Red Tail and Butter Brook are about 12 miles apart on the Route 2 side of Boston and they are the two courses serious golfers in the northwest suburbs argue about. Golfweek ranked Red Tail the 5th best public course in Massachusetts for 2026. Butter Brook did not make the top 10. Butter Brook publishes a rate card and lets you walk for $65 on a Tuesday. Red Tail publishes no prices at all, bundles a cart into every round, and charged one reviewer about $160 in September 2026. Here is the head to head on price, booking, difficulty, conditions and reputation, and the two situations where the answer flips.
Red Tail
- Brian Silva, 2002, on former Fort Devens
- 7,006 yds, 74.0 / 145 from the blacks
- Dynamic pricing, cart and range balls bundled
- Books 9 days out; up to 300 days as a Preferred Reservation
- Golfweek #5 public in MA for 2026
- GolfPass 2.9 (147), 18Birdies 4.6 (780)
Butter Brook
- Mark Mungeam, 2004 and 2007, Westford
- 6,810 yds, 73.4 / 141 from the blacks
- $65 walk / $90 cart Mon to Thu; $139 weekend mornings
- Books 7 days out, carts required Fri to Sun before 2pm
- Not in Golfweek's MA top 10
- GolfPass 3.8 (12), 18Birdies 4.6 (909)
The courses
Red Tail opened in 2002 on land that used to be Fort Devens. Silva split the property between wooded parkland and open sandy waste, and worked the Army leftovers into the design: repurposed ammunition bunkers on the 17th and a lookout tower at the 18th tee. The 11th drops into a former gravel pit to a pedestal green. It was the first Audubon International Cooperative Signature course in New England and hosted the 2009 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links. The full breakdown is in the Red Tail review.
Butter Brook opened its front nine in April 2004 and its back nine in May 2007 on 210 acres in Westford. The front is tight and tree lined. The back opens into a sandy, heathland look. The 6th, a 436-yard par 4 with two fairway bunkers cut into a hillock, is the number one handicap hole. The 9th is a 618-yard par 5. The 11th is a 249-yard par 3 from the tips. Details in the Butter Brook review.
On difficulty, 18Birdies lists Red Tail at 7,006 yards, 74.0 and a slope of 145 from the black tees, and Butter Brook at 6,810 yards, 73.4 and 141. GolfPass carries lower figures for both (135 and 133), so the exact slope depends on whose card you trust, but the order does not change. Red Tail is longer and harder. From the middle tees the gap narrows: Red Tail's golds are 6,292 yards at a 128 slope, Butter Brook's blues 6,226 at 132. Both make the hardest public courses list.
What it costs
| Red Tail | Butter Brook | |
|---|---|---|
| Weekday morning, 18 with cart | Not published; dynamic | $90 |
| Weekday morning, 18 walking | No walking rate | $65 |
| Weekend morning, 18 with cart | Observed $159 at 7am on a summer Saturday | $139 to 10:50am, $135 to 12:50pm |
| Weekend late afternoon | Observed about $64 at 5pm | $82 cart / $62 walk after 4pm |
| Senior, Mon to Thu | One reviewer paid $88 in Aug 2026 | $71 cart / $58 walk (60+) |
| Range balls | Included | $5 small / $10 large |
| Rate card | None posted | Posted; summer rates Apr 12 to Oct 18 |
Butter Brook is the transparent one. Its 2026 card runs Monday through Thursday at $90 with a cart or $65 walking until 2:50pm, then $75 and $55 after 3pm. Friday is $120 with a cart before 1:50pm. Saturday and Sunday open at $139, step down to $135 at 11am and $120 at 1pm, then $98 riding or $73 walking from 2pm, and $82 or $62 after 4pm. Carts and a full 18 are required Friday through Sunday before 2pm. Holidays follow weekend rules. There is also a dewsweeper rate: nine holes off the 10th tee between 7 and 8am for $55 riding or $45 walking, any day.
Red Tail says its rates “fluctuate by time of day and daily demand” and publishes nothing further. Every rate includes the cart, GPS and range balls, and the course issues a maximum of two carts per foursome. The only way to know the price is to open the CPS booking engine for the day you want. On a summer Saturday we watched the sheet open near $159 at 7am and fall to about $64 by 5pm. Golf Digest lists the ceiling at $175. The one thing Red Tail never offers is a walking rate, so the $65 Tuesday round at Butter Brook has no equivalent 12 miles west.
