Golf course on Massachusetts-Rhode Island state line faces guidelines from both states

The Pawtucket Country Club is based in Rhode Island, however, most of the golf course is actually in Massachusetts.

Therefore, players reportedly have to abide by both states’ guidelines when it comes to playing the course.

Rhode Island, unlike Massachusetts, never shut down its golf courses during the coronavirus pandemic. The state did place guidelines though, one of which being that only Rhode Islanders could play at Rhode Island courses.

This is now causing problems for the golf course as Massachusetts allowed golf courses to reopen under state guidelines on Thursday. Massachusetts residents still can’t play all 18 holes at the Pawtucket Country Club due to Rhode Island’s restrictions. The first and 10th holes, the putting green on the 18th hole, and the clubhouse of the country club are located in Rhode Island, which means Rhode Islanders can still play the course’s 18 holes.

“Until they can play all 18 holes, we’re not really keeping score,” Max Jackson, a Rhode Island resident, told WCVB’s David Bienick on playing the course with his Massachusetts friends.

Which holes Massachusetts players can and can’t play isn’t the only restriction players at the course have to deal with. Under the guidelines to reopen released by Massachusetts on Thursday, players in the state cannot use golf carts and have to walk from hole to hole. Rhode Island doesn’t have that same guideline, as players from its state can still use a golf cart.

Gary Reiss, a co-owner of the country club, told Bienick that it takes $1 million each year to maintain the greens on the golf course and that he’s worried members are going to cancel their memberships due to both states’ laws.

“These are blue-collar, hard-working people,” Reiss told Bienick. “I’m not looking for a favor for spoiled rich people in any way. These people deserve to be out there.”