Wintonbury Hills Golf Course

Course was outstanding, fast but fair greens. Very well maintained, would return in a heart beat. Two issues: front desk told us carts would be loaded near barn. Cart guy was asleep in a cart inside the cart barn; we had to load ourselves. Pace of play was slow. No ranger. Group in front of us was incredibly slow. 2 holes open in front of them, no ranger in site.

I finally found it! A golf course in Ct. that takes full advantage of a great piece of property, offers challenging-yet-fair tests, has quick greens and is affordable!

Wintonbury Hills is a must-play, people. I was struck by its visual beauty and playability. Green complexes are just that -- complex. Playing it over and over again will be fun when I get to see different hole locations.

A real treat.

Course is in great shape. Greens are quick. Played from the back tees and the course isn't extremely long. The greens fees may be a little too high though.

I played this course as I was in the area yesterday. I'd always played Gillette Ridge in the past when I was in the Hartford area, but they've since closed.

Wintonbury Hills is a much better maintained course, though probably not as memorable. Value was great at $35 with a cart. Conditions were as good as you'll find on a public course. Most holes are fairly wide open, so you really can hit driver on almost every par 4 and 5. This really is a nice course for players of all levels. Gillette Ridge was not, it was geared exclusively towards advanced players.

This course would be of average difficulty if not for the greens. These are some of the trickiest greens I've ever seen, and they're also fast. There were several putts where I read it to break one way and it actually went the opposite way.

There were also a few quirks I noticed, one was somewhat charming, the other unbelievably annoying.

The former was a starter that takes his job WAY too seriously. He asked us if we'd ever played the course before, to which I replied no. He said, "Ok, so just a few things..." and then proceeded to read us a 5 paragraph essay about what to do and not to do on the course. He also forgot to mention the single most important piece of information, that all groups were starting on the 10th hole. I have never seen a course where every single group goes to #10. If someone can enlighten me, I'm all ears.

The latter quirk is regarding the GPS carts. So the carts do offer GPS, but the yardages are only to the center of the green as opposed to the flagstick. They also don't offer an enlarged view of the green. For a first-time player, that turns some blind approach shots into guesses on where the green actually is. Lastly, WH also doesn't allow the carts in the rough. And what happens if you do drive into the rough? The cart literally shuts down and you have to call the clubhouse so they can come out and have someone restart it. I know because it happened to us. 10 ft off the cart path. I asked the starter about this exact scenario, but I really didn't believe it. Instead of calling in, we literally pushed the cart backwards onto the cart path. 90% of golfers wouldn't have been able to do this, and would have jammed up the course waiting for someone to come restart their cart. A few holes later, I was on the cart path next to a tee box, and the GPS screen said i was in a restricted area! I thought the cart was going to shut down again, but luckily it reset once I put it in reverse.

How on earth do members of this course tolerate this garbage with the carts? I have literally played hundreds of nice courses, and have never seen anything like this. It's absolutely ridiculous.

First time playing this course. It is one of the best kept golf courses I have played this year! The greens were lightning fast and rolled true. Pace of play was decent for a challenging course. Took around 4 hours. Can't wait to play it again.

Played with my wife who had never played the course before. We were paired up with two great guys. Played in 4 Hours on a Sunday morning 8:30AM.
The course was in great shape. Greens were fast and a little difficult to stop a shot on. Beverage cart was circulating. Overall very enjoyable.

Booked a tee time over the phone for a Saturday afternoon at 1:00. Rate was not bad at all for the conditions of the course which were beautiful. I was paired up with a group of two as a solo and people I played with were very nice.
Starter was very informative and friendly at the start of the round as he went over the carts/green speeds/etc. to begin. I played from the tips and though somewhat long, the fairways for the most part are very wide so you can spray the ball a little without being penalized to much. Greens/Fairways/tee boxes were all in great shape and the greens rolled fast but true.
A few of the holes are pretty tough where you cant miss the fairways or your OB in the reservoir but just an overall great layout.
Seemed like we had a 4 man scramble finishing up before us which made the pace of play a little slow but nothing extremely terrible.]
I cant wait to get back to this course again sometime soon. Had a great time!

This course lay out is challenging and forces you to put the ball in the right place. The greens are fast break in strange ways. Great course.....

Wintonbury Hills is a great golf course. The green are fast but uniform in speed. The fairways and traps are meticulously maintained. The staff are helpful and courteous. One of the best courses in New England.

