Prisco’s Pine Grove Park - Bridgewater, MA
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Score: 84/100
Would we play this course again? Yes.
Should you play this course? Yes.
The Takeaway: Prisco’s Pine Grove Park offers up a thoughtfully-designed, well-built and nicely maintained course that provides a fun time for both kids and competitive mini golfers. The course uses a mix of slopes, dips, undulations, and rock obstructions on many holes to put your putting skills to the test. On some holes Prisco’s introduces props with a nice nod to New England, including a giant baseball on the Fenway Park-inspired 4th hole and some candlepin bowling pins on the 7th hole. This course does a good job of offering the player a couple choices on how to play each hole, and leaves it up to them on how best to manage the the risk-reward calculation. This is the type of course that will have you replaying holes after you finish to try to figure out just how best to play them. Prisco’s is definitely worth a visit, and for those locals trying to make best use of their time it’s safe to say that this course handily beats out Golf Country (Easton) located nearby.
Prisco’s Pine Grove Park in Bridgewater
TECHNICAL REVIEW
Prisco’s Pine Grove Park is located in Bridgewater and tucked off Route 18 in an area (eponymously) surrounded by pine trees. The mini golf course is not visible from the road so it’s unlikely you’d just happen upon it unless you notice the signage on the road and decide to turn off. The course is part of a Prisco’s complex and accompanied by the nearby Prisco’s Market and Deli, which serves up assorted food including pizza and sandwiches, and which also sells various sports memorabilia and home goods. There is also a separate Prisco’s ice cream stand that is located at the main entrance along Route 18. For mini golf you’ll want to park in the dirt parking lot near the porta-potty bathrooms, which is the area to the left upon entering the complex from Route 18. Once parked, walk across the area with woodchips and you’ll see the entrance building to pay for your round of mini golf, near the batting cages.
As you make your way to the first hole it’s clear that the mini golf course is in relatively new condition, and that care and attention has gone into its construction as evidenced by the nice waterfall feature entrance sign shown above. It’s always a nice sign (pun intended) when you see a nice entrance sign to a course. To the golf we go!
The first hole is a deceptively difficult hole that gives a you a clear shot at the cup, that is if you can navigate the subtle break carrying just the right amount of speed. It also provides a good indicator of the typical hole design used on the rest of the course. Brick borders are used throughout and are in good condition. Putting mats are used (pictured below) but are not fixed in place and can be moved to your preferred starting position. Each hole has a very nice sign with the name of the hole on it. Holes here use metal-lipped cups with a plastic black grate on the bottom (maybe for drainage purposes, though it also reduces any satisfying plunk when you sink your putt; also the cups are oddly shallow but with the plastic grate absorbing most of the impact we didn’t have any balls bounce out).
We really need to learn industry names for different mini golf green materials, but the style used here is the carpet/rug type of material (versus the artificial turf style greens). It plays relatively fast in our opinion; expect it to take a few holes to get your speed dialed in. It would have been terrific if Prisco’s had included a practice putting green as part of the course, though this is a slightly nit-picky observation. It’s terrific when courses have these practice areas so that we can properly warmup, though regardless of how much we do we still end up three, four, and five-putting.
The second hole offers a split path choice over a stream, and here it’s worth pointing out that the landscaping on the course is generally quite nice. We’re far from educated in the field of botany, so we can’t comment more beyond this; we prefer to point like cavemen at the pretty colored flowers and grunt approvingly. White flower! Grunt! Tall grass! Higher pitched grunt!
The third hole has a slightly precarious cup position with a lower-tiered green at the back that provides some punishment should you hammer it past the hole. You’re offered a couple choices here (or more depending how you much you’re willing to think outside the box): go for a bank around the rock or take the narrow straight lane towards the cup. Unsolicited advice here is to believe in yourself and go right for the cup, if anything just leaving it a bit short. The bank is tempting but you’ll find it impossible to get a satisfying angle. Rest assured, this is the last unsolicited and thoroughly unhelpful advice you’ll get (strategy is one thing…making the putts is obviously a whole different animal).