Booking
Both courses run on Club Prophet, and neither sells tee times on GolfNow. Both have details pages there with zero inventory and, in Butter Brook's case, a stale listing under the name Butter Brook Crossing showing nine holes. If you book through the app, you will never see either course.
Butter Brook opens its sheet seven days out, online at butterbrook.cps.golf or by phone at (978) 692-6560. Cancellations need 24 hours and must be made by telephone. Email is not accepted. Every no show is charged. Check in 15 minutes before your time.
Red Tail opens regular reservations nine days out. If you need a date further away, up to 300 days, you can book a Preferred Reservation online, which is the mechanism most golfers do not know about and the reason a July Saturday can look sold out in early June. The phone is (978) 772-3273. Cancellations inside 20 hours or no shows are charged the full fee per player, and the club reserves the right to merge groups of fewer than four. Singles are welcome and get paired. There is also a Noteefy waitlist that texts you when a slot opens. For the general mechanics of these windows, see when to book tee times at popular Boston courses.
Conditions and pace in 2026
Red Tail's recent reviews split hard. Two 18Birdies reviews from July and August 2026 gave it five stars and called it the best public layout in the Boston area in great condition. An August 2026 two star review complained of rocky bunkers and useless cart GPS under cart path only rules. A September 13, 2026 review said tee boxes were dirt, greens were loaded with sand, and $160 was absurd for the shape it was in. Rocky, unraked bunkers show up in reviews from 2019, 2023, 2024 and 2026, so that one is a pattern, not a bad week. Pace is better than it used to be: a TripAdvisor review from August 2026 reported a round under four hours, and 18Birdies now tags pace as fast, against the 5.5 to 6 hour weekend rounds documented in 2023 and 2024.
Butter Brook's recent record is quieter and better. A September 4, 2026 18Birdies review said the course was in great shape with the greens especially good, then docked two stars for a full round of cart path only at $120. Most July through September 2026 reviews are four and five stars without comment. The course closed September 14 to 16 for aeration, so expect sandy greens for a couple of weeks after. The complaint about slow weekend rounds and unraked bunkers dates to 2023 and has not recurred in the reviews we found.
On the aggregate scores, GolfPass is harsh on Red Tail at 2.9 across 147 reviews with conditions and value both at 2.1, but its newest review is from May 2024. Butter Brook is 3.8 on GolfPass across only 12 reviews, none since 2021. 18Birdies is the live data: both courses sit at 4.6, Red Tail across 780 reviews and Butter Brook across 909, with value at 4.0 and condition at 4.5 for each. Golf Digest panelists give Red Tail 4.0 and Butter Brook 3.8. Neither is in Golf Digest's Massachusetts top 30, which is mostly private clubs. Golfweek's public list for 2026 has Red Tail 5th in the state behind Taconic, Cape Cod National, Miacomet and Farm Neck. Butter Brook is absent.
Getting there
Golf Digest puts Red Tail at 35 miles and about 45 minutes from downtown, out Route 2 to Devens. Butter Brook is about 35 minutes, off I-495 at exit 32 or from Route 2 at exit 42 through Acton. Butter Brook is closer for anyone north of the Pike. Red Tail is the easier trip from the Route 2 corridor and Worcester County. The two nines at Red Tail are separated by a quarter mile, one more reason nobody walks it.
Which one
Red Tail if you want the better golf course and you are booking a weekend morning anyway. You are paying $139 at Butter Brook for that slot too, and for roughly $20 more Red Tail gives you the Golfweek top five design, range balls, and a routing with a stronger identity. Book the Preferred Reservation if the date matters.
Butter Brook if you are playing on a weekday, if you want to walk, or if you want to know the price before you click. $65 to walk a 141 slope on a Tuesday has no competitor on this side of the city. The same logic applies to seniors, who get a posted $58 walking rate Monday through Thursday versus a number at Red Tail you have to discover at the counter.
The flip cases: on a weekend after 4pm, Red Tail's dynamic pricing can drop below Butter Brook's $82 cart rate, and it did on the Saturday we tracked. And if Red Tail's bunkers matter to you, a September round after a bad review week is the wrong time to pay peak. Check the last 30 days on 18Birdies before you book either one.
The friction here is that neither course is on GolfNow, Red Tail hides its prices inside a booking engine that changes by the hour, and Butter Brook forces a cart on weekend mornings that its own rate card buries in the fine print. Text Carl the day and whether you want to walk. He opens both Club Prophet sheets, reads Red Tail's live price against Butter Brook's posted tiers for the same hour, and calls the pro shops about conditions, so you end up on the right course at the right price instead of guessing between two websites that will not compare themselves.
