Stow Acres Marks 100th Anniversary With 50-Cent Green Fees

Stow Acres Country Club, a public 27-hole facility about 30 miles west of Boston, dropped its weekday South Course green fee to 50 cents this week as part of a sellout 100th-anniversary promotion.

Why is Stow Acres historically significant?

The property opened in 1926 as a 9-hole course called Mapledale Country Club, one of the first Black-owned and -operated golf courses in the United States. Mapledale hosted the National Black Men's Championship that year and again in 1927 and 1928. Original owner Robert Hawkins ran it for three years before losing the course during the Great Depression. It later grew to 36 holes and became Stow Acres.

How did the course land on a 50-cent fee?

General manager David Carlson set the price after the club recovered an old roadside sign, of unknown origin, advertising weekday green fees of 50 cents. He paired it with a throwback layout, using old aerial photos to rebuild the South Course's front nine toward its 1920s routing: pulling the par-5s, adding three temporary greens and shortening the first hole from 365 yards to 165.

A recovered 50-cent road sign and a rebuilt 1920s routing turned one week into Stow Acres' biggest sellout in memory.

Pro shop staffer and week-long starter Paul Melo said the deal ran from 12:30 to 4 p.m. daily, drawing roughly 60-70 golfers at 50 cents apiece. "We're losing money but we're getting new eyeballs on the course," Melo said, adding that regulars and first-time visitors from well outside the area filled the tee sheet each day.