, and that’s all you can really ask. Shining Rock compensates for the length of its holes and dips in its greens by making the rough playable. (9/10)
Tee Boxes? Five to choose from – and they’re well groomed. (10/10)
Final Score: 83/100
Golf New England 