Check all the boxes, folks, because we are talking a grandness that resonates so emphatically that you are in awe.
Beauty that runs layers deep? Check.
Priceless history that stretches to the FDR administration and is anchored around a two-sport Hall of Famer? Check.
Golf pedigree to the max? Double-check because Donald Ross’s fingerprints carry you from the first tee to the 18th green.
Yet what might be the secret sauce to the magical experience that is George Wright Golf Course in Hyde Park, Mass., is that it has not one, but two caretakers who have been in tandem for more than 20 years. To savor the presence of head professional Scott Allen (hired in 2002) alongside superintendent Len Curtin (arrived in 2003) is to marvel at how much can be accomplished and how much loving care can be applied when the mission is unilaterally shared.
“Ideally, I think we see the golf course through the same set of eyes,” said Curtin. “And we do consider ourselves stewards.”
Surely, they are, but Allen and Curtin would tell you their road has forever been lined with supporters – from Joe Leary and the youth golf clinics he conducts, to a legion of loyal golfers who have bought into the fact that they set the standard for caring for the course, to heralded golf course architect Mark Mungeam whose restoration plan has been followed faithfully for 22 years, to a patron saint of sorts, the late Boston Mayor (1993-2014) Thomas Menino.
Mayor Menino was behind the movement in 2003 to have the City of Boston take over its two municipal golf courses, Franklin Park and George Wright. Equally magnificent in their own ways, both courses have proven to be wonderful investments and they continue to get better with each year as funds are put back into them. Kudos to the city.
“He supported us in everything we did,” said Allen of Mayor Menino, who died in 2014 at the age of 71. “He would always say, ‘Stop complaining; just make the courses better.’ ”
With meticulous attention, Allen and Curtin have done just that and with such aplomb that a national attention has been shined. Word has spread that within Boston’s city limits sits a Donald Ross gem that has few equals – and, yes, we’re including many of the stage’s great private layouts.
Impactful social media posts in recent years by the lads at No Laying Up and The Fried Egg have also helped draw attention to George Wright GC.
And should you favor golf-course rankings that publications enjoy, George Wright is the third-best municipal course in the country and the 70th best public course, both according to golf.com.
Ah, but videos and lists – no matter how well done – do not do justice to the George Wright experience, at least not quite like tossing the bag over your shoulder and taking on a marvelous journey. To saunter the brilliant doglegs and bask in the intriguing elevation changes will be measured differently if you stop and consider the work that had to be done in the mid 1930s.
As marvelous as the golf course is, what you see first upon your arrival at George Wright is a stately clubhouse that reflects the era in which this was all built. The arrival of this architectural wonder was front-page news 88 years ago (below) in The Boston Globe.
Once enough dynamite had been used to blow up the significant amount of granite, Ross worked around swampy areas and used great vision to traverse up and down the hills. The Army Corps of Engineers and President Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration were put to long stretches of labor until finally in August 1937 the course was unveiled, though not opened for play.
That the official dedication of the golf course took place at about the same time that the legend for whom it was named, George Wright, passed away is a bitter-sweet factoid, for sure.
His start in the public eye coming from his professional baseball career with the Cincinnati Red Stockings then later with the Boston Red Stockings, Wright was considered the best shortstop of his time, 1869-1882. (He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937 and proving his all-around prowess, Wright will be inducted into the Mass Golf Hall of Fame later this year.)
Wright was an elite cricketer, as well, and so, too, did he get involved in tennis administration. (His son, Beals, won an Olympic medal is in tennis in 1905 and is in the World Tennis Hall of Fame.)
With such a love of sports, it’s no wonder that George Wright started a sporting goods company. Wright & Ditson introduced golf clubs to the United States in 1886 and later hired a youngster from Brookline named Francis Ouimet to work in its store.
In a city where history plays with great favor, the Wright legacy heightens the aura with which George Wright Golf Course is blanketed. So you can imagine the sort of overwhelming joy Scott Allen felt one day when someone told him a gift had been left for him.
“By who?” he asked as he started at a vintage set of Wright and Ditson golf clubs.
“Some guy who said he wanted you to have them.”
The clubs remain in Allen’s possession and he’s always felt that the gifted-clubs were sort of a local golfer’s way of saying thanks for putting such care into this golf course. There is that much pride in a golf course nestled into a tight-knit neighborhood and frequented by a legion of local public golf afficionados who play the bulk of the 51,000 rounds that "the Wright" handled in 2025.
Fifty-one thousand?
Curtin looked at Allen and shrugged, then smiled. Allen returned the shrug and smile and the reality is this – they are dedicated to making it work because theirs is a true love for this golf course.
“We have a different set of problems,” said Curtin, the man who oversees a crew of greenskeepers and maintenance workers who keep the sprinklers running and troubleshoot irrigation issues.
Allen? He’s the juggler and the miracle-worker who performs daily magic acts to make sure the tee sheet runs smoothly for golfers paying $55 green fees. Tee times begin at about 6 a.m. in the middle of summer, which is about 70 minutes after Allen arrives.
Golfers going off “with glow balls” isn’t unusual, he laughed, and as he spoke, Scott Allen held onto his trusty greenskeeper ball mark repair tool. It’s about the length of a golf club, fits comfortably into his golf bag and Allen is constantly using it to repair the greens.
Just a small act, using this ball mark repair tool, but it sort of symbolizes the constant care the Allen and Curtin team applies to "the Wright." Not that they cannot vividly recall the more substantial work that faced them more than 20 years ago.
“The place had fallen on hard times,” said Curtin, who grew up a few miles away in Jamaica Plain and played “the Wright” as a kid. “It never got any love.”
When the restoration work got serious in 2003-04 the problems were massive. “There was so much wrong with everything,” said Curtin.
The irrigation system was a disaster. There was no equipment because the previous management company had taken it all. Water poured through the ceiling of the clubhouse.
“But we were in the right spot; we were at the bottom,” said Allen, with a laugh. He quickly, though, that through it all there was a very bright light.
Mayor Menino and the city’s Parks Department were serious about seeing the work through and in Allen and Curtin they had loyal leaders with a passion to get it done. They could not have done, they will tell you, without the small parade of people who deserve great praise.
“Start with Mark Mungeam,” said Allen, pointing to areas where the architect’s restoration plan will push the cart path into the woods and free up more room for golfers. “He is so involved and had such a vision of this place.”
And the members, from the 400 pass-holders to the public golfers who keep coming back? “The huge majority of them understand that we’re trying to keep the conditions good,” said Curtin. “We work around them and they cooperate with his.”
Said Allen: “I guess in our own way we have figured it out.”
Oh, have they ever. So beautifully and with such care that Mass Golf held its State Amateur here in 2018 and will do so again in 2028. (In ’28 the Women’s State Amateur will be held at Franklin Park, a huge thumb’s up to these inner-city gems.)
Just always remember, said Curtin, that the work was for the best of reasons.
“The course always deserved this sort of love.”
