Regardless, I\u2019m so distracted that I did not notice the practice green just next to the building. This was a good thing. <\/p>\n
2. It costs $19 to play nine holes at Leo J. I pay $30 for all 18, as does my playing partner for the day, my friend Mark Horgan. If you are unfamiliar with golf pricing, this is like looking at an old photo of a gas station where the sign says a gallon costs 89 cents.<\/p>\n
Inside the clubhouse, the guy who checks us in has just finished smoking a cigarette. He tells us his life story. When I tell him I\u2019m a reporter investigating America\u2019s alleged worst golf course, he says he does not want his name in the article. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m betraying him by pointing out his observation that the course is priced accurately. <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AWRJKVDGTNDUJJU6XVQRXBWOAM.jpg\")
The green on the first hole at the Leo J. Martin Memorial Golf Course with the driving range in the background.Billy Baker\/Globe staff<\/p>\n
3. The first tee is not the ugliest I\u2019ve hit from. Typically, the opening hole is all about getting away from the busiest part of the course, nearest the road, and heading off into the property. At Leo J., it\u2019s a 325-yard par 4 with Park Avenue in Weston on the left and the big net surrounding the driving range on the right. The first hole and the driving range hit up the same hill, which in the winter is used for cross-country skiing and sledding.<\/p>\n
4. The driving range makes more money than the course, but the course still makes money. These facts are repeated to me by each of the passionate regulars I meet. These golfers are angry about several things, but their biggest gripe is that any profits from DCR facilities go into the state general fund, and not back into maintaining the golf course. I\u2019ll learn about the other things they are angry about soon enough. <\/p>\n
5. My tee shot lands in the short rough on the left side of the fairway, leaving about 100 yards to the flag, slightly uphill. I smash a wedge that, strangely, seems to go exactly where I intend. It lands a few feet from the hole and does not move. It lands like it got stuck.<\/p>\n
6. What I see when I get up the hill deserves awe and admiration. It\u2019s not fair to call it a green\u2009\u2014\u2009that is not its primary color. It\u2019s brown, with quite a bit of desert thrown in. I suspect it has mange. It has more rocks than blades of grass. You cannot make a worse green. You could only hope to tie.<\/p>\n
![\"Golfer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MOQNN2KYJFBSTDG4JYE5ZH7O5Y.jpg\")
Michael Parkin for The Boston Globe<\/p>\n
7. The MyGolfSpy ranking was based on Google reviews, and those are spectacularly bad for Leo J. It\u2019s worth pointing out that Massholes<\/a> are extraordinarily gifted at complaining, which might have something to do with the fact that three Bay State courses made the list of the 10 worst, including the only other state-run course, Ponkapoag Golf Course <\/a>in Canton (fifth worst), as well as Norwood Country Club<\/a> (third worst).<\/p>\n 8. Putting, in the traditional sense, does not work at Leo J. Where you aim the ball and how hard you hit it are only the beginning of the equation, because both are moot as soon as you hit your first obstacle. And you\u2019re going to hit several.<\/p>\n I think I can power over them with my first putt, but it rolls well past the hole, and as I walk to my second, even longer putt, I can see how it does work at Leo J., which is not uninteresting. Where a typical green asks you to judge how a ball will behave on a slope, here you must judge how it\u2019s going to behave after it hits a clump of crabgrass, then a rock, then crosses a small stretch of the Australian Outback.<\/p>\n 9. I was wrong: The second green somehow manages to be worse than the first, but it looks like the South Lawn of the White House compared with number three. This hole is not just bad; it\u2019s disappointing.<\/p>\n I say this because it\u2019s actually interesting\u2009\u2014\u2009a short par 3 to a sandy hump about 130 yards away. There\u2019s a large bunker just before the green on the left, and it\u2019s open on the right, and both leave a steep chip up to the green, which is definitely not green.<\/p>\n As I stand on the tee box, I can for the first time feel Leo J.