Black Birch Golf Club

Played Black Birch a few times this year and the condition of the course has improved each time. It’s getting greener since the drought. Greens in pretty good shape. Today, we played in 3 hrs and 15 minutes. Can’t beat it.

Black Birch offers a fine, old-school rolling layout with lots of up and down ground movement, especially on its front side. Most of the greens are bunkered; many of them are set upon knolls, meaning that you’ll have to be careful with club selection. The par-5s are not long on the card but seem to play longer, due to either twists and turns down the fairways or some strategically-placed hazards near or next to their greens, not to mention plenty of woods on their margins. A couple of long four-pars will challenge you, but for the most part they’re of moderate length, so making a good score here is possible when you strike the ball well: the course isn’t tricked-up or unfair. Without too many water hazards, you’ll mainly be concerned with hitting relatively straight shots on the tighter back nine, where the toughest holes–twelve, thirteen, fourteen, seventeen–require some careful and precise shotmaking.

The course’s one deficit is still its conditioning. Greens are passable but still pockmarked too frequently; tees are rough; the roughs are sometimes sparse. Fairways have improved since summer as they’re now pretty well grass-covered, but much of it is crabgrass. It’s all fair but decently playable.

I played here three times over the past week–all nine-hole afternoon rounds. The first time I spotted three white-tailed deer behind hole eight near dusk, and on the third occasion a family of five in the same location. Prior to that I encountered a flock of wild turkeys near the pond on the seventh.

The setting was invariably beautiful on these early fall afternoons.

The 4 star rating I gave is probably more than the course deserves because of condition issues. I gave that rating because this is such a nice course to play and I keep hoping that the owners will wake up some day and realize what a gem they have and do what is needed to make it the first call course it can be.
Just the rains we had the past few weeks has improved things greatly, the fairways are green and the greens are looking good. Of course all the rain in the world won’t help the traps, that will take money.

Three and one half hours for the round. Fairways coming back with the rain. Greens in good shape. Friendly staff.

Unfortunately my first time seeing this course was after an extreme prolonged drought of a summer, so it's not fair to really go into the course conditions.

However, the sand traps had rocks in them.

I found the course design a bit boring, with the primary challenge of this course being blind hills.

I had a pleasant round. I've seen much worse courses for the money, and I've also seen better for the money.

We didn't wait on any tees even with 10 minute gaps in tee times. They seem to keep play going well here even on tournament days.

Outstanding layout and diversty. The drougt in CT has hurt the course. Black Birch relys sole on rain for it watering. The greens are good but very slow as the drought has slowed mowing to save the greens. Fairways are in very bad shape presently but will improve if they get rain. People are great which adds to the experience.

Course needs water on fairways, needs water stops ,, needs better carts

If you get on one of the hot deals and get in before the turtles it’s worth it…

I played the course in 2 hours 50 minutes. Was alone most of the time, was a pretty nice time.

Front 5 holes you feel like you might have a drive land on your head/ hit you in the face. But after that the Holes don’t really run next to each other. Honestly don’t like the first three holes, as it feels like your playing in an open field, but after that it gets much much better.

Back 9 is better than front 9

$25-40 with a cart is a great price, especially when not busy.

Friendly staff, lounge / restaurant/ bar looked pretty nice too.

I think I paid $18 for 18 holes and a cart.

Greens and fringe were in good shape
Fairways were okay. Dry.
Forgiving. Good course for practicing
Don’t go when busy, you’ll lose your mind.

Front 9 watch out for stray drives as fairways are close together.

Wouldn’t play on a busy day
Wouldn’t pay more than $30

Overall, a lot of positives and some glaring negatives here.

Pros:

The staff was incredibly friendly. You can tell they’re working hard and doing the best they can to make the course playable and fun. They were insanely kind and told me from the get-go the course isn’t in the best shape but to enjoy the day, which made me understand what I was getting into.

I played 18 holes in 3 hours walking for $20, no deal exists like that.

Cons

Course conditions are tough. Dirt tee boxes, fairways don’t really exist, basically like playing in a open field. Greens were in decent shape I would say, no real bumps. People were working out there so it’s not a lack of effort. They’re trying, just probably don’t have the manpower.

The layout was interesting, with the front and back being very different. Some good holes (3, 6, 10, 11, 15, 16) some very bad holes (7,8,12,14) The greens were almost comically small, which made it hard because you couldn’t run it up (the long grass would stop it) but it was hard to hold them if you did land it there (smaller greens), if the greens were larger, with better run-ups, it would fit the layout better.

I realized pretty quickly it was hard to categorize this as real golf, so about the 4th hole on I decided to hit a couple balls off the tee and work on some things, and it became much more enjoyable. If you actually want to play as opposed to beating balls at the range or practicing your putts, it’s a good place to work on aiming at your targets and honing in some of the short game stuff. And again, for $20, that’s a solid deal. Other than that, I would look elsewhere.

Forgiving course, I guess you could call it links style golf course, no discernable fairway/rough etc. The greens were long, weedy and slow, needed to be rolled, but then again we are in the dead heat of summer. Course is very enjoyable for a novice like me, some long par 5s...

Even though it was only $40 for 18 cart included, it was not worth the money. The course was in horrible conditions, all the fairways were burnt, the bunkers have not been raked in months(weeds growing in them) many greens were too long and full of weeds. One of the tee boxes had gravel on it....

The pro shop had nothing in it and the pace of play was extremely slow. The highlight of the round, was when the beer girl served lukewarm drinks because she had no ice in the beer cart.

Don't waste your money

Will never go back

Course was in good shape. Greens were a little thick but the ball traveled well. Fairways were well taken care of. Course provided a good challenge but was not too difficult. My only real critique was that there was no water offered through the course, which can be a huge help especially during the 95 degree days.