Minnechaug Golf Course

Third time here, every time we have gotten stuck behind a group that wants to act like they have the entire course to themselves. We walked 9, just two of us, early morning tee time, started on time, and easily caught a pair in front of us within 2 holes that was using a cart.... this is my third time here and pace of play has been an issue every time. I have never seen a course rep out on the course to make sure people are moving along, not looking for a ball for 10 minutes, taking one or two extra tee shots at EVERY HOLE, or just being overall rude. I watched this father son team on the 8th (water hole, short par3, after a very long walk to get to the tee box) take three tee shots while we waited, then drove to the green, again we are waiting on the tee box, and the pair behind us is now waiting on their cart, they took three attempts at the same putt. I know this type of situation isn’t exactly in the control of the course, but they need someone out there to move along people like this, I e played here three times and each time I can give you a similar story that absolutely wrecked pace of play, I don’t believe in coincidence.

Ground is very hard, broke a club head off on a regular powered hit. Grounds need some improvement.

not fond of the course but for $13 dea,l 9 w/cart. figured a bargain to work on my game...not a dificult course, some holes leave you scratching ones head trying to understand why they were designed the way they were, short course, finishing with 2 par 3;s one a fun island hole and the 9th over a pond, both fairly easy finishing holes. Greens in decent shape but fast, again not my preference.

An interesting short course designed by Geoffrey Cornish, Minnechaug normally rates a higher recommendation than I can give it today. Right now the course’s surface conditioning is on the mend after the violence of Storm Isaias last month, when a local power outage here disenabled the use of any water for a solid week—according to Rick, the very pleasant gentleman I spoke with in the pro shop before my round.

Having played here nearly two weeks back and observing marginal conditions then, it was clear to me today that the course is now getting regular water throughout; it’s in the recovery mode. Everything is greener, especially what had been some browned-out fairways. It should be a matter of weeks before the course gets back to fully playable condition. Suffice it to say that only a couple of fairways—five and seven—still need much more grass to grow. The third and fourth fairways have recovered significantly, while one and three have come most of the way back. Greenside problems include only minor patchiness; the rough on some holes is still a bigger issue. What impresses genuinely, though, are the excellent greens here: they roll truly, smoothly, and quite quickly downhill. Kudos is due to the course superintendent, who has quickly returned these surfaces to a high level following the adversities. Nor does the trio of par-threes, all excellent holes, show any ill effects at present.

My round was a more enjoyable one today, as conditioning affected a only couple of my shots on holes four and five—not very good, maybe, but a genuine improvement from last time. Minnechaug is a terrific course for a quick round, and judging by the full parking lot both when I arrived and left, and lot of golfers probably agree with me. Despite the current state of the fairways, I’d still call it a cost-effective bargain. The layout’s quality (look at the photos) should be self-evident to most. It was interesting to see the perspective of my playing partner today, a twenty-something, friendly, serious golfer who was giving this his first whirl. He definitely approved, and seemed excited to be headed out for a replay as I left. It was a bit demoralizing for me, I’ll admit, to have watched him hit 185-yard nine irons.

Minnechaug is a short ride from my house and it’s still definitely on the rota. Its tight and angular fairways, along with the do-or-die island green at eight, make it an ideal place for a match with your golfing buddies.

Much better pace in the morning. Played a cpl weeks ago and backed up a ton by late afternoon. Early, it’s a great course.

Course fairways have taken a beating with it being so hot. Used to be really nice and green; not so much.

with the lack of rain for quite some time the course did seem to be feeling that problem. Lay out was cool. Holes not too long but have to shape shots or keep in the middle. Island green out of nowhere was awesome. Just a lot of really dead, dry areas. Greens were soft and in good shape though.

May be difficult for beginners but very fun. Ended up driving through a beautiful neighborhood while looking for the last hole.

A course that has always impressed me, Minnechaug has apparently suffered a setback—probably probably over the past three weeks—in course conditioning. The layout, which was in good condition the last time I played it on May 27, is now plagued by bare spots. These are most numerous in the landing areas of most of the fairways on the par-4’s and the lone five-par. Worse still, the rough tends to be very sketchy in many places—especially under the trees. Fringes around the greens had some patchiness, and the greenside rough was acceptable but uneven. The one true bright spot was the greens themselves, which are definitely being watered (as I witnessed) and were still in very good condition, and putted smoothly.

The problem with weak conditioning—when it reaches this stage—is that if begins to compromise the entire layout. A couple of examples: A) when I hit my second shot on the par-five third, off of a bare lie in the rough, my 5-hybrid landed on the right side of the fairway, but proceeded to bound uncontrollably on that entirely bare right side under a tree (it never would have gone even close to that far under normal conditions); and B) on the next fairway, I hit a smooth, controlled draw up the right side of the fairway, but it again rolled uncontrollably all the way over to the left side and into the left rough, where I was blocked on the approach by tall trees.

The bottom line is that the course does not play the way it was designed, and the excellent Cornish layout here is no longer really the Cornish layout. It’s just that simple. Any course in such shape invariably drops to fair or poor in playability (which is central and essential to a true experience).

So today this felt more like a practice area rather than a golf course. Now, I really like Minnechaug (it’s become a rota course for my son and I) and am fully expecting that it will make a return to form this fall under better conditions, and, of course, I’ll come back. I did notice that a lot of grass seed has been put down in the bare spots.

It’s worth noting that the course is not utterly burned out, as the photos I’ve taken show. In fact, a couple of the fairways are average to good overall. But I deliberately did not include the worst holes here—and there are three or four bad ones.

All told, it was still nice to get out and smack the golf ball around and work on my short game. And I enjoyed playing the beautiful final stretch of holes here, which are mostly in good shape. Everyone was pleasant in the pro shop, and Covid-19 precautions are certainly respected. Minnechaug was also quite crowded today: the parking lot was nearly full when I arrived, totally full when leaving.

So, this all adds up to a cautionary recommendation. What you’ll get out of playing here right now, until the course recovers, may well depend on your expectations.