Minnechaug Golf Course

Course has some tough holes, some interesting decisions, and some holes you could score on.

This course has a few holes that may punish the average neighborhood hulk on drives, but it was worth playing in my opinion. It’s a solid choice for 9 holes if you need to go after or before work to de stress and enjoy the game you love for a cost effective price. I would not play this on a day I have off due to only having 9 holes.

Great beginner course! A little confusing when the holes go through the neighborhood to find the next one, but keeps it interesting. Hole 8 & 9 are awesome. Will play again.

Course layout and conditions are good. Price is low. Value is great.

Today we went out in the afternoon and both my son and I were looking forward to our return trip after a month had passed since our last visit to Minnechaug. We were not disappointed. In fact, one look at the first fairway and it was clear that everything looked better: you could see, paralleling the white fence and tree lines, the smooth green expanse of late-May grass, a lush carpet covering all. The whole course felt bright and summery, and it was clear immediately how smoothly the greens themselves were rolling. This time during our round, we saw quite a few maintenance workers out on the course, each one looking industrious. It was also nice to see one of the friendly clubhouse workers, Shane, whom I met at check-on, out monitoring for slow play. For many clubs this is not always, shall we say, customary.

Our pleasant day here reinforced my point from a month ago (review of late April) that this is a course worth playing. There’s not much to add on the layout itself, though holes two, five, and six are superb—that was abundantly clear again. I would put the short but tight and rugged par-4 second on a statewide list of top-ten short holes. It’s the ultimate test of precision for a two shotter, but also fair enough, such that you can’t call it too finicky. Six, likewise, impresses deeply by the accuracy required of golfers to hit (from 175 yards) a green that varies from 18 yards wide to a mere 13 near the back, all after traversing a stream on the right. Despite the simplicity here—call it elegance—I’m not sure Geoffrey Cornish designed a better par-three than this one. The two finishing holes, both par-threes, looked absolutely stupendous in the sun on this gorgeous afternoon. And, sure, I can here critics carping about such non-classic sequencing, but really—who cares! I’ll gladly take this all-or-nothing, slam-bang finish.

Kudos, then, is due to Minnechaug’s greenskeeping staff for raising the level of conditioning a couple of big notches to the point where everything, save for still some greenside areas and intermittent patchiness in sections of fairway and rough, is genuinely looking much better. Today these putting surfaces really impressed by their smoothness and trueness. And that’s worth coming back for. My son, whose opinions accorded pretty much with mine, agreed that this should be on our rota. (By the way, he birdied eight today by chipping in, though that’s not his sole reason for liking Minnechaug).

Maybe this course doesn’t quite have all the ingredients for perfection just yet, but it’s honing in rapidly on superiority. It’s managed well, lots of fun to play, and adds splendid woodland scenery on every hole.

Great experience. Staff was extremely friendly and well prepared given the circumstances (Covid-19). Carts were clean and in great condition. Course was very nice and also in good shape. Very reasonable rates. I will definitely be back to play here again.

Fun layout. Beautiful scenery. Definitely some difficulty here. Had a blast.

This was my first time playing here! This course was good. Very well maintained fairways. Challenging but not overly difficult. Very friendly staff.

The tight opening hole at Minnechaug features a semi-perched green flanked by a steep drop-off on its left side, leaving the unfortunate who miss there only scant hope of saving par. The tone is set, then, for what follows immediately: a tough tee shot on the second to a narrow tree-lined fairway. Miss this by much and your ball is either OB or lost. Your tee shot at three, moreover, will be eerily similar. The message should already be clear: this is not your typical, laid-back nine-hole layout.

Although short, this is not an executive course, either, as goes the common misperception: it sports two full-length par-5’s and a pair of par-3’s that will require a mid-iron for most. Of the four par-4’s on hand, only one falls short of 300 yards. These, too, cause discomfort by their modestly-scaled and tree-lined fairways. Those who spray the ball should at Minnechaug expect few breathers.