While we’re tempted to do a hole by hole run through of things, we’ll just hit a few highlights and leave you to explore the rest on your own in person:
The multi-tiered 4th hole (“Fenway”) with a giant baseball in the way gives a nice nod to Fenway Park with a hanging vinyl Green Monster off to the side (with the Red Sox thoroughly beating the Yankees according to the scoreboard). Do you bank and go around the baseball or risk it and try to go right though?
On the 7th hole (“Plinko”) there is a nice Plinko-esque utilization of some candlepin-style bowling pins. They may or may not factor into how you play the hole, but it’s nice to see Massachusetts-born candlepin bowling make an appearance on a mini golf course in some small way. Take a look at the video below on this hole:
The downhill 9th hole (“Mr. Easy”) with a lower-tiered green section lurking in the background was confounding until we dialed in our nice light tap to the left from the tee box. The lower-tiered green section is something that this course utilizes nicely on a few holes including the 3rd, 9th, and 10th. It’s a fun added element when you know that unless you’re playing carefully you’ll have to contend with an uneven uphill putt back to the hole.
The 10th hole (“Mission Impossible”) is one that requires a well-placed putt for a bank shot to the hole, if not you’ll be on one of those lower-tiered green sections and will have to work your way back up to the hole. Take a look below to see a nice putt on this hole:
As you wind your way along through the rest of the back nine, the general hole style from the front nine continues, with some natural rock obstructions, dips and undulations to navigate, and more decisions to make (go through the tree on the 11th or steer around it? Yes, another appearance on a mini golf course of the hollowed out tree hole…we may be up to 8 or 9 examples of this by now). At points the mini golf here does start to feel repetitive. There are no major surprises, huge twists or turns, or hole designs that are out of left field and totally wacky. It would have been nice if the water that flows through most of the course factored into a hole as a hazard and cause for concern. The hole length too starts to feel very similar, and can even feel a little too small and cozy; it would have been nice to add in a very long hole or two, along with a relatively short hole or two in order to stay within the same course footprint.
These are mostly minor quibbles because overall the course offers up good, consistent mini golf that rewards well-placed shots, though there may be a missed opportunity here to really gin up the creativity and push this course to an outstanding level. But thankfully this course mostly succeeds in the fundamentals including greens that run true and are putt-able (though in a couple places the surface around the cups can get a little wonky with some unintended deviations that frustratingly throw off your putts).
Closing out the course, there is a ski-ball style 18th hole. As always, it’s nice when there’s a proper 18th hole, especially when the bulk of this course is well designed. There are no prizes (e.g. free round or ice cream) associated with this hole; according to sources the honor system method that was in place for reporting hole in ones here was not working out too well with too many false claims of success so any giveaways attached to it were apparently removed.
APPENDIX
This is certainly a course worth playing. While not wildly inventive or creative, it succeeds at providing a nice challenge and is well maintained and well looked after. Each hole will find you strategizing and considering bank angles and slope breaks; those with obstructions will have you considering whether to thread the needle and go right at the hole, or take the more sure path around (it’s worth nothing that it’s definitely possible, though challenging, to get a hole in one on each hole here).
If you’re on top of your game here, are a solid mini golfer who has played the course before, and are using some good strategic shot choices you should be able to come away with a 36-42 for 18 holes. If you’re like us and winging it on the first time through, making mistakes left and right (and middle, and out of bounds too), you’ll come in at the mid to high 40’s to low 50’s but should be able to whittle that down considerably in subsequent rounds.
And on that note it’s also worth commenting that there are various tournaments held here throughout the year, so if you’re looking to compete against other mini golfers this may be the place for you.
Pay this place a visit, see how it goes for you, and feel free to drop us a line with comments, questions, concerns, or any other observations.