'This course will make every golfer ... a better golfer': Shining Rock's new par-3 layout can be good for the game

If you want to work on your short game, you might want to check out the new short course at Shining Rock Golf Club in Northbridge.

The Acorn, a nine-hole, par-3 course, opened July 19 to complement Shining Rock’s 18-hole golf course. which opened in 2010.

At only 867 yards for nine holes, the Acorn is short, but it provides an opportunity to work on your chipping and putting. The holes range from 45 to 129 yards, but general manager Lou Papadellis said a new back tee atop a mound next to the first green is expected to open in the fall and will stretch the 129-yard second hole to about 175 yards. The second and seventh holes currently share a huge tee box.

Each green has a blue flag and red flag in a more difficult pin placement, offering a different distance for a replay.

The par-3 course finishes with the 45-yard eighth and 63-yard ninth holes, but the red flag on eight is usually tucked behind a pot bunker that is about 4½ feet deep. So it’s challenging.

“If you’re trying to become better at the game of golf,” Papadellis said, “those shots are the ones that make a huge difference. Those 50- and 60-yard shots are the ones that are crucial. That’s how you score. The place you want to work on your golf game is chipping and putting, and this course will make every golfer, from a pro golfer on tour to a beginning golfer, a better golfer.”

Last Tuesday, Papadellis played the Acorn for the first time as he joined me and Ron Lohnes of Worcester for a round. Papadellis, who plays right-handed and putts left-handed, shot 1-under 26. Neither I nor Lohnes shot under par, but I did close with a birdie.

“I thought the course was in great shape,” Lohnes said. “The greens were very good, the tee boxes were exceptionally nice, and they’re big enough so you can extend the yardage day to day or however you want to set the course up. It’s a fun course. It will be a great course for people who want to work on their short game.”

The Acorn has large tee boxes and undulating bentgrass greens. There aren’t many trees on some holes, but there are plenty of bunkers and hills, and even a water hazard.

The 123-yard fourth hole plays over water to an elevated green.

The 112-yard sixth hole, which plays more like 125 yards because it’s uphill, is the signature hole. There’s a huge bunker in front of a green with a false front. There are more bunkers in back. With mulch and azaleas behind the green, the hole is inspired by the 12th hole at Augusta National, host of the Masters.

Shining Rock head pro Mike Stacy had the pleasure of recently walking the par-3 course with retired PGA Tour golfer Chip Beck , who played in the Masters several times and finished second in 1993. Beck knows the club’s owners.

“It was just cool to walk it with someone who played Augusta,” Stacy said.

Next to the ninth green is a lighted check-in area with a fire pit, chairs, cornhole game, taco truck and beer garden. Stacy said there are plans to play music at the beer garden and patio.

Bruce LaBossiere , 69, of Holliston has been a member at Shining Rock for three years, and the 9-handicapper enjoyed playing the Acorn last Sunday morning.

“I like it because my wife ( Marilyn ) has just taken the game up last year,” he said.

“She doesn’t hit the ball very far,” LaBossiere said. “So this is just the perfect opportunity for her to get the feel for the greens, the putting and everything that goes with it.”

For now, golfers are required to hit from the synthetic tees Monday through Thursday, but they’re allowed to hit from the long grass tee boxes Friday through Sunday. Once the course matures, golfers will be able to hit from the grass tees except on wet days, Papadellis said.

The Acorn costs $25 for the public, $20 for juniors and seniors, and $15 for Shining Rock members. Replays cost $15.

“I see it as a total bump for our junior program,” Stacey said, “our beginner women’s program and seniors who might have aged out of the big course. I also think there’s going to be guys who play 18 holes, who are avid golfers and have a burger and beer, but they’re not done for the day, and they want to play nine more holes.”

The first hole-in-one on the Acorn was carded on the ninth hole on opening weekend.

Stacy said that before the pandemic the National Golf Foundation and the PGA of America found that the number of 18-hole rounds were declining while the number of nine-hole rounds and the use of driving ranges and golf entertainment venues, such as Top Golf, were increasing.

Many people were too busy to spend four or five hours playing 18 holes.

So Shining Rock purchased 17 acres of forest abutting the 18-hole championship course and over the last two years carved out nine par-3 holes that should take less than 90 minutes to play. We finished in a little more than an hour even though we stopped several times to take photos.

The par-3 course is walking only.

A neighbor who sold the land to Shining Rock for the par-3 course and the new range suggested the par-3 course be called the Acorn because of all the trees on the property. Shining Rock cleared many of the trees, but decided to call the course the Acorn.

The new range opened in the spring. A set of tees on the right are aimed to the back left corner which is 250 yards away. The net in the back of the range is roughly 170 yards from the tees on the left. The town of Upton is on the other side of the net. The range has about a dozen target flags.

Range balls cost $8 for 30, $12 for 60 and $15 for 90.

The old range, where golfers hit off mats into a net 170 yards away, has closed.

John O’Donnell , former superintendent at Hopkinton CC, and one of Shining Rock’s owners, Joe Pasquale , designed the new range and the par-3 course. Dan McLaughlin is the club’s other owner.

Shining Rock’s 18-hole, par-72 course is busy, hosting 40,000 rounds last year. Shining Rock costs $75 with a cart during the week and $95 with a cart on weekends. Seniors pay $60 with a cart weekdays and after 2 p.m. weekends.

The club has a little more than 200 members.

Patrick Gleason has made an impact at Shining Rock since becoming superintendent last fall after serving as assistant superintendent at sister course Hopkinton CC.

Gleason and his crew cut down nearly 100 trees to create air flow and sunlight on the greens, and improved bunker drainage and made the greens more consistent. He also aerified the fairways for the first time since Shining Rock opened in 2010, according to Stacy.

Howard Maurer , who has designed several golf courses with housing communities, designed Shining Rock, but when the housing market crashed in 2007 and 2008, the project went bankrupt, and he left. The current owners bought Shining Rock from Norwood Bank late in 2009, and the course opened the following year. Patrick Sullivan was hired to be superintendent at Shining Rock, and he finished the design.

The clubhouse opened in 2012.

Ideas welcome

You can suggest story ideas for this golf column by reaching me at the email listed below. Comments are also welcomed.

—Contact Bill Doyle at bcdoyle15@charter.net. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @BillDoyle15.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: 'This course will make every golfer ... a better golfer': Shining Rock's new par-3 layout can be good for the game