Greetings from Manchester, New Hampshire and the Vermont and New Hampshire Area!

This page will give you information on golf courses, golf practice and training centers, driving ranges, alternative golf facilities, and golf retailers from Burlington and Rutland, Vermont; and Manchester, Portsmouth, Plymouth and Concord, New Hampshire.

This Area Development is currently available for purchase.

Parmasters Golf Training Centers is the world's first, year-round indoor golf training center franchise that literally guarantees results. If you are interested, and think you might qualify, visit our home page by clicking here, then, of you like what you see, complete an Initial Contact Questionnaire by clicking here.

Meanwhile, hit 'em straight but not too often.

PS We also have information on a featured local golf course, and the latest news from the National Golf Foundation.

For information click on each item below:

1. Golf courses in this area;
2. Golf practice and training centers;
3. Driving ranges;
4. Alternative golf facilities; 
5. Golf retailers;
6. Our featured local golf course; and
7. The latest news from the National Golf Foundation.

1. Golf courses
   
    

   All Courses near Manchester, New Hampshire

   Click a course for the current weather, course overview, and contact phone number, courtesy the Weather Channel.   Course Name Type Intervale Country Club Manchester, NH Public Manchester Country Club Bedford, NH Private Derryfield Country Club Manchester, NH Municipal Stonebridge Country Club Goffstown, NH Public Londonderry Country Club Londonderry, NH Public Hidden Valley RV and Golf Park Derry, NH Public Hoodkroft Country Club Derry, NH Public Candia Woods Golf Links Candia, NH Public Passaconaway Country Club Litchfield, NH Public Buckmeadow Golf Club Amherst, NH Public Ponemah Green Family Golf Center Amherst, NH Public Souhegan Woods Golf Club Amherst, NH Public Amherst Country Club, Inc. Amherst, NH Public Countryside Golf Club Dunbarton, NH Public Applewood Golf Links Windham, NH Public Bill Flynn's Windham Country Club Windham, NH Public Green Meadow Golf Club Hudson, NH Public Whip-Poor-Will Golf Club Hudson, NH Public Tory Pines Golf Resort Francestown, NH Public Atkinson Country Club & Resort Atkinson, NH Public Plausawa Valley Country Club Suncook, NH Public Nashua Country Club Nashua, NH Private Campbell's Scottish Highlands Golf Course Salem, NH Public Kingston Fairways Kingston, NH Public The Overlook Country Club Hollis, NH Public Ridge Golf Club Hollis, NH Public Sky Meadow Country Club Nashua, NH Private Pine Valley Golf Links, Inc. Pelham, NH Public Beaver Meadow Golf Course Concord, NH Municipal Concord Country Club Concord, NH Private Apple Hill Golf Club East Kingston, NH Public Garrison Golf Center Inc. Haverhill, MA Public Crystal Springs Golf Club Haverhill, MA Public Northfields Haverhill, MA Private Exeter Country Club Exeter, NH Public Haverhill Golf & Country Club Haverhill, MA Private Monadnock Country Club, Inc. Peterborough, NH Public Hickory Hill Golf Course Methuen, MA Public Merrimack Golf Club Methuen, MA Public Bradford Country Club Haverhill, MA Public Rockingham Country Club Newmarket, NH Public Tyngsboro Country Club Tyngsboro, MA Public Vesper Country Club Tyngsboro, MA Private Amesbury Golf & Country Club Amesbury, MA Public Angus Lea Golf Course Hillsboro, NH Public Duston Country Club Contoocook, NH Public Hickory Pond Inn & Golf Course Durham, NH Public North Andover Country Club North Andover, MA Private Townsend Ridge Country Club Townsend, MA Public Nippo Lake Golf Club Barrington, NH Public Mt Pleasant Golf Club Lowell, MA Private Long Meadow Golf Club, Inc. Lowell, MA Private The Georgetown Club Georgetown, MA Private

   
   
    

2. Golf practice and training centers
   
   coming soon!
    
3. Driving ranges
   
   coming soon!
    
4. Alternative golf facilities
   
   coming soon!
    
5. Golf retailers
   
   coming soon!
    
6. Our featured local golf course
   
   Canterbury Woods Country Club, Canterbury, New Hampshire
   
   by Ron Whitten, GolfDigest.com
   
   
   If I hadn't known better, three holes into my round at the Canterbury Woods Country Club in Canterbury, N.H., I would have sworn I was playing a vintage Geoffrey Cornish course. I don't mean that as a criticism or an insult, just an observation.
   
   Readers should know I consider Cornish an old and dear friend, with whom I've co-authored two books on golf architecture. He's considered the Dean of New England golf course architecture, having done over 450 layouts in the region. But most of his designs were low-budget jobs, extremely low-budget in some cases, and as a result, critics these days shrug off his work as pedestrian. I don't claim Cornish's designs are great works of art, or even great courses, but I do appreciate what he produced, because I know what restraints he operated under.
   