\u2019s design poking out. Built in 1930, the course, originally called Riverside Golf Course, is carved out of a rolling area along the Charles River, across three of the toniest towns in Massachusetts. It was placed in the hands of Donald Ross<\/a>, the acclaimed architect of hundreds of courses, including icons such as Pinehurst No. 2<\/a> in North Carolina and the East and West courses at Oak Hill<\/a> in New York, as well as local gems George Wright<\/a> in Hyde Park and Essex County Club<\/a> in Manchester-by-the-Sea. \u201cHis stamp as an architect was naturalness,\u201d the famed golfer (and course designer) Jack Nicklaus once said. Ross\u2019s signature was what is known as a \u201cturtleback\u201d green, with the highest point in the center, exactly like the one I am staring at.<\/p>\n But this turtle looks like it is dead and the sea gulls have gotten at it. I make a note to visit Ross\u2019s grave, a short distance away in Newton Cemetery<\/a>, and leave a note of apology. I should also leave one at the grave of Leo J. Martin, a former amateur state golf champion who had the course named for him after he died in World War II.<\/p>\n This is not the country\u2019s worst course, I think. It\u2019s the most disrespected.<\/p>\n 10. \u201cIt\u2019s a shame it\u2019s in the shape it is right now,\u201d says Justin Grimes, the newly-appointed director of golf course maintenance for the DCR. He took his job just a few days before the list came out, and says the state was more than aware of the condition of Leo J. and \u201cPonky.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s mostly an irrigation issue. It\u2019s ancient. It\u2019s original. It\u2019s from 1930. The superintendent needs to get to work at 2 a.m. to manually turn on each irrigation head if he wants to water the greens. It\u2019s not sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n DCR is committing to big upgrades, including construction of a new irrigation system planned for next spring and more frequent maintenance such as aeration, fertilization, and seeding. But what\u2019s out here now is an embarrassment\u2009\u2014\u2009and it\u2019s only getting worse. The first six greens aren\u2019t even suitable to be a dog park, but when we cross the road to play the seventh, I laugh out loud.<\/p>\n There is no green at all. I can\u2019t imagine how bad it was to get cordoned off, but instead they have spray-painted a circle on the fairway and installed a pin.<\/p>\n It is the smoothest green I\u2019ll play all day.<\/p>\n 11. It is around here that I begin feeling thankful I decided to bring along Mark, a buddy from Gloucester who holds his own No. 1 ranking\u2009\u2014\u2009he is the most positive person I know. He likes everything and everyone and vibrates at a frequency several decibels above the safe range. He is a devotee of sunrise golf, and once or twice a week he has me standing in the dark with a golf glove on and driver in hand, waiting for shooting hours.<\/p>\n If anyone could find the positive in this, it\u2019s Mr. Brightside. And he does. He loves how inexcusably bad Leo J. is, and we talk about how it\u2019s akin to a dive bar, where the decor is outdated and mismatched, and everyone looks a little grouchy, but the beer is cheap. And on brand, Mark is acting like his beer is ice cold, while mine now feels warm and flat, and there\u2019s a cigarette floating in it.<\/p>\n 12. The indignity deepens on the back nine. Here, the course is intersected by a shallow and clear stretch of the Charles River. The water is idyllic and slow, and twice you cross it on a wooden bridge. The layout on these nine holes, starting with a challenging par 3 on the 10th, is a great example of that Ross \u201cnaturalness.\u201d While much of the front nine feels like he cleared out trees to make a golf course, the back nine feels like he discovered one that already existed, and just planted some grass. The fairways are narrower with more bends in them, and you feel secluded. And angry. This could be\u2009\u2014\u2009should be\u2009\u2014\u2009a diamond in the rough. Instead it\u2019s just \u2026 rough.<\/p>\n 13. The conditions are so bad that I freely allow myself a preferred lie: a rule that courses can institute when they are not in their best condition, such as in winter, when you get to move your ball up to 6 inches to a better spot.<\/p>\n \u201cWe call it the Leo J. drop,\u201d a regular named Mike Riseberg tells me later. And it\u2019s always in effect, which is a good thing because there are times when I look down at my ball in a pile of roots and rocks and consider the possibility that I\u2019d break both wrists if I tried to hit it.<\/p>\n Riseberg lives in Newton and grew up just behind the 12th hole in Wellesley. He played here with his father as a kid, and now he plays with his children.<\/p>\n \u201cI love it the way it is,\u201d he says. \u201cThe greens could use some care, but then the price goes up, the laid-back attitude changes.