Pequot Golf Club

Set only a few miles from the ocean, this is a clever, beautiful, diverse, well-routed short course, suited for both casual and more serious golfers. Pequot’s layout is complex and it fully engages players for eighteen holes. It may at times also feel like a little two-headed beast, half testing your precision, the other half strategic play. Sloping at an above-average 120, it’s fun to play as long as you stay on your toes and respect the more severe hazards. These include long treelines, stone walls, deep woods in places, and strategically-placed bunkers, along with a few dramatically sloping fairways. But it’s the kind of course where, on one hole, you’re driving to an almost wide-open fairway, and on the next lofting a shot over or around trees. Even the greens are not a constant, as two-thirds are small and elusive (even when you’re approaching with a wedge), the others broader and more heavily contoured. All of this variety creates a certain suspense, as you’re compelled to try different shots to be successful. Relatively straight ones, of course, are welcome, and essential from several of these tees.

The character of this layout partly comes from its straightforward and strategic aspects (most holes give you options from tee to green). Pequot is also hilly with varied ground movement, bending golf holes, plenty of variety, and some stern challenges. The general openness gives a links-like impression (it’s reminiscent of a true links I played a few years ago in northern England, designed by the great James Braid, but without the occasional extreme hole that Braid favored). The ‘links feeling’ is furthered by frequent windiness: hit dead into it and a good twenty yards is likely to be subtracted from your tee shot. Six of Pequot’s holes do move though woodlands, however, so in a few cases mature trees are important hazards themselves; driving over or around them may feel dicey.

Playing the Course:

The inward half takes center stage at Pequot, particularly when it goes on a roll, if you will, on holes 11 through 15. These are highlighted by the stunning twelfth, a three-par running alongside a picturesque stone wall, and the demanding 14th, a classic long par-four punctuated with a green tilting back-to-front. The fourteenth typifies several resilient, par-4’s of moderate length here, but some of the shorter ones--notably 4, 5, and 16--should earn your respect because they don’t tolerate driving errors. The back nine also finishes on two great holes, a downhill par-3 of 193 with a semi-blind tee shot and woods right, then the outstanding closer, an uphill 5-par that gradually tightens over its 565 yards and ends on a tiny green.

By contrast, the front side is less demanding, until you get to seven, where you’ll earn every par before the turn. But the front also offers fun, some strategic holes, and several scoring opportunities as long as you’re sharp. I especially enjoy the challenge of dealing with the trees--and still managing to find the fairway--on four and five; they demand creative shotmaking skills.

CONDITIONS: Generally, the course, now in good overall condition, is still being rehabilitated from last summer’s wretched drought. Specifics:

Greens: Very smooth, of medium speed; excellent condition.

Greenside rough/fringes: Very good.

Fairways: Still recovering, but grass is now reinhabiting the whole of these fairways. Average but greatly improved.

Roughs: Above average

Tees: Vary from very good to excellent.

A GREAT HOLE: Eight; 376 yards, par-4.

If I had a list of “Best Connecticut Par-4’s,” eight would easily make it. Drive out to the plateau fairway, followed by a short iron down the steep drop to a diminutive and well-guarded green. If you manage to hit it regulation, pat yourself on the back and secretly compare yourself to Sir Nick Faldo or Annika Sorenstam because for just that fleeting moment you are an equal.

A BEAUTIFUL HOLE: The tenth; 361, par-4.

Ten really suits my eye, with the tee perfectly positioned adjacent to the clubhouse and the tee shot to be hit out over a reedy, expansive pond. The hole is simple, a birdie opportunity. It’s open enough to make you want to swing away but you’ll need to show some respect for the dangerous left side and stonewall. Over the wall lies the road.

SOME CONCLUSIONS: At present, only the course’s fairways and rough, spotty in a few areas, hold it back from an “excellent” overall rating, but these should continue to improve. The exceptional layout is in a league with the best short courses (under 6,400 yards) in the state, namely the likes of Longshore, Portland, or Manchester. It’s every bit as enjoyable, strategic, and interestingly routed, with similar ‘outside-the-box’ qualities. I enjoyed today’s round here as much as always, along with the virtually unbeatable value. Most notable is how ownership seems to be putting the full court press on the restoration of conditions here. Within a month or so, I plan to be back again for more pure golf.

Worse course condition we have seen. Not worry 50 bucks,. Maybe $15. People wearing t shirts, dirt hard as rock, no green grass, and definitely not worth’s the money.

I played Pequot several times last summer and the course was always in good shape. NOT ANY MORE!!! there are no fairways since they all have been burnt out. The only part of the course that is moderately green is the greens but they play very slow. The pace of play was also horrible!!! They send groups out every 10 min and doing this especially at such a cheap place causes horrible backups. I sat on the 3rd tee for 20 min before I could hit. Overall it's sad to see them not take care of the course anymore.

The staff was very friendly that was the only positive. I will not be back.

Top Ten Reasons to Play Pequot

(1) A mix of more open and tighter holes. The routing starts in the open; then takes us in and out of the trees; then back among them; it ends up on parkland. Pequot is more diverse and scenic than courses which leave us stuck mainly in the woodlands.

(2) Variety: Uphill and downhill; big greens and small; some overtly undulating and others easier; a mix of fairway and greenside bunkers (the latter in various, non-repetitive configurations). And there’s ground movement on the fairways and around the greens—many of which exhibit drop-offs near the edges.