   The par-5 10th hole at Canterbury Woods.
   I knew going in that Canterbury Woods was a design of Ross Forbes, not Geoff Cornish. Forbes is a New Hampshire native who spent 20 years learning the trade around the world before returning to create a public course just a few miles from his hometown of Whitefield. He's why I was playing Canterbury, to study the work of yet another new name in the field.
   
   But by the third hole, I couldn't shake the Cornish comparisons. A par 4, up and over a horizon off the tee, downhill on the second shot to a diagonal green on the far side of a stream, the putting surface fit beautifully into a hillside, a thin ridge line of oaks behind, an hourglass-shaped bunker on the right, separating the green collar from the stream bed. Yeah, it reminded me of Cornish, as had the first and second holes.
   
   Other holes offered more reinforcement for my opinion: the downhill par-5 10th, the downhill par-3 11th and especially the 199-yard 13th, a pretty tree-framed hole with an austere green guarded by a bunker short left, one closer to the green on the right, and a stream well short. Canterbury Woods is less than two years old, but these holes looked right off of Cornish drawing board of the 1970s.
   
   Maybe Forbes played Cornish designs growing up (hard not to, growing up in New England) and that planted some subconscious notions in his mind. Or maybe it's just the nature of building in rugged New Hampshire terrain that results in Cornish-like holes (although Forbes found plenty of pockets of sand amidst the ledgerock of Canterbury). Or maybe any designer creating a modest-budget course on this site would have come up with the simple green shapes, simple bunker style and inviting, non-threatening drives and second shots. Whatever the reason, Canterbury Woods struck me as the result of good old Yankee modesty and pragmatics.
   
   Forbes does have a slight connection to Cornish. As a high school student, he'd written Cornish for advice on how to break into the business. Cornish had him lay out 18 holes on an actual topo, then inspected it. Convinced he was serious and had potential, Cornish told him to get a landscape architecture degree. Ross was smart enough to do so in a warm climate, at the University of Arizona.
   
   But Canterbury Woods is not what I had expected from Forbes, who had bounced around for 15 years as a project architect for Ron Fream in Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea and then for Brad Benz in Spain and England. Those architects are known for their massive manipulation of earth and for making big, bold statements in their golf holes. I figured I'd see that influence on this course. But Canterbury reflects a more old-fashioned use-what-you're-given approach. In retrospect, that makes perfect sense. When I first met Forbes in 1996, he told me he was working on a history of golf course design. (different from the ones I'd done with Cornish, he was quick to point out). Architects who are history buffs tend to follow the lessons of the past rather than strike off in new directions.
   
   
   
   The par-3 13th hole at Canterbury Woods.
   I'm sure Ross Forbes feels Canterbury Woods is in keeping with the grand tradition of another Ross. But I think it's more akin to Cornish, particularly because Geoff had a habit of creating a few mundane transition holes on his designs, usually to traverse impossible land to get to the good stuff. There are a couple of those at Canterbury. The fairway on the par-4 ninth slopes so severely from left to right that it's hard to keep a drive from rolling into the right rough (or into the trees on the right.) I don't know why this fairway wasn't flattened more - maybe there's rock underneath, or maybe not enough money - but it's not a good hole. But it links the truly daunting par-3 eighth, which plays across the sideslope of a steep ravine, and the terrific par-5 10th. Elsewhere, the short par-5 16th plays to a plateau fairway then down and over a creek ravine, which is blind on the second shot for golfers who don't hit it far enough off the tee. Not a bad hole, just a local knowledge one. But it links two of the best holes on the course, the uphill pitch-shot par-3 17th, over a hillside of bunkers, and the dual-fairway, dogleg-left 560-yard 15th.
   
   The latter is my favorite hole on the course, and after reviewing my file on Ross Forbes, I know why. Back in 1987, Forbes entered Golf Digest's original Armchair Architect contest. His proposed hole featured a dual fairway, separated by a stream, which then wandered along the left edge to the green. That's essentially the hole he created for the 15th at Canterbury Woods. Geoffrey Cornish never did anything like it. Neither did Donald Ross. This hole is pure, original Ross Forbes.
   
   The Details
   Canterbury Woods Country Club
   15 West Rd.
   Canterbury, New Hampshire 03224
   For tee times: 603-783-9400
   www.canterburywoodscc.com
   Green fees: $32 (weekdays) $38 (weekends)
   Walking allowed anytime
    
7. The latest news from the National Golf Foundation
   
   Retention in Golf Better than Expected
   
   NGF president Joe Beditz presented the results of a GOLF 20/20-commissioned research study regarding retention in golf, at the 20/20 annual conference on November 15. The objectives of the study were to quantify the retention rate of beginners in golf, see how golf’s retention rate compares to other sports and discover whether golf’s retention can be positively affected and, if so, by what factors. Click here for the story.
   
   NGF Rounds Played
   
   Get connected to the industry’s first Internet-based data collection tool for golf facility operators. Track your own performance and compare it to local, regional and national statistics. With RoundsPlayed.com you can share data confidentially, view information online and generate reports 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
   
   Click here to view map showing regional rounds data for October.

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