Indian Springs Golf Club

Good shape for the most part and a good challenge. Fairways were hard and the greens could have used a sweeping, but I don’t blame the course. It hasn’t rained in over two weeks and it was really windy. Overall course is maintained well layout was fun and I would recommend it.

Known for their greens. Well kept and challenging. Staff always very nice.

Fast greens, sloping fairways, tricky doglegs, and lots of elevation changes–The Springs offers plenty to contend with over its feisty nine holes.

Challenging Greens:

It is this course’s greens, though, that may add what seem to be unnecessary strokes to your card. They roll and tilt and tumble so much that two-putting anywhere outside of twenty-five feet will be testing. The first green, as one example, slopes strongly from back-to-front, but it also tilts more subtly from side-to-side, making for a complex surface where reading the breaks becomes something of an art. And the other eight greens have no let-up.

Brutal Five-Pars:

Unless you hit the ball invariably straight and to the right spots, the par-fives will play hard. The second, whose fairway traverses a massive, hump-backed hill, demands a precise drive to set up a second shot from a relatively flat lie–usually from the fairway’s right side. At the fifth, by contrast, your tee shot mainly needs to find the left-to-right tilting fairway. But the second shot, which will turn the corner of a dogleg, might be the toughest one you’ll have all day, and the third, typically hit from the crest of a hill and plummeting to a far-below green, is almost equally demanding.

The Compensations:

Fortunately, I can’t bemoan nearly all of the rest here: this track plays relatively short (I hit all wedges into the par-4 greens from the blues), the fairways are wide enough, bunkering is not overdone, and the chipping areas won’t tax your short game heavily.

Conditioning:

As usual, they’re on top of it here. Even though it’s early spring and the growing season has just begun, the fairways and greens, roughs and greenside roughs, tees and bunkers were all in at least decent shape. If anything stood out, though, it was the greens.

Conclusions:

–If all aspects of your game are in working order, you can still score well at The Springs. But those who regularly putt the ball well on these surfaces are, in my book, genuine experts.

–The course consistently displayed terrific views on this warm, early-spring afternoon.

I always enjoy my golf round at Indian Springs. The staff is friendly, the course has unique holes that are challenging and it kept in above average condition. The views of the surrounding hillsides are beautiful.

The tilted, undulating, and fast greens at this golf course may make the biggest first impression on golfers who play here, but it is the Springs’ fundamentally varied layout which really stands out. Over these nine are two very hilly par-5s, a pair of dogleg par-4s and three straight ones, a short and uphill three-par complemented by a longer, downhill toughie, some tighter fairways along with several that are more open, and enough up and downhill movement to satisfy a serious hiker–or a golfer partial to rugged walks. Hole design is very good, and for me it reaches a pinnacle at the fourth–a straight but very subtle 4-par whose green is hard to hit (and even tougher to two-putt)–but also at eight, another two-shotter where just making a par will seem a high achievement. As for the very toughest hole on the course, for many players that likely will be the par-5 fifth, where the margin for error is razor-thin on both second and third shots. A polished layout, worth playing anytime.

I enjoyed ups and downs of course layout. Greens and fairways are in Great condition!

I will be regular here

It was clear today that, even during the midst of a tough summer drought, “The Springs”–its new name already seems to be, evidently, from a glance at clubhouse merchandise–has maintained a playable course. In every place that counts, including the greens and greenside roughs, the fairways, and the tees, course conditions are still essentially excellent. It’s not perfectly manicured, but only a bit short of what you’ll often find at country clubs.

Pace of play (I was waiting on nearly every hole) was, however, a weakness here today, although it was not terribly slow. Service in the clubhouse was attentive, friendly, and accommodating–very professional.

This playability of this course springs from a quality design, which features several problematic features on every hole. As such, it will put every golfer to the test, not only from tee to green, but on the slippery, contoured, very quick, and tricky greens themselves. The fun swings into full gear at the second, with its massive, canted hill deflecting misplayed tee shots hard-left down into the rough, after which the fairway swoops down to a second landing zone in a small depression that precedes a well-protected and pitched green. From there on, the fairways climb and fall over the hills before reaching the cleverly-designed and often heavily guarded greensites of Albert Zikorus (its architect). You’ll likely hit out of at least one greenside bunker before the nine are finished. It’s hard to assess which hole is most difficult, but for me it’s hard to choose between two, five, and eight. The others are no slouches. Mr. Zikorus mercifully concluded the nine on a drive and pitch hold playing downhill from a high tee. It’s a sweet finish that may present a birdie opportunity, but you’ll still need a deft putting touch.

“The Springs” is well worth a visit; it has to rank among the top nine-holers in Connecticut.