Leicester Country Club is gone. The 18-hole public course on Route 9 closed permanently in 2025, and developers filed plans for 192 apartments, 98 townhouses, and 50,000 square feet of commercial space on its 201 acres. The Leicester Planning Board took it up in April 2026. GolfPass still shows the course with 72 reviews and a 3.5 rating, as if you could book it tomorrow.
That is the state of the Worcester golf market. Roughly 55 minutes from downtown Boston on the Pike and I-290, with real courses at real prices and a lot of stale information sitting between you and a tee time. Here's what is actually open, what it costs in 2026, and how each one takes a booking.
Green Hill: the value pick, and it isn't close
Green Hillis Worcester's municipal course, opened April 1929 to a Willie Ogg design, rebuilt by William F. Mitchell and reopened in 1968. Par 72 at 6,487 yards, 70.4 rating, slope 122. Ogg was the head pro at Worcester Country Club from 1921 to 1944, so this is a real pedigree hiding behind a muni green fee.
Eighteen holes runs $43 Monday through Thursday and $52 Friday through Sunday. Seniors pay $36 midweek, juniors $27, veterans and active duty $36. Nine holes is $25 weekday and $29 weekend. Carts are $25 for 18 and walking is allowed every day.
The number that matters: the Morning Special is $51 for 18 holes with a cart, Monday through Thursday before 9am. There is nothing in central Massachusetts that beats that. Green Hill also holds a 4.9 rating on GolfPass, though across only 33 reviews. It has the only public driving range in the city. Book on foreUP, 7 to 8 days out, no credit card required. Pro shop is 508-799-1359.
One thing to know: the address changed. It is now 1929 Officer Manny Familia Way, not Skyline Drive. Half the directory sites have not caught up.
Pakachoag: the cheapest real nine
Pakachoag in Auburn is a nine-hole town course, par 36 at 3,255 yards, opened 1932. Its 2026 fee schedule is the clearest one in the region. Nine holes is $22 weekday and $26 weekend. Eighteen is $37 and $41. Auburn residents knock $2 off. Seniors 62 and up pay $21 weekday, and juniors under 18 pay $19.
Carts are $13 for nine and $24 for 18 per person, push carts $6. Booking runs through foreUP with an 8-day public window and 11 days for season pass holders. A credit card is required, and the default online schedule has a two-player minimum, so a single cannot self-book. Cancel at least two hours out.
Late weekday afternoons are league time. Half Moon Mondays, Auburn Alumni Tuesdays, Unify Wednesdays, Herbies Thursdays. The sheet gets thin after 3pm.
The Marrone family courses: Wachusett and Kettle Brook
The Marrone family has owned Wachusett Country Club in West Boylston since 1939 and bought Kettle Brook in Paxton from Robert Moss in January 2008. Same booking platform, same rate structure, same unusual policy.
Wachusett is $85 weekday from 7am to 2:51pm and $75 after 3pm. Weekends and holidays, which include Friday, run $105 and $95. Kettle Brook is $80 and $70 weekday, $95 and $85 weekend. Seniors 60 and up and juniors 17 and under pay $75 and $70 respectively, midweek only.
Kettle Brook is a Brian Silva design on 213 acres of the old Ahearn dairy farm. The first 12 holes opened in May 1999 and the last six that August. It plays 6,912 yards to a 73.1 rating and slope 125. It also sells something almost nobody else does: a 12-hole rate, $55 Monday through Thursday. If you have three hours instead of five, that is a genuinely useful product.
Both courses post the same line in capital letters: every person must pay a green fee to have access to the course, including spectators and anyone who wants to walk along with a player. Neither publishes a cart price, and both rate pages contradict themselves on whether riders pay one. Call before you assume.
Highfields and Blackstone National: the two nice ones
Highfields in Grafton is a Mark Mungeam design from 2002. The official scorecard says 6,765 yards, par 72, 73.6 rating, slope 135. GolfLink says 7,021 and par 73, which is wrong. It carries a 4.3 rating across 284 reviews, the deepest review base in the region by a wide margin.