\u201d<\/p>\n You just have to play Leo J. rules, he says, which means wherever it lands, you\u2019re entitled to find the nearest plot of grass, which is almost certainly more than 6 inches away. Also, anything above a three-putt is the fault of the greens.<\/p>\n 14. Somewhere on the back nine, I figure out that it\u2019s actually possible to two-putt a green at Leo J. The trick is not to aim for the hole, but at the closest patch of sand to the hole\u2009\u2014\u2009and try to make it get stuck. From there, you have a chance\u2009\u2014\u2009a slim chance\u2009\u2014\u2009of actually getting it in.<\/p>\n 15. As the round nears its end, I wonder: Is Leo J. the worst golf course in America? And the answer has to be no, because it is not the worst course I\u2019ve ever played. Not by a long shot.<\/p>\n It is in the worst shape, but it\u2019s not uninspired. I\u2019ve played a course in Virginia, where my wife is from, that has several \u201cfairways\u201d that simply follow utility lines built by a power company and the second tee box is right next to people ordering at a Taco Bell drive-thru.<\/p>\n No, the sin of Leo J. is much more sinister\u2009\u2014\u2009it may be the worst good golf course in America.<\/p>\n 16. Steve Condakes, another golfer I meet, pays $875 for a full, seven-day-a-week season ticket to Leo J., and takes advantage of it nearly every day between April and Thanksgiving. He\u2019s been a regular for more than a decade and gets irate when he talks about its condition.<\/p>\n \u201cI just can\u2019t believe the government has allowed this gem to fall into disrepair, unless it\u2019s because lawmakers are worried [about] being seen putting money into a golf course in Weston and Newton and Wellesley.\u201d<\/p>\n 17. The fact that this course is in a scenic section of three of the richest towns in America has been part of the fun since the MyGolfSpy list appeared in August. But let\u2019s make something clear: Those towns have the posh, manicured private clubs you\u2019re picturing. This ain\u2019t one of them. <\/p>\n Leo J. is a municipal course. \u201cMunis,\u201d as they are known, are the backbone of golf, owned by cities and towns\u2009\u2014\u2009nothing fancy, just a way for the masses to play. And they are more necessary now than at any time in golf history. The sport has exploded in popularity since the COVID pandemic,<\/a> when many discovered that golf was a socially-distant way to take a four-hour walk through a garden with your friends.<\/p>\n And much of that explosion has come from outside the traditional core of golf, which is middle-aged white dudes like me. And that\u2019s who I see at Leo J.\u2009\u2014\u2009blue-collar workers, women who want to play without feeling like they\u2019re being judged, occasional golfers who just need a place to meet up with a buddy they haven\u2019t seen in a while.<\/p>\n But muni does not need to mean yucky. Boston has two great municipal courses, Franklin Park<\/a> and George Wright. Like Leo J., they both went through a period of decline, before the city\u2009\u2014\u2009at the urging of former Mayor Tom Menino\u2009\u2014\u2009turned them around. In 2021, Golf magazine named George Wright one of the top three municipal courses in America. I\u2019ve played both and they\u2019re well-cared for, affordable, and profitable. It can be done.<\/p>\n 18. Arriving at the final tee box, we find the number 18 hanging upside down. This feels fitting. But, unlike the rest of the course, I have no idea how it ended up that way.<\/p>\n And here again, the Golf Gods laugh at me. I\u2019d asked for the worst round of golf I\u2019d ever played, and as we tee off, laughing, I know this was not it. The truth is I\u2019ll never have that day. Golf rarely goes well, and there\u2019s a reason why the joke about it being \u201ca good walk spoiled\u201d never goes out of style.<\/p>\n But the cruelest joke of the Golf Gods is that it\u2019s always fun. Spending time outside, with friends, failing at the simplest of tasks\u2009\u2014\u2009all of this is why I\u2019m addicted, why I come back and will keep coming back.<\/p>\n Just not at Leo J.<\/p>\n Billy Baker can be reached at billy.baker@globe.com<\/a>. Follow him on Instagram @billy_baker<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/BLYNNXJEXRDSRH2ZY4WDTPAG7U.jpg\")
Billy Baker putting at the Leo J. Martin Memorial Golf Course.Mark Horgan<\/p>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/G5MTL4XW6RD6TEQVECBMKFVB2I.jpg\")
Michael Parkin for The Boston Globe<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FUD47BUG25AKLMJ3DD5N37FJO4.jpg\")
The rim of the cup on the third hole at the Leo J. Martin Memorial Golf Course.Billy Baker\/Globe staff<\/p>\n![\"Illustration](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Z5MN2XNZLJFUDJXKA5H4OGS4UI.jpg\")
Michael Parkin for The Boston Globe<\/p>\n