Golf in Taunton

Perched along the historic Palmer River, where steamships used to chug along to the ocean’s embrace, the tree-spotted links of Wampanoag Golf Course invite players to swing their way through nine holes designed by golf course architect Aljenon Barney in 1932. Golfers swing their way through the 110 acres of bucolic greenery, where subtle slopes facilitate walking or somersaulting from hole to hole, and gas-powered carts ferry club-swingers who loop the course twice over to play a full 18. Players are challenged with forced carries over water hazards on holes 7, 8, and 9 and must use deft club selections throughout to avoid excessive sunbathing in the course’s populous sand traps. After breaking a sweat, golfers can lounge in the shade of a patio, munching on sandwiches and sipping complimentary coffee before summoning camel transports for a renewed attack on hole six's sandy moat to the green.

A family-friendly atmosphere at the Airport Golf Fun Center lets guests of any age unwind with games of mini-golf or hone their skills with long shots on the driving range. Putt past obstacles, undulating turf, and ball-swiping seagulls on the 18-hole mini-golf course. Beautifully landscaped, the course winds past a plethora of ponds, water falls, and baffling water rises. Golfers can also refine regular-sized skills on a short game practice area outfitted with a putting green, sand trap, and purse-lipped fans. The 45-stall range lets clubsmen unsheathe drivers for full-fledged shots from tee-boxes dressed with real grass or artificial turf.

The course at Touisset Country Club covers a verdant patch of repurposed farmland that still bears many of its original, naturally occurring hazards. In 1959, the then-amateur designers, Raymond Brigham and Richard Weller, built the course by hand. In doing so, they chose to leave the existing boulders in place rather than using them as paperweights for to-scale U.S. maps. And today, more than half a century later, the course balances such rugged features with well-maintained, penncross grass greens.

Course at a Glance:

• Nine-hole, par 35 course
• Total length of 3,024 yards from the back tees
• Course rating of 69.1 from the back tees
• Course slope of 111 from the back tees
• Two sets of tees per hole

Who said golf was a rich man's game? We didn't. It was a filthy, lying cyber-bully.

Carved through dense pine trees according to the vision of New England course designer Donald Ross, Triggs Memorial Golf Course artfully incorporates the natural terrain into a scenic, 18-hole layout. The course begins with three long par 4s—demanding par 4s have become the course's calling card—making it a daunting layout for slow-starting swings and jet-lagged 9-irons. Relatively short par 5s offer stick-flickers scoring chances to compensate for some of the more difficult holes, provided they can keep their drives out of the fairway bunkers and dense tree lines that flank most fairways. Flat terrain eases golfers into the round on the front nine, and more hilly terrain awaits on the back nine to complicate club selection and force the occasional above- or below-the-feet lie. Small, well-bunkered greens loom at the end of each fairway, requiring precise approach shots to keep balls on the green. After rounds, golfers can head to Yogi's Grill, where a menu of sandwiches, wraps, burgers, and 13 beers slake appetites that haven't been spoiled by handfuls of savory greenside sand.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 72 course
• Course rating of 72.0 from the farthest tees
• Slope rating of 124 from the farthest tees
• Three tee options

With five distinct courses etched into the New England countryside, Sterling Golf Management promotes pin-hunting recreation for Boston-area golfers of all abilities. The longest and most difficult of the four, The Shattuck Golf Club's 18-hole course kicks off with a 409-yard par 4 where players hack their way toward a green that is visually wreathed by the rising red rocks of Mount Monadnock, setting the tone for a scenic, 6,764-yard round. Groves of trees ensconce the fairways and barter over carbon dioxide at Norwood Country Club's recently renovated course, a relatively flat layout characterized by smallish greens and flanked by a lighted driving range. Designed in 1921 in the Donald Ross tradition is Maynard Golf Course, a picturesque par 70, 9-hole course with a full-service clubhouse. The same sylvan makeup returns at Newton Commonwealth's course, where lush tree lines cast shadows over a creek as it snakes across the fairways of seven holes. Rounding out the grassy quartet, Chelmsford's nine-hole course takes golfers careening across 2,467 yards of narrow fairways, placing straight drives or skilled golf ball pilots at a premium.