Weekday 18 is $80 with the cart included, and there is no weekday walking rate at all. Weekends are $95, and you cannot walk before 1pm. Seniors 60 and up and veterans pay $65 midweek with cart. Nine holes walking is $35. Booking moved to foreUP: 7 days public, 14 days for pass holders, credit card required, 24-hour cancellation.
Blackstone National in Sutton is a Rees Jones course from 1999 at 6,909 yards, 73.5 rating, slope 132. It has the widest weekday-to-weekend spread of anything around: $57 to walk 18 Monday through Thursday against $115 Friday through Sunday, because weekend rates bundle a mandatory cart and range balls.
The real deal there is Super Twilight. After 3:30pm Monday through Thursday it is $32 for non-members and $24 for members. A Rees Jones layout for the price of a par-3 course. Blackstone books through Chronogolf 7 days out and puts Visage GPS on every cart.
The cheap end: Blissful Meadows and Hemlock Ridge
Blissful Meadows in Uxbridge is a Geoffrey Cornish design from 1992, 6,700 yards, 71.3 rating, slope 128. Its 2026 public rates are $55 to walk 18 Monday through Thursday, $60 Friday, $79 weekend. Nine is $33 to $46. Carts are $20 per rider and walking is permitted every day. Seniors 62 and up get 10 percent off midweek. Posted pace is 4 hours 40 minutes and there are no fivesomes. It books on CPS Golf at blissfulmeadows.cps.golf.
Hemlock Ridge in Fiskdale is the floor. Nine holes built in 1970, $20 weekday and $22 weekend for nine, $27 and $30 for 18. That is the cheapest golf anywhere in this radius. The catch is the booking process: phone only, at 508-347-9935, and tee times are taken on weekends between 6am and 11am only. Non-members need the club manager's permission for weekend and holiday play. No outside drinks, everything from the clubhouse bar.
Walkers, read the rate card first
The Worcester ring splits hard on carts. Walking golfers should stick to Green Hill, Pakachoag, and Blissful Meadows, all of which let you walk any day at the posted rate. Highfields has no weekday 18-hole walking rate at all and requires a cart on weekend mornings. Blackstone makes carts mandatory Friday through Sunday. Wachusett and Kettle Brook post identical walking and riding prices, so a walker saves nothing, and their rate pages also say riding groups pay the green fee plus a cart charge. Call before you plan around it.
Every course books somewhere different
Five platforms across nine courses. foreUP runs Green Hill, Pakachoag, Wachusett, Kettle Brook, and Highfields. Blackstone is on Chronogolf. Blissful Meadows is on CPS Golf. Cyprian Keyes in Boylston is on EZLinks with four separate portals. Hemlock Ridge is a phone call to a guy named Ward.
The windows do not line up either. Green Hill, Highfields, and Blackstone open 7 days out. Wachusett and Kettle Brook are 7 days for the general public, 10 through a separate booking class, and 14 with prepayment or a membership. Pakachoag is 8 days, 11 for pass holders. Two courses in the area now run their own waitlist tools, Noteefy at Wachusett and a notification assistant at Cyprian Keyes, which tells you how often those sheets fill inside the window.
If you want the rest of the corridor between here and the city, the MetroWest guide covers Juniper Hill, Shaker Hills, and Sandy Burr.
Primary sources checked
The volatile facts in this guide were checked against the City of Worcester, Town of Auburn's 2026 Pakachoag rate card, Highfields, Blackstone National, and Blissful Meadows' 2026 rates. Live booking screens still control the final price and terms.
Worcester golf is nine courses on five booking platforms with advance windows from 7 to 14 days, one course that only answers the phone on weekend mornings, and directory listings still selling tee times at a course that has been closed for a year. Text Carl what day and what budget. He checks the relevant direct systems and uses a phone inquiry when the course supports it, then sends the useful options and booking paths instead of another stale directory page.
