Black Birch Golf Club

The course is ok for what you pay. I love coming here, no pressure at all.

Got a hot deal for this course so thought we would try it out. There were no fairways or tee boxes, grass was the same everywhere. And it’s mostly crab grass. Greens weren’t bad just a bit wet on the front 9. I would recommend if you aren’t picky about conditions where you play.

The heavy rains recently have helped and hindered . Grass is coming in well but the drainage on the back 9 is slow so there are some boggy areas. Always a great pace, staff is fantastic and an all around good experience for a beginner like myself.

Let's start with the great guy in the pro shop ... he always greets you with a smile.... Course is recovering from a year off due to covid etc. Greens in really good shape but were slow due to lots of recent rain. Fairway are just ok and there really aren't any tee boxes. But wait GolfNow fans ... you can actually get on the course, get a hot deal and use your coupons (a rare event these days). A round for two cost a total of $24... that's with a cart . Cheaper than a bucket of balls at the range. You won't run into Phil, Jordon or Bubba, but heck, they wouldn't want to golf with me anyway.... Get off the couch, grab your clubs and go to Black Birch ... you won't regret the time out.

Golf course review; tee boxes, fairways and rough, are basically the same length. Greens felt like shag carpet, tee boxes / yardage didn't match card or hole markers. Course layout is great, has an old farmtown feel, if they took care of it better this place would be an awesome little course. I shot a 92... which I felt would have been way better if it didn't feel like I was playing in my backyard before I mowed the grass.

Very friendly , got a great deal through tee Off and for the value it’s well worth it. You can tell it’s in the process of getting better but for now as a beginner I had a good time and again the value was right. Would come back for sure

Great course for the $. Friendly staff and fun track. Green in nice shape

The course was in pretty rough shape. There really was no difference between the rough and fairways. All the sand traps were overgrown with weeds, and the greens were super slow. That being said, for $30 per 18 with a cart; it's a great way to get outside. If you're new to the game or golfing on a budget this would be the course for you. If you're looking to play a tough course with fast greens I would look elsewhere.

Place is in horrible shape. Would not recommend no matter what the cost. The entire course was deadpan. They really should not be open for play until something drastic takes place. I only paid $2.00 after coupons and promotions. Time would have been better spent on a $10 bucket and practice green.

Nice cheap course to play. They were shut down all 2020 so doing a lot of maintenance all over the course so conditions weren't the greatest but it is well worth the value and I do like playing here normally.

Let me first say that the staff at black Birch are very friendly and helpful and always have been.

Having said that the course is in extremely rough shape right now. They were closed last year and this year brought in a company to do some overseeding while I think that's going to help in the future it's not helping right now. There were some holes that should have been closed completely as they were basically unplayable. I hope things get better in the future but right now my opinion is that they should close it for a few weeks and get it back into shape will try it again in about a month.

Black Birch was a fun place to hit shots today. It’s an old favorite of mine, the front nine rolling and open, the back tightening among the summer-green, dense woodlands. They virtually surround each hole, putting a premium on accuracy. Perhaps Donald Ross created the course’s front side, though attribution to any designer is murky. On the other hand, the back nine was clearly added, according to Cornish’s “The Golf Course,” in 1965: Banner Lodge Golf Course (the course’s name was changed to “Black Birch” a few years ago).

The inward half is the tougher of the two nines, and while I played Mr. Zikorus’ handiwork today again, its routing still impressed, as did the look and feel of each hole, the smart green siting, and the appropriate use of ground contouring. The greens, unfortunately, have this year been diminished by some downsizing: this likely contradicts the architect’s original intentions regarding how modern holes should play. The twelfth, for example, a shorter par-4 that doglegs hard right, has huge trees at its corner which make cutting across it impossible. The play for me, then, is to hit a 3-hybrid to the bend, safely away from the trees, and then a six-iron uphill to the hole. Now, given the change in this downsized green, far smaller than Zikorus’ original, it has become unfit to receive anything other than a wedge on the approach. If you’re hitting a six-iron, on the other hand, you’d better have the skill of Colin Morikawa, who could probably flight the ball with this club through my bedroom window from two hundred yards with one hand tied behind his back. Fortunately, most of the greens remain playable though they diminish the design’s quality.

The course still suffers from the aftereffects of its closure in 2020. Fairways 11, 13, 14, and 18 have large, staked-off areas, from which you’ll need to take a drop and play the shot into the green from a place, not always good, other than where you hit it. On fourteen there is no good place, so I picked up and proceeded to the fifteenth tee. The greens here have been aerated and are, as a result, bumpy. Some of the fairways were respectable, although they’re cut on the long side and are still patchy here and there. In general, I could see this layout becoming more playable by late summer or early fall, but now it seems that playing a match here would have strings attached. Still, before I was left an afternoon league was heading out in force, and the parking lot had filled. For casual golf, you can give it a go here; it’s fine for a practice round, a quick round for local players, or for honing your long game. Pitching around the greens worked, essentially. My expectation remains that Black Birch will regain its former stature, and there were several signs today that this well may happen.

Service and friendliness here was, as always, excellent. An elegant restaurant, The Corvo Bar and Grill, serves fine Italian food, and is situated in the clubhouse building to the right of the pro shop.

Aesthetically, the course is a charmer (see photos). A sense of total seclusion, the separation of holes, the fine natural backdrops as you make your way around--all contribute to a feeling of serenity during the round. The course winds its way through red maples, firs and spruces, red oaks, and, of course, black birch trees, which, I was surprised to learn, is the second most common native tree in Connecticut (10% of all trees). Particularly impressive is the marshy hollow--a spot to be appreciated by naturalists--at the northwest corner of the course where the twelfth green is situated.

Course conditions are rough this year due to being closed for covid last year. Luckily the course is beginning to come back a little and far better than it was just a month ago. Excited to play this course when it’s back in “full swing”! For now it’s great to improve my game for an inexpensive price.

Supper friendly guy in the club house. But that still doesn’t make up for the back nine being closed and the front nine being truly UNPLAYABLE. The course is 75% dirt, they left the sprinklers on so we had to wait 10 min for them to notice and turn them off. On top of being the worst maintenance golf course I’ve ever been to there “course manager” was insanely rude. He actually walked up and got right in my buddys face for teeing off on the wrong spot because THEIR T BOX WAS UNDER CONSTRUCTION. Me and my group did not know where to tee off, so when we saw that flags in the middle of the fair way we guessed that’s where we are suppose to go. (This is our first time playing this country we mind you). This is where he started babbling about how if we are a holes he can be one too. WOW WHAT AN AWFUL GOLF COURSE

Black Birch was completely closed in 2020 and didn’t do this course any favors. The tee boxes are in really rough shape. The fairways have a ton of dirt. No grass at all. The traps have no sand and are full of weeds. The greens had a weird spongy consistency and no true roll. I’m afraid if they don’t dump some real money into it soon, it will be lost for good.

And to be fair, the pro shop was honest up front and said it was in pretty bad shape. He also said that they had work scheduled for the Greens and Tee boxes next week. Good luck to them, the potential is there to be a really nice course.