First, the course is visually stunning. Played on a weekday at 10am, so pace of play was not an issue. The course is one of the best maintained I've ever played. The fairways definitely reward a good drive, and there were plenty of slopes and hills. The greens were undulating, fast, and a true test. The starters were very friendly and accomodating. The cart GPS was an interesting technology, but it did not interfere with the experience. The price was below what I would expect for a course of this caliber.

The course was in great condition other than a few sand traps which could have been raked before play. Staff is very friendly. GPS on carts is a big help

Found a great GolfNow deal for Wintonbury, $37 for 18 holes on a Saturday at 5pm.

Course was well-maintained as always, place of play was good. Usually the wait time was only a minute or two on each tee if we didn't struggle on the previous hole.

Bunkers were in great shape, greens rolled very true. Pin placements were overall not too difficult. #13 was a really tough one, but none were unfair.

Staff was great in helping me locate a wedge I left behind on the course.

The one criticism I have is that the carts are way too over-sensitive in regards to the auto-shutdown program near rough and off-limits areas. One time it warned us to get back to the fairway while we were still IN the fairway.

But other than that, another fantastic round at Wintonbury. One of the best and most accessible courses in CT, IMO.

This is easily one of the best tracks in the state. From tee to green, the course was in impeccable shape. Challenges abound, but if you are a decent ball-striker and can figure out the greens (fast, but true!) you can score well here.

If you are from CT and haven't played here yet, you definitely need to add it to your list.

Wish time: these guys should take over Gillette Ridge and resurrect that place!

The course was in great shape with fast greens, which take some getting used to. Starter was superb. Pace of play was a bit slow and no sign of a Marshall to push some of the foursomes.

Always a pleasure to play. This course does not disappoint and let's you just play golf.

Paid for carts. Staff was extremely rude and told us that carts weren't available due to gps not working properly. Then halfway through the round, they were giving out carts to groups starting behind us. Clubhouse members were not pleasant or helpful. For a top rated course. I or the group I was with will not be going back to this course. They lost the business of about 15 players.

I have played this course many times before thru Golfnow and was able to get significant price reduction on peak times on weekends. This year I was not able to play as it is a bit pricey and the course did not have any discounts on weekends when I looked.The course is always in shape and Greens are one of the best of area courses. We played in early november weather was in the low fiftys. Wish I knew that the greens had been airated week ago so they werent perfect but had a good time.
Will refer a friend but again wish they would put out more Tee time discounts on Sundays in the morning.

The design of this course is a nice change from the standard Connecticut "keep it between the trees" course. I really enjoyed the openness (there are 4 tree-lined holes to remind you you're still in CT). A somewhat steady 10-15 mph wind made club and shot selection a little more challenging but my game could use a little more thought anyway. :-)

I didn't use the offsite driving range and decided to chip and putt on the practice green behind the clubhouse. A wise choice given the firmness of the greens.

The cart restrictions I read so much about are similar to those in Florida and are not at all onerous. It's not the cart's fault when you miss these wide fairways. Even when a fairway is missed, the rough keeps it from running too far.

Course was in excellent condition and the staff was both professional and friendly. I'm not sure why some reviewers expect to be pampered for a $70 round. The post round pub grub was a little better than standard fare as well.

I drove 70 miles to play and was not at all disappointed and will return (unfortunately not as much as I would like).

All in all a great course, I play there 3-4 times a year, greens were fast despite the dew on them which never really dissipated (10:20 start and there was still a little moisture on 18 green when we got there). Rest of course still in great shape. Staff was great with one exception, the only down fall was the was the person running the tavern. We were a little late getting to course, ran in and wanted to get something to drink to start, place was empty, called out twice but NO ONE responded so off I went to first tee!! Carts have GPS and on hole 7 screen comes up with food order. OK now were are getting somewhere, put in order before we tee off on #8 a par 5 played #9 par 3, get to clubhouse and have to wait 20 minutes for food to be done (burger ,fries, turkey sand) so we end up losing our place on #10. Just that one wrinkle puts a "bad taste" in our mouths for the day (sorry lol), so much so we don't go in after the round.

It's a pleasure to play in the first group to tee off, and the round played on Labor Day was no exception. While the course has an ample share of challenging holes, there are no gimmicks (except for maybe the 16th green with its devilish left to right incline that is not apparent from the approach). What really sets Wintonbury apart from other municipal courses is its contoured and very fast greens. I regularly play other public courses in Central Connecticut, but the others feature much slower putting surfaces. Too many 3-putts prevented me from breaking 80, but I look forward to the next time.