Minnechaug, which means "blueberry" to the Nipmuc Indian tribe, neatly achieves a healthy (if you'll pardon the pun) variety in its routing, something I’ve not seen consistently on nine-holers. Here the shotmaker is given lots to chew on: doglegs both left and right; visually distinctive and differently plotted holes; rolling hills exploited throughout; a mix of green dimensions slopes and backdrops. Most of these holes sit handsomely among their forest backdrops; the attractive neighborhood sometimes hovers at the course margins.

The beginning stretch of mid-range holes here vary in quality and difficulty. After the tight drive on the second, a sharp wedge will be required into this hole’s narrow green, situated uphill and blind from the landing area on this demanding hole. As tight as its predecessor, the 463-yard par-5 third holds no particular fascination for me. A straight tee shot will allow many to play it as a two-shotter, with one caveat: a pair of leftward large trees (situated 100 yards from the green) here will meddle with any approach from the left. Four, a beautifully curving hole, is best played by a drawn drive around the trees, then an accurate pitch.

Five is a better version of the par-5 third; it also marks a turning point to impressive golf on every remaining hole. The sentinel tree at the left-center of the fairway may complicate the line of attack on the approach. And the green, situated on an uprise, should have you bringing out the heavy ammunition.

At six, the course begins to draw to its climax: start with this moderately-long par-3 with water looming right; on to seven, a short but tricky four-par; next the classic penultimate, island hole; lastly the closer, a somewhat longer three-par nearly beset by a large pond. When the wind is blowing, the pond may consume golf balls at an alarming rate. Don’t let your nerve falter here.

The island green here, the first of its kind in Connecticut, is not particularly difficult as these holes go, though all bets are off on blustery days. It brought to mind a couple of other similar holes I’ve played, the famous number 9 at Ponte Vedra Inn and Island Club in Florida (1928), and number 3 (virtually an island) at Robert Trent Jones’ James Baird State Park (1940) in New York State, only few hours from here. I wonder, given that these two predated Minnechaug (1959) and that they are of similar scale, whether they influenced this Geoffrey Cornish creation. All three islands have similar bailout areas around the green (they are not wholly green-covered) but Minnechaug’s has no bunkers embedded in this peripheral area.

Bunkering is used judiciously at Minnechaug but beware: it can be devilish. On seven, you’ll want to avoid the cavernous, multi-lobed trap that guards the corner of the short dogleg leading to the green. I landed in it today, finding myself with a 40-yard shot that had to carry the prominent hill (forget about seeing the flag!) protecting the right-front of this green complex. From the depths of this trap, it’s ridiculously easy to leave it short.

Conditioning, which was below average today, dampens what is admirable here. Respectable fairways and greens are playable, but greenside areas need more grass seed overall. My pitches from tight lies were successful, using extreme care, but these lies derive not from superb agronomy but lack of growing grass (Odd thing that the grass grew so well, I noticed, in the surrounding neighborhoods. Shouldn’t a golf course, of all places, be able to ‘keep pace?’)?

Still, enjoying this clever layout is well worth the price of admission. It’s essentially functionalist design typifies the work of Mr. Cornish; it can be played by nearly all golfers. Happily, almost every hole features a forceful strategic element or two. The sixth, an extraordinary hole, exemplifies the architect’s careful attention to simple but important details: to hit its slender green from some 160 yards, option “A” is taking the direct line over a water hazard on the right. But option “B” is using the canted slope on the left and rear as a ‘backboard,’ bouncing your tee shot sideways/backwards onto the surface. The latter is a safer choice—though distance control must still be precise.

The eighth may be Minnechaug's signature piece, but in my estimation a hole as subtle and strategic as six is the true token of a master architect.

Requires all the clubs in the bag! Love the par 3s

Considering what's going on right now you have to be really patient while you wait for your cart... Expect to tee off a half hour after... The island hole is worth the wait!