Fifty cents doesn’t buy you much these days. A banana. A Tootsie Roll. If you’re lucky, a pinball game.
This week, however, will also cover a round of golf.
It is thanks to Stow Acres Country Cluba 27-hole public facility about 30 miles west of Boston, where weekday green fees on the 18-hole South Course are typically $50. To honor its 100th anniversary, Stow Acres offers not only a return route, but also a refund.
Two quarters for nine holes.
The deal was available on Tuesday and Wednesday and will be available again on Thursday. But good luck getting a tee time.
Paul Melo, who works in the pro shop and also served as the tee earlier this week, said the tee sheet was blocked. “We sell both days and we’re back on Thursday,” he told GOLF in a phone interview Wednesday night.
Some golfers are regulars, but Melo said the promotion has drawn many first-time visitors from afar. “We lost money, but we got new eyes on the course,” he said.
David Carlson, general manager of the course, dreamed up the discount as a way to pay homage to a course with a rich and important history.
The property, which opened in 1926 as a 9-holer called Mapledale Country Club, is one of the first courses in the country owned and operated by Blacks. The same year it debuted, Maplewood played in the Black Men’s National Championship, and did so again in 1927 and ’28.
The original owner, Robert Hawkins, ran the course for three years before losing it during the Great Depression. Over the decades, the course expanded to 36 holes and became Stow Acres before recently closing nine holes on the North Course as part of an extensive renovation.
Carlson didn’t limit his tribute to just offering vintage prices — he also studied old aerial images of the South Course and rewired the front nine so it resembled the original 1920s-era course. That meant nixing the par-5sadding three temporary greens and cutting about 4,000 yards from the routing, breaking down to about 2,100 yards. The 1st hole, for example, which usually plays 365 yards from the tips, this week is played 165 to a temporary green. The tee shot on the new – well, old – The 2nd hole now plays to the 1st green. The 5th hole cuts through a band of trees.
“It’s all very confusing,” Melo said.
But also very funny. It’s an ideal way to celebrate the property’s history.
The 50 cent rate is not an arbitrary number; it came because of an old road sign the course recovered years ago. The origin of the poster is unknown, but it offers the green costs of the week at the course for 50 cents.
Melo said that the agreement was available from 12:30 pm to 4 pm, a period in which the course can push between 15 and 20 groups. We call 17 groups with 4 golfers per group. That’s 68 golfers paying 50 cents/each, which equates to about $34 in revenue for Stow Acres.