Tallwood Country Club

The practice facilities at Tallwood are outstanding. Show up early or stay late and take advantage. Front nine was in great shape. In fact fairways and tee boxes were all nice considering the severe drought this year. Back 9 greens were aerated and sanded which made them slow and bumpy. They were poor for putting. Course is pretty this time of year with the leaves changing.

Front Nine Review: Ranked highly in Golf Advisor’s 2019 ‘top fifteen’ list of Connecticut courses, Tallwood keeps earning its place as a strong venue highly praised by reviewers. The first thing I noticed here today, after I noticed how incredibly full the parking lot was for Wednesday during mid-afternoon, had to do with the course conditions. Considering the long dry spell we’ve recently gotten over, the fairway and green/greenside conditioning was excellent. Harsh critics may fault the rough, though it was mostly playable and often still quite lush. But I think it a stretch to really attack Connecticut golf course conditioning in the waning days of the summer of 2020. More than that, this course is heavily played, and despite that fact it remains in fairly remarkable shape.

I was reminded again of how I respect the high quality of this front nine, also liking it a bit better than Tallwood’s more watery and somewhat more target-oriented inward half. The whole course is a strong driving test, but even more so on the front, with its strongly sloped, tree-lined and bending fairways, a few of them on the tight side. I’ve always felt that this nine, too, favors those who can patiently grind out every shot from tee to cup. But it’s not a boring grind, mainly because there is enough width on most of the fairways, especially the first, fourth, and seventh, to work the ball creatively. You can also have a go at both of these five-pars, especially the fourth. And at the second hole, I was pleased to see some pruning done on the prominent tall tree guarding the first fifty yards or so of fairway’s right side. This has opened up the hole dramatically, and enough so that you’re not forced, virtually, to fade the ball strongly for a decent result. Tallwood keeps getting better.

Pace of play was excellent, about 1:50 for nine holes. Yes, there didn’t seem to be marshals here today (a recent reviewer complained about this) and this time no harm, no foul, but I’ll chime in and say every course should have them. I also had a good time with my two playing partners (they’re pictured), who were enjoying their match and went on to play eighteen. They both, if I have this correct, live north of Hartford and have typically enjoyed Rolling Meadows and Topstone, but they liked it here today; one is planning to become a Tallwood member. Picking up a course scorecard, I found that it’s been bettered, with an extra ‘foldout’ detailing individual holes—this includes key yardages, safety notes, and some quick tips to abet player strategy.

Favorite Holes on Front Side:
One: Perfect opening hole that challenges somewhat on the uphill drive: go too far right and you’re in the trees; too much leftward and you’ll usually roll down the slope into an awkward lie. The second shot is about precision. Usually I’ll hit a three-hybrid on the second followed by a flip wedge. I once was able to reach this green in two, but no more. That’s not, unfortunately, because Tallwood made the hole longer. Don’t miss right here on the approach. The first green is huge, so three-putting it is common.
Five: An unyielding, long 4-par on which you’ll need an excellent tee shot, ideally a fade. The approach may even be tougher with its uphill carry into a well-guarded green. Another obstacle to a par here is having to two-putt a strongly contoured, two-tiered green.
Seven: Although its quality may be overlooked, this seems to me one of Tallwood’s best holes. Short but strategic, it should force you to think carefully about tee shot placement: Do you want to carry the bunkers, or maybe thread them? Get by them and you’ll have a short wedge into the green; get into them and bogey becomes distinctly possible: two more big bunkers front the green, and the woods come up fast behind it.

Tallwood is a great course that needs a ranger in the worst way. Course layout is great with water on 9 holes. Conditions of tees, fairways & greens were very good, Rough was dry and hard on some holes. Ponds were very low indicating just how dry this summer has been. Pace of play was the worst I've seen this year, especially the front 9 which took 2:45 alone. Overall round was 4:50 totally unacceptable especially for a 10:40 tee time on a Tuesday..

First time playing at Tallwood. The course was very good. The greens were in excellent conditions but the pin placement were a bit hard.. Despite the lack of rain lately the fairways were very good only a few yellow patches. I would recommend the course and I look forward in playing again soon.

Tallwood is always one of the best maintained courses in the state...even in a severe drought state.

Quite frankly there are not enough stars here to give this place a proper rating. The course pro Eric is an awesome guy. Kind, understanding and runs a great course. Extremely helpful with golf grips and suggestions to help my golf game. I love talking golf with him. I find the staff there very friendly and warm as well. Allison came over from Willowbrook and she is awesome too. She continues to be helpful and friendly. Tallwood is lucky to have both of them. I like that. I started playing Tallwood this year but I have already played about 20 rounds or more there. It is a very well kept course and I would say the level of difficulty is moderate. There is lots of practice area there for chipping and putting and a really good driving range. So its a great place to practice and play. It just doesn't get any better than that. I will spend most of my golf rounds at this course. I cannot imagine a better place to play. Both the front and back 9 are great there. The course itself is very beautiful and country like. It would be hard to find something not to like there. I rate them 12 stars. If they ever come out with a club membership for Seniors I will buy a membership there. Joe

I always try and play this course a couple of times a year greens were running nice fairways were in good shape also play was a little slow but that doesn’t seem to happen very often on this course.

All day in the sun

Usually played this 3 to 5 times per year maybe it’s Covid or whatever but it was extremely slow. Also lots of brown out, the course could use some TLC

Extremely interesting course. Challenging but not too much so. Plan to play again soon

I have played this course many times however today pace of play was quite slow and course looks like it needs some TLC

Very very slow play today. We had no one behind us for a while so we could practice our putting and chipping Stuck behind a couple groups that were definitely playing very slow The course is beautiful. The staff are great. Just the pace of play was painful today

Excellent layout, pace was fantastic, a quiet day but you can tell they are organized. Great practice area and put put.