Red Tail Golf Club

Cost $172 each, with cart. When u sign up for ttimes, site shows 2 players at $175. $688 for foresome. Total Rip.
We rode and it took 6+ hrs. All single digits. None of us will go back.

I used to love Red Tail, but the management just seems to be collectin green fees and putting as little as possible back into the course. Lots of divots, lots of landscaping in disrepair. The bunkers are terrrible, lots of overhanging edges, lots of unkept bunkers full of footprints. Uck. My other pet peeve is that this is one of the worst cart path only courses I have ever played. I would definetly avoid this course if they say cart path only. If not you will be walking alot, and the there is a lot of elevation change from the course to the cartpaths, which are mostly in the woods. Even when they are not cart path only, they enforce some crazy restrictions around the greens. For instance, you can only go within about 130 yards of the second hole on the fairway. If the conditions warranted the restrictions, I could understand. But I think its just managmeent trying to keep it a little nicer WITHOUT it cost them a penny more. Too Bad it was a great layout.

This course is not anywhere close to being worth the premium green fee they charge. The pace was overall quite slow with 9-minute tee time spacing and no policing of slow groups in front.

The conditions were far, far worse than courses that charge half their green fee. During our round we encountered:

- bunkers littered with rocks
- several bunkers entirely without rakes, with exactly the conditions you would expect given that
- leaves covering many greens
- muddy, patchy tee boxes
- zero notice whatsoever that hole 11 was closed and under repair, and no temporary or makeup hole. This should have been communicated at booking, or barring that at the very least in the pro shop checking in

I was very surprised at just how poor the conditions were given their top ratings from a decade ago. They have fallen a long, long way and I cannot recommend this course to anyone I golf with until the pace and conditions improve.

On the plus side, the design of the holes was good and scenic, the greens were true despite being somewhat recently punched and the cart service was fast and frequent.

Overall this was one of the worst value golf experiences I had in all of 2023 and I will under no circumstances be returning.

I have never left a course review before, neither good nor bad, but I felt compelled to say that it is not worth $127 when the round takes more than 5.5 hours. We played at 930 on a Sunday morning and there was no starter and no ranger. We called the proshop to ask for help with the pace of play, but nothing improved at all. The staff I did talk to were great and it's not their fault, but you cannot charge that much and then pack the tee sheet with no ranger and no starter. I cannot recommend this course and will not return.

Played on a recent non holiday Friday, everything is in great shape but with the new management it’s been slow every time I’ve come out. Thought it was just a weekend problem but they’re absolutely packing the tee sheet and then not sending rangers out. They know about the problem bc multiple groups around us have called them the last two times I’ve been. You just can’t justify an hours drive and $125 for that pace of play. If demand is that high charge more and eliminate some times!

Great golf course layout, with some interesting and quirky holes. But having significantly raised their rates, Red Tail should be ashamed at the conditions of the bunkers. They are chock-full of rocks. When I mentioned this to the nice-enough staffer after the round, he said they had received a $5M bid to fix the bunkers. I'll take $500 to go out there and pick them myself.

Plus, seriously, no water in multiple ball cleaners? And a cart girl driving recklessly around the course?

Very disappointing. I won't be back.

I've played here multiple times, incuding the first month or two it opened. When they were charging $2 for a yardage card because they hadn't gotten around to putting yardage markers on the course yet. Yes - they charged you more because it wasn't completed. That pretty much set the tone for the management of this course over the years - they just don't get it.

Put simply this is not a $100+ course. The layout is very good - challenging albeit pretty unforgiving. The conditions aren't good, but it's been a cold April so I'll kind of give it a pass, but they're still charging $100.

No GPS in the carts. Really? For $100?

Tee sheet was not full and the round took over 5 hours. That's pathetic.

Bartender was friendly, food was good.

Overall, the experience isn't even close to being worth the $. Right now The Pinehills is charging less for a dramatically better overall experience, from the time you drive onto the property to the time you tee off. Sure in peak season they are more, but they are twice the experience at less than twice the cost.

I wish it wasn't because the layout is the best around, but the course right now is a ripoff. They're living off their press.

