Vineyard Valley Golf Club

We enjoyed a fun round on a beautiful day. The course continues to make improvements and is always a great value!

It’s a trek up and down these hills in Pomfret, but a scenic one. What also impresses, always, about this course is the quiet feeling of seclusion. On a weekday morning, the course is on the quiet side, though there are always golfers out on the nine. Well, this is the quiet corner of Connecticut. I took a cart today, and was glad that I did–the walk is a rugged one.

Vineyard Valley is not a hard course, and it retains an old-school feel all the way until the last hole. That would be the ninth, a beast punctuated by a forced carry over a pond; it’s a near-island green. A good hole, to be sure, but I prefer the second, a less dramatic par three that still demands a well-struck mid-iron into the tiered, rolling green. The sixth, an uphill par-5, is also growing on me (each time I play it) because it tests the ability to hit two straight shots with the long clubs. Seven is a formidable downhill four-par with big trouble on the right, and eight an excellent drive-and-pitch hole. This is not a fancy layout with modern, large greens (excepting a couple of them), but it delivers playable golf holes with some challenges.

Conditioning still does not live up to the layout, but the trend is upward. The fairways suffer from too many weedy zones, but now they’re all grass-covered. Roughs and tees are mostly okay, but I find the greens on the slow and bumpy sides. Still, these greens have improved over the past couple of years; they were not too long ago plagued by a disease.

The young lady in the pro shop, Bean, was extremely helpful when I had a problem with my tee time. Outstanding service and follow-up in all respects! The atmosphere has always been friendly to course patrons, buy also less common visitors like me.

We really enjoyed our Vineyard Valley experience. Great layout and condition. Will definitely play it again.

Challenging course with beautiful views and friendly staff.

Played Vineyard Valley for the first time this year. The rate for 9 holes is grossly overpriced for what the course is ($30/9 holes with a cart). What to expect? Fairways that you can’t distinguish from the rough (over run with tons of clover, and big leafy weeds). Greens that have crabgrass and zero care taken for them. Three of the greens actually looked like minefields with significant bare and rough spots with ZERO grass. Golf should reward you for a good shot. This place you can hit a green and wish you weren’t on it putting through the minefield. The tee boxes don’t have too many level spots. Sand traps are over run with weeds and look like they haven’t been raked in years.

On top of that, the pro shop staff are clueless. The old owners (Eric and then Jabbar) actually had some pride to how the course plays and is cared for. That said, the new management is clearly using it to harvest it for profit. It is terrible to play there. They said they are aware of “problems” with the greens and they have struggled to care for them. They could easily use plugs from the two putting greens to replace the bad green turf with healthier turf from the spare greens. And it does fill in if properly mowed and watered.

$30 is not where this course belongs price wise (Windham is a better value at $30!). It belongs in the $10-15 range, no more.

This course has an easy rating but is very tricky. Holes 1-6, you make your way to the top of the hill where the views are spectacular. Holes 7-9 come back down the hill. You finish on 9 with an island green. This course requires some accuracy.

The owners are new & are constantly making improvements. It’s a fun relaxing golf course but if you spray the ball, you may lose a few😎

Course was unexpectedly amazing, loved the simplicity and layout.

Course itself was in rough shape but the layout was fantastic. Course has a mountains feel with many hills and challenging tee boxes. Will definitely be back and recommend to friends.

A course that is basically built on one huge hillside, save for final hole of these nine, Vineyard Valley offers some entertaining holes and a few challenging ones. A pleasant setting greets you as you start your round behind the clubhouse. Yet the first hole, which travels straight uphill, provides no gentle start to the round. The hole is short for a par four, but seems to play sixty yards longer than its stated length. To add to the challenge: the first green is set on a tall mound. The cypress trees that line most of these fairways have been clearly deployed by the (unknown?) architect to make your life miserable, very frequently, when hitting into an adjoining fairway. The fairways meander up and down–as well as back and forth–on that giant hill. If you’re not good at hitting from sidehill lies, you may want to brush up a bit before playing here; you’ll find no shortage of them on three through five, with four playing as the #1 index. Vineyard Valley slopes at an above-average 120 from the blues.

Fun Stuff:

Vineyard Valley is outfitted with three entertaining holes. The seventh and eighth both skirt dense woods on the right–so both are mean to slicers. Seven, a tough hole to even par, will have you walking off the green with a swagger if you can card a four or less. Playing eight seems to me the golfing equivalent of eating a chocolate eclair, as a tasty driving challenge awaits, and from the tee you’ll be lured into pounding a drive as far as possible over the pond. But flighting the ball over the pond means a forced carry. Unfortunately, I still can’t drive the green on this 300-yard hole, but it’s still nice to hit a 30-yard pitch as your approach shot. Nine is a medium-length three-par that’s heavily guarded in front and on the sides by water. Almost every tee shot I’ve ever hit from the ninth tee feels somewhat chancy–although the green is not so elusive as it appears.

Conditioning:

Vineyard Valley definitely improved this year, and course conditions have risen a few notches over last year and several before that. While conditions are still about average, and not unexpectedly have fallen off somewhat in the late fall, it’s good to be able to play nearly every fairway stroke here without looking for a preferred lie. Overall, the fairways were about average and the roughs about the same, but the bunkers were pretty good. Still, the greens ran a bit slow for my liking, and the tees fair. But putting surfaces are conditioned far better than before and basically roll truly; now only green seven needs a good deal of work.

Some Conclusions:

While Vineyard Valley is not a course for those golfers who might actually prefer to be hampered by tough bunkers and water and trees everywhere, this layout still poses some firm challenges. I’m not a great fan of an excess of strong side slopes (as at 3, 4, and 5), yet they do offer some scoring resistance. And there’s little doubt that the fourth hole is both challenging and well-designed. Better still, the closing trio of holes ends your nine with a flourish.

You can really tell that they've put work into this course and it's paid off! I'll definitely be back.

It's was my first time there loved it can't wait to come back