Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal | March 24, 2025 | wbjournal.com Smaller golf courses are looking to attract busy people with less time to spend on their game e short game BY ERIC CASEY WBJ Managing Editor I n the late 1990s, the golf business was booming. Riding a wave of enthusiasm brought about by Tiger Woods bursting onto the pro golf scene in 1997 with his stunning win at e Masters, courses were opening le and right across the country, looking to capitalize on the newfound interest in the sport. Americans played 63 million more rounds of golf in 1997 compared to 1996, according to Golf Datatech. en, a reckoning came. Even before Woods' dominance at the PGA level fad- ed, interest in the sport was waning. Be- tween 2003 and 2018, golf saw a decline of nearly 7 million players and more than 1,200 course closures, according to a June 2020 article from the National Recreation and Park Association. e slow decline of the sport halted in 2020, with the arrival of COVID-19. With time to explore new hobbies and a desire to get out of the house, golfers were once again hitting the links in droves. e increase in popularity has largely held, as the golf industry has taken steps to ensure the post-COVID boom isn't just a flash in the pan. One key aspect of continued growth will be the opportunities provided by shorter golf courses, which can be enjoyed by scratch golfers and novices alike. New, shorter courses have popped up in the region in the last decade, with another one in Framingham expected to open in late 2025 or early 2026. "All these golfers that were either reintroduced to the game or brought to the game for the first time, these short courses have been a wonderful way for them to get involved, but also to engage avid golfers." said Stephen Hanjack, di- rector of marketing & communications for Mass Golf, the Norton-based governing body for the sport in Massachusetts. "It's been huge for the growth of the game." Time is money Central Mass. features five execu- tive golf courses, a catch-all term for any course with a par lower than a full-sized regulation course. Some are strictly par-3 holes, where the green can be reached with one shot, while others mix in par-4 or par-5 holes. Some, like Berlin Country Club, have existed for decades, while others, like the par-3 course at Shining Rock Golf Club in Northbridge, were constructed to take advantage of growing interest in shorter courses. Shining Rock's short course opened in July 2024. e biggest benefit to executive courses is fairly obvious: ey take less time to play, allowing business types and others with a packed calendar to work on their game without taking the four or so hours it takes to complete 18 holes. But beyond just taking less time to play, short courses can give experienced players a platform to work on their short game, while novice players oen find the easier-to-play courses to be a more fun and inviting way to experience the game, said Kurt Calderwood, who runs Berlin Country Club alongside his wife Kimberly Calderwood. Kurt and Kimberly took over opera- tions at the course nine years ago from Kurt's father. In the time since, attitudes about short courses have begun to shi. Once seen as a less-than-perfect sub- stitute for playing on a full-sized course, golfers have begun to specifically seek out courses like Berlin. "People don't have the time these days," Kurt Calderwood said. "So they're in and out of there in an hour and a half to two hours. at's a big thing. It's great for beginners to learn the game. It's not too hard, and it's not as intimidating." Berlin Country Club offers a home for the sport as the small town's only course, hosting everything from birthdays to bereavements in its clubhouse. It offers a place to play for high school golfers from teams at nearby Assabet Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School and other area schools. Entering her first full season as gener- al manager, Kimberly Calderwood has overcome the challenges of being a new- comer to a small town where it seems like everyone knows each other. "at was a little intimidating for me to step into," she said. "But everybody's been really good and very positive and looking forward to our changes." e course will open for longer hours this year to accommodate more players. In full swing e increase in popularity of golf sim- ulators and high-tech driving ranges like those owned by Dallas-based TopGolf oen serve as a gateway, leading players to move on to short courses before de- veloping a full-blown obsession with the sport, said Hanjack of Mass Golf. "Once they're taking a full golf swing, that's when [new players] are first con- sidering the game," Hanjack said. "From there, it doesn't matter where your golf ball goes. e new and trendy TopGolf is a great intro, but a [traditional] driving range could be just the same. e idea is first getting a few swings, and then from there, once people start to realize that they have some sort of interest in the game, the next progression would naturally be some sort of short course." Attempting to learn from the mistake of taking the Tiger boom for granted, caretakers of the sport like Mass Golf and the U.S. Golf Association are taking a more strategic approach, said Hanjack. "e industry has really been smart about trying to make everyone comfort- able," he said. Part of that growth is fully embrac- ing executive courses as a legitimate way of enjoying the game. In 2024, the USGA lowered the minimum length requirements for courses to be eligible for course and slope ratings, two mea- surements used to help determine the difficulty of a course. "Short courses are an important piece of the full puzzle," Hanjack said. "So whether it be youth golfers, golfers new to the game, or older golfers, they're so important to what we do. I wouldn't be surprised if more and more [short courses] start to make their way." Corporate, yet casual Golfers seeking short courses in Cen- tral Massachusetts are set to have one more option soon, as a former executive at Acushnet Co., the Fairhaven-based company behind the Titleist and FootJoy golf brands, is planning on opening a nine-hole, par-3 course in Framingham. Michael Mahoney, founder of Wed- geLinks, is planning the course on a 10-acre plot of land behind the head- Kurt and Kimberly Calderwood, operators of Berlin Country Club FOCUS M E E T I N G S , T O U R I S M & G O L F G U I D E Stephen Hanjack, director of marketing & communications for Mass Golf Berlin Country Club is now seeing more interest in its nine-hole facility, as golfers seek out shorter cours- es which take less time to play. PHOTO | COURTESY OF BERLIN COUNTRY CLUB

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