Was looking forward to play Red Tail. What a huge disappointment. The conditions of the was awful, Tee boxes, fairways, traps, tee to green. I'm single handicap golfer, played a lot of course. The round at Red Tail ranks right up as the worse value for the money.

Have played this course a few times a year since it opened. Sometimes the conditions aren't the best, but yesterday was an all time low. An absolute dog track. Our group was rolling balls in the fairway to find grass to hit off. Tee boxes haven't been mowed in many days and are patchy and thin. Of course it took just over 5 hours as there was no starter, no rangers to push people along. Terrible experience. Wouldn't go back if it was free, which is a shame as it has an unbelievable layout.

I typically play all over western Mass and have I'd heard good things about this course and wanted to try it.

While Red Tail is among the most expensive courses we've played, the conditions are way below average for the area, pace of play is absolutely horrendous with groups packed too close together, there is no driving range and overall the experience was lousy.

I will never go back, and I would tell anyone who asked that there are better, cheaper courses all over the surrounding area.

Well, I figured out why pace of play is so slow. Played here again after vowing not to return from earlier this year where we had a 5+ hour round. The course is running 9 minutes between tee times. I know many of us have been complaining about the lack of rangers. But you can have all the rangers you want, and it won’t matter if you are stacking the course on weekends with 9 minute intervals between tee times. To management, just make it 10-11 minutes, and so what, you lose maybe 1 4some for the day? But you get people like me coming back because we can get home. And not be 3 deep waiting on the 10th hole.

I’ll start off by saying this course has been one of my favorite Massachusetts golf Courses for the past several years, but recently management and pace has been extremely poor. I played here on Saturday 7/31 and had an early afternoon tee time. This ended up being close to a 6 hour round of golf. For $115 you would think they would put a ranger out on the course to maintain pace, it doesn’t seem like too much to ask when you’re paying top dollar for a public round. This isn’t the first time this has happened this season. There wasn’t 1 ranger in sight and tees were backed up starting on hole 6. Red tail - if I have one piece of advice, please put a ranger or two out on the course for weekend rounds where you are charging this amount of money. It’s unprofessional and has severely hindered my past few experiences here to the point where I will no longer recommend the course to friends and family. Hope this review is seen and course management is adjusted.

I play here a few times a year as it's one of my favorites in the area. The conditions were decent, could be better. The layout and playability of this course keep me coming back. But we played at noon on a Friday and it took 5:40 to finish. Can't have a round over 5 hours when your paying these fees. Never saw a ranger the entire day. There were multiple groups on a tee box coming down the stretch. That never happened before here. Hire a couple rangers and keep people moving. Also, driving range is under construction - may be better to wait and play when that's completed. For some reason, all groups start on 10 which sucks (finishing on 18 is a gem).

My brother and I flew in from Texas to catch a game at Fenway. Chose Red Tail based on website and was not disappointed. This a beautiful golf course with breathtaking views and wonderfully laid out holes. The General Manager, Pete, was very helpful, professional yet personable. The only hiccup was the grill not being open but given the pandemic and its effect, totally understandable. A truly enjoyable experience.

This was my first time playing Red Tail but even with it being among the higher-priced public courses near me, I'll be back for seconds for sure.

The course layout is fantastic. Elevated tees and gorgeous fairway shapes greet you at nearly every hole. The Brian Silva design strikes an impressive balance of not being overly deceptive and tricked up for first-time players while offering plenty of replay value with different angles, options, and tee boxes that make subsequent rounds play very differently.

Looking at the most recent reviews it appears Red Tail has struggled with keeping the course conditions up to the level demanded by the price. I paid $80 for the round and it's true the course conditions aren't quite as good as, say, Butterbrook, but there were clear signs that the course is addressing those issues with freshly laid sod on many holes and a few ground-under-repair spots.

The greens were still recovering from aeration, another 2 weeks is likely needed before they return to normal service. I had no complaints with the tee boxes, rough, or bunkers which were all in fine shape for this time of year.

Having an early-morning tee time meant I didn't see much of the staff but those I did encounter were pleasant and the maintenance crew do all they can to not interfere.

