Wayland Country Club is $57 to walk 18 on a weekday and $67 on a weekend. It is 15 miles west of Boston, books seven days out on ForeUp, and does not sell a single tee time on GolfNow. It also plays 6,002 yards from the back tees to a par of 70 and a slope of 116. That last number is the whole review. Wayland is short, friendly, walkable, and close. It is not hard. Whether that is a feature or a problem depends on what you want from a Tuesday afternoon.
The course
The first nine went in around 1920. The second nine was added in the early 1950s. No source names a designer for either, which tells you something about the ambition level. The club sits at 121 Old Sudbury Road, with about 1,000 acres of conservation land around it, and the routing is heavily treed with narrow landing areas and small greens.
From the blues it is 6,002 yards, rated 69.1 with a slope of 116. The whites are 5,461 yards at 66.2 and 114. The golds are 4,921 yards and the reds 4,831. Par is 34 out, 36 in. Those are the club's own 2025 MGA figures. GolfPass and GolfNow still show older numbers, so if the slope you find online reads 118, that is why.
The 2nd is the number one handicap hole, a 454-yard par 4. The 8th is the one people talk about: 155 yards over a creek to a green with steep banks on every side. The 17th is a 222-yard par 3 with marsh views. The 18th tee shot has to carry roughly 180 yards of pond. In between there are a lot of straight par 4s under 400 yards. A Golf Digest panelist in 2021 called the holes “fairly bland” and then praised the conditioning and the value in the same breath. That is a fair summary.
Conditions and pace
The club's pitch is private club conditions at a public price. Reviews mostly back that up once the season gets going. GolfPass has Wayland at 3.9 across 181 reviews with 85.6% recommending it, and the conditions sub score sits at 3.9. Early season rounds get knocked for average turf. Midsummer greens get called fast and small, which on a 6,000 yard course is where the difficulty lives.
Pace is the quiet strength. GolfPass scores it 3.8 on pace and one 2020 reviewer got around in under four hours on a full sheet. 18Birdies, which has far more recent data, rates the course 4.3 across 789 reviews with pace listed as medium. There are no GolfPass reviews from the last 12 months, so the 18Birdies numbers are the better read on 2026.
Two things to know before you go. There is no real driving range. Sources conflict on this, but the most detailed reviews say no range and 18Birdies lists mats only, so treat it as a putting green and go. And the burgers at the turn get called out often enough that it counts as a course feature. The clubhouse serves breakfast through dinner with a patio off the 18th green.
2026 rates
| Rate | Price |
|---|---|
| Weekday 18, walking | $57 |
| Weekend and holiday 18, walking | $67 |
| Weekend after 1pm / after 3pm | $59 / $49 |
| After 6pm, any day | $35 |
| Senior 60+ or junior, Mon to Thu | $41 |
| 9 holes, Mon to Thu or Fri after 3pm | $35 |
| Cart, 18 holes, per rider | $23 |
| Cart, 9 holes, per rider | $15 |
| Pull cart | $7 |
Every green fee is a walking rate. The cart is always extra and never required, which puts Wayland on a short list with the courses in the best walking courses post. There is no resident rate because the club is privately run, not municipal. There is no published weekend 9-hole rate either.
Memberships for 2026 run $3,100 for a full seven day pass, $2,100 for weekdays with weekends after 2pm, and $2,000 for seniors on the same weekday schedule. A cart pass is $1,000 on top. If you play 40 rounds a year that is $77 a round with a handicap and league access included, which is roughly the weekend walking rate. The membership math is covered more broadly in the semi-private memberships post.
How to book
Wayland books through ForeUp, seven days in advance, online or by phone at (508) 358-4775 extension 5. You need a credit card on file to hold a time. The system caps you at one reservation per 24 hours and four players per booking. Cancellations have to happen 24 hours before the tee time or you are charged for every player you booked. Online booking closes 30 minutes before the slot.
The course does not sell through GolfNow or TeeOff. GolfNow has a details page with no inventory, and GolfLink returns nothing when you search Wayland for tee times. If you live on the GolfNow app, this course does not exist for you, which is part of why weekday afternoons here stay quieter than Sandy Burr a mile away. The season runs April 1 to November 30 with frost delays at both ends.
Wayland vs the alternatives
Sandy Burr is the obvious comparison, same town, a Donald Ross design from 1922 at 6,427 yards and a slope of 128. It costs $70 to walk and $95 to ride, and it sells on GolfNow and Teesnap. Sandy Burr is the better golf course. Wayland is $13 cheaper, easier to book on a Saturday, and faster around.
Leo J. Martin in Weston would normally be the cheap fallback three exits east, but it is closed for the 2026 season for a DCR renovation. That has pushed some of its regulars up Route 20 to Wayland. Newton Commonwealth is $46 to $57 for non-residents on a 5,300-yard Ross layout closer to the city. Juniper Hill in Northborough is $54 weekdays and $59 weekends with carts required on weekend mornings through late September. Stow Acres South is $50 Monday through Thursday and $65 on weekends. All of them are in the wider MetroWest courses guide.
Who should play it
Wayland is for the golfer who wants to walk 18 in under four hours on a weekday, 30 to 45 minutes from downtown depending on the Pike, without paying $90. It is also a good course to bring someone who is not going to enjoy a 140 slope. The GolfPass tags are “best for locals,” “best for walkers,” and “best for beginners,” and all three fit.
If you want to be tested off the tee, drive the extra mile to Sandy Burr or the extra 20 minutes to Stow Acres. Wayland will not challenge a single digit handicap from the blues. Reviewers who compare it to Sandy Burr or Unicorn on layout come away preferring the other course almost every time. They come back to Wayland anyway for the price and the pace.
Wayland is not on GolfNow, so the app most people use to compare MetroWest tee times will never show you a $57 walking slot here next to a $95 cart round at Sandy Burr. Text Carl the day you want to play and whether you are walking. He checks Wayland's ForeUp sheet alongside Sandy Burr, Stow Acres and Juniper Hill, and calls the pro shop when the online sheet looks full, so you get the cheapest walkable time in MetroWest instead of whatever the app happened to list.
