Est. 1936 · Donald Ross (later holes by William Mitchell, 1956)
Why we love this place
This is the muni Rick Reilly fell for. The Sports Illustrated writer loved its blue-collar regulars — Ray, Two Down, Cementhead, Blind Bob — so much he turned Ponky into a novel, "Missing Links." No airs, no gates: just a hidden Donald Ross layout and the camaraderie of a course that belongs to everyone. That's exactly what we stand for.
Via Missing Links by Rick Reilly
About Ponkapoag Golf Course
One of the great hidden Donald Ross designs in public golf, Ponkapoag opened to the public in 1936 at the foot of the Blue Hills in Canton. Ross laid out 27 of its holes in the 1920s and 1930s, and his protégé William Mitchell added nine more in 1956, bringing the facility to 36 holes. State-owned and operated by the Massachusetts DCR, this two-course muni weathered decades of underfunding — the very neglect that inspired Rick Reilly's fictional "worst course in America." To those who know it, it is the opposite: a Ross classic that belongs to everyone.
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