Tallwood Country Club

Sand traps were wet and greens were slow compared to other courses I played.

Great course. Great staff. Always love playing there.

From first hole to finish, Tallwood’s course coherently blends tree-lined, undulating fairways, huge greenside bunkers and large, tilting greens, on which architects Michael and Karnig Ovian applied the general themes of Robert Trent Jones, Sr. This is especially so because they mixed in enough water hazards –there are eight holes with ponds in play–to generate what are a few basically forced carries into greens. The resultant set of risk-reward possibilities, which is a mid-20th-century Trent Jones staple, may tempt ambitious players into testing the limits of their shotmaking skills. The big, deep Tallwood bunkers maintain the general spirit of Jones’ style, as well, except that they’re roundish: none are multi-lobed. At Tallwood, greenside bunker(s) appear at every hole but three–the exceptions appearing only on the incoming nine –and they dictate one’s best angle of approach into nearly every one of these putting surfaces. Playing out of them requires both skill and often some finesse. Fairway bunkers, however, only appear at the sides of holes two, seven, and sixteen, but they too are large, and, in the case of the monstrous, sloping left-side trap at sixteen, troublesome. Hazardous, too, are Tallwood’s huge, often majestic trees; they line, more often than not, both sides of the fairways. And almost none of them will interfere with the general line of play unless a hooked or sliced tee shot–or an approach on a par-5–has wandered a bit too much. Generally, the fairways are broad, allowing some forgiveness off the tees, but many still slope enough to require careful selection of where the drive is to land. Yet the trees, huge and dense on fairway borders, are so large that they provided shade today into the later afternoon and early evening hours. They also form a pleasant (but also possibly dangerous) backdrop for most of the greens.

Tallwood also invites varied shotmaking and rewards those adept at the short game. While holes one, two, four, five, thirteen, and sixteen favor a fade off the tee, it’s preferable to carve a draw or even a mild hook on the tee at four. And most of the straight holes give the option of either draw or fade–the ‘airspace’ allows it. It was interesting to see that trees have been cut down just past the left rough by the landing zone at seventeen, making it–I would say–a better hole because it had been rather unforgiving in the past. Better players should appreciate the considerable up/down movement incorporated into nine of these holes, and, even though the rest are somewhat flat, the ground still moves enough on them, especially around the greens. The greens themselves, often very large and undulant, pitch at varying degrees, from the very slopy fifth, ninth, tenth and twelfth to the relatively flat surfaces at eleven and seventeen.

Tallwood, in short, makes for a great but also varied test of golf that should please both serious and more casual golfers alike. As a former men’s club member here, I was reminded of the beauty of this course, enhanced particularly today in the twilight hours of a warm spring day. It has to be one of the most attractive courses across Connecticut, but in an unshowy, never-fussy way: the bunkers are impressively large but don’t overshadow the trees, which dominate everything else. The ponds also look, by their asymmetry, very natural and not man-made–though presumably they’re artificial. From tee eleven through the fourteenth, the routing emerges from the woodland into a stunning area of farmland (in fact, a farm lies nearby on an adjacent property).

Best Holes:

The fifth will tax your grit–it’s a brutally tough, uphill par-4 from tee to cup, but the best combination of difficulty and beauty is the post-card fifteenth, where a serene pond likes to quietly swallow Titlests and Bridgestones. Sixteen, straightforward and reachable by long hitters, is a fine par-5.

Playing Experience:

Glacial on the front nine! Generally, I enjoy playing this course, but not as much as when two hours and forty minutes elapse before completing a nine. At the ninth, we finally were able to squeeze by the foursome ahead of ours (seemingly by default), but no marshal had appeared at any time to alleviate the backup. Things sped up on the back. Luckily, though, I joined three good and interesting players today–initials M, M and D–who made the round fun despite the pace.

Conditions:

Good almost everywhere, but the bunkers lagged far behind everything because they went unraked after the previous day’s rains (muddy and virtually unplayable). The greens were outstanding, the fairways and tees good, and the greenside areas and fringes very good to excellent.

Conclusions:

Tallwood delivers a beautiful, mostly straightforward tee-to-green test with challenging greens—coupled with huge, well-placed bunkers to complete the package. With some risk-reward opportunities on a few holes, it’s also intriguing. Too bad the play was slow today, but that shouldn’t deter me from coming back fairly soon. The golf is just too good.

Good coarse early season shape will get better Starter was fantastic

1st round at Tallwood this year. Pace of play was very good @ 4hrs. Conditions form tee to green were good, rough was typical for tallwood sparse in some spots & lush in others. Fairways were uniformly very good. Greens need TLC, they hadn't been cut on a monday so were a bit slow. They've recently had a procedure that leaves lines in the green making them bumpy & difficult to hold the line as putts lost speed. Give it a few weeks...

This course was great. The pace of play was excellent and the ranger was on top of it. 4 hours for the round of 18. Greens were fast. The course is beautiful.

Great courses usual. We finish the front nine in one hour and 40 minutes. The back name is a different story. It almost took us three hours to play back nine.

This is never happened to me before? After finishing the front nine we go to the 10th hole, the T off and there’s a group standing there, that’s starting to play nine holes? Most courses won’t allow you to do that. Also, there was a major log jam on the back nine and no Marshall be seen.

The guy that runs the snack bar needs to have a better attitude. Saying that he was rude was an understatement.

I guess I’m just used to being treated well at Blackledge.

The course conditions are probably better later in the year. Fairways were thin, tee boxes were pretty beat up.

On a positive note, staff was great and greens were rolling true.

I was pleased with how friendly the staff was - especially the Starter and even more so, the Ranger. That hasn't always been the case at Tallwood. It has improved over the years but it was much more noticeable this round. The course was in good shape for late April. I appreciate the fact that this course has a nice practice area, especially a sand trap! We'll be back.