I'm sure the greens fees will creep back up over $100 as the course conditions reach their prime. Hopefully this year those conditions will continue to be worth the price of admission.

Course layout has been reviewed many times, pretty good and interesting holes. Not extra forgiving but require some risk/reward thinking.

My main issue with this course is the value. To my mind what they charge compared to other competitors in the area is already higher than average, but recent example made it worse. Their current rates for an off season weekday rate is around $75, but when you turn up at the pro shop you have to pay extra $12 if you want to ride single in a cart. I thought we have a health advisory guidance in place that says only 2 of the same household (or people comfortable getting into the same cart) can do so? If it’s not for Covid I’d happily share a cart with anyone, but with Covid?

$12 isnt a lot of money but nothing is made clear at the point of booking - just a piece of paper telling you $12 extra at the time of checking in.

I doubt the carts are entirely cleaned out, maybe just hosed down with water etc. When i went to pick a cart up i saw the one next to mine had some leftovers in the cart (these carts are lined up in the clean cart area)

Overall still had a great day golfing (there are patches on the course which suffered from the summer we had), but not sure the extra fee for single rider is warranted in this precarious health situation.

Have been playing Red Tail for over 12 years, and it's always been a great go-to destination for great golf. The layout is fun and challenging, with great views. And it's usually in great condition. But this year has been awful. The fairways have open patches all over...not sure if this is drought or some disease, but it's not worthy of a $100+ course. But worse, the tee boxes are terrible. Beer cans and litter are all over the course near the tee boxes. And why hasn't the grass range been open all year? So many other nearby courses are in much better shape and cheaper. Red Tail, you need to severely lower your prices. Just hoping you don't head down the path of Stow Acres into irrelevance.

My son brought me here for my birthday as he had played it before and was very excited to get me on the course.The design and layout was fun and interesting, The greens were in good condition.
That being said, paying over 112$/person certainly raised my expectations of the course's amenities and condition.
It started out bad when we went to place our own clubs on the carts (although there was two employees standing their talking to one another) we noticed the carts were really quite dirty. We wiped them down ourselves and put our clubs on. When checking the divot mix that is on the cart most of them were either empty or had no scoop to use what mix there was.The fairways were in extremely rough shape, dead stretches of grass were frequent, greatly impacting lies and the appearance of the holes. Similar to the fairways, the tee boxes were nearly all beaten up to death, demonstrating a frustrating theme of poor maintenance..
Needless to say, after the round my son was quite embarrassed and couldn't believe the conditions had deteriorated from his previous play
I have played recently at Crumpin Fox, The Ranch and Lake of Isles and all were less money and in much better shape.
I would not recommend visiting Red Tail GC. until they figure out their issues and or price it according to conditions

Red Tail GC was a bit of a puzzle. Before I go into any criticisms, I definitely want to first highlight the course's strengths. The design and layout was fun and interesting, providing variety that also used the Western MA environment well. The greens were in near-perfect condition. There were multiple unique and memorable holes that provided a high risk - high reward challenge, while also creating safer options.
That being said, paying over 100$/person certainly raised our expectations of the course's amenities and condition. The fairways were in extremely rough shape, likely due to the lack of rain recently. Deformed and dead stretches of grass were frequent, greatly impacting lies and the appearance. It would often take away from our ability to appreciate the course. The pace of play was abysmal, and significantly disappointing for a highly rated course. We waited 15-20 minutes on each hole due to backups in groups ahead of us, and did not encounter any rangers or staff that were monitoring the progress. Similar to the fairways, the tee boxes were nearly all beaten up to death, demonstrating a frustrating theme of poor maintenance and devotion to course ettiequte.
All in all, we enjoyed ourselves and shot well, however certainly left with a sour taste due to the unavoidable downsides. Until the maintenance improves, we likely won't be returning. I would not recommend spending as much as we did, however hopefully this was a rare experience for Red Tail GC.

This course is a fantastic challenging course with beautiful views and always in great condition. Various tees allow users of all levels to compete. The staff is friendly and takes care of their customers. The pace of play is adequate and there is plenty of risk/reward opportunities. You won't be disappointed.