(3) Limited use of major water hazards; instead, the course favors bunkers. Only a single pond, which is in play on one hole only (not shared or multi-use). Many layouts overuse water hazards. Yet you don’t see a lot of huge water hazards on the great links courses—they don’t need them.

(4) Speaking of links, you’re not far from the ocean here. Wind is far more a factor here than on most CT layouts, adding both interest and challenge.

(5) Higher playability for mid and especially higher-handicap golfers. Too many golf designs from the 80’s/90’s—long, longer, longest—were geared primarily to better players.

(6) Some tough and some tight par-4's in the moderate-to-long range (see three, eight, eleven, fourteen)

(7) Four doglegs, a balance of both right and left, thrown into the mix. Bonus: two of these with stronger angles are shorter, accommodating shorter hitters. But also a flaw: these same two holes have dense trees at the corner; because they are angled at 90 degrees, you should be able to cut their corners in the air—but cannot.

(8) Behind many greens, the woods come up fast. When greens are smaller, as many are here, absolute precision is a must. Tough approach shots keep you honest on all but a few holes.

(9) One of the most striking courses in Connecticut. If you’re having a bad round, you can at least enjoy the impressive scenery. I played a highly ranked Pennsylvania course last year, but was a tad dismayed to see Three-Mile Island on the Susquehanna River in the not-so-distant background. Anyway, the course itself was pretty.

(10) Only two par fives here, making it much harder for low-handicappers to shoot par (fewer birdie-opportunities). And the course doubles down on these, as the eighteenth is 565 yards uphill, and seven is short but with problems by the bucketful awaiting you not far off the fairway, as well as on its pitiless side hill lies.

If someone described this course to me centered on these features alone, I’d call it pretty darn good. And not even included on this list Pequot's four stellar par-3s.

But let’s be somewhat darkly realistic. This is a fairly short course, and since time immemorial many golfers (often those playing to single-digits) have subscribed to the formula that only long, unrelenting courses are worthy of excellence. America’s greatest living architect, Tom Doak, would disagree (respectfully) with them. Doak believes that length is one of the two or three most overrated features of golf course design. In fact, he believes that courses having both variety and suitability to a wide range of players are two key qualities of courses that we should call outstanding. And Doak’s argument, when read in full, is far from simplistic. Bottom line: I’m in firm agreement with him. And so, one could argue, are most golfers. Go back and read the reviews of this course dating from last August and September, and you’ll find that there’s a commonality to their views and mine.

A great deal of fun but also pleasantly challenging, Pequot should be tried by everyone.

Other facts, comments and opinions:

A) Response to coronavirus is good here. I drove a cart for the first time since the pandemic began, and had confidence, from what I saw, that it was clean, disinfected. Interestingly, one of the employees related the information that some (rare) patrons here do not follow the rules, mainly because they were constantly touching the flagsticks. But management polices this. Personnel were cooperative and helpful today, both over the phone and at on-course check-in. Adequate postings/reminders around course.

B) Considering the trepidation of many to play golf currently, the course was moderately busy, with players maintaining physical distancing.

C) Course conditioning ranged from good to excellent on tees, fairways, and greens, which played at medium speed. It's considerably better than at the average public track.

D) Noteworthy, too, are the touches of Golden Age design on thrilling holes like eight, nine, twelve, fourteen, and seventeen.

E) References to Doak’s ideas stem from his book "The Anatomy of a Golf Course" (1992; Chapter 3). Doak has made it a priority to see things from the viewpoints of golfers of all abilities, as reflected in his designs.

It was very simple to register online with the golf now app it literally took 5 minutes and when I got to the course and gave them my name I was out of there and headed to my golf cart in less than 5 minutes and the course at Pequot was awsome, well groomed and not 1 leaf on any of the fairways or greens! Great day of golf even tho we played the entire 18 holes in the rain, I would recommend the golf now app and the Pequot golf course in Stonington ct to anyone that golfs!

In a world of longer, modern golf courses, shorter and more straightforward layouts have become, clearly, outnumbered. Pequot Golf Club, built in 1958, is just such a throwback, but its retro aspects are refreshing. Just an exit north of Mystic Seaport, the nautical world, and the well-known Aquarium off of I-95, and, moreover, close to the casinos, this should be a solid choice for vacationing golfers. My son and I found it to be well worth the 45-minute drive from home, because playing Pequot is great fun, yet the course offers, as well, some satisfying challenges. Its setting (it’s a bit inland; it is rolling, partly wooded, and replete with longer, scenic vistas) is also among the most beautiful, without question, in the state.

One of Pequot’s distinctions is its status as one of the few Connecticut golf courses visited by the great Jack Nicklaus, who, having played here once in 1966, captured the ‘official’ Pequot course record of 65 against par 70. It was fun to take in the shrine to the Golden Bear that is exhibited on one of the clubhouse walls, looking at the plaque showing Nicklaus putting one of the greens here, way back when. And one has to wonder how the young Nicklaus, then in his prime, took the course apart, whether by his methodical tee-to-green precision or by the simple exercise of brute force combined with precise wedge play (…or was it superlative putting?).

And while all of this is intriguing, there is also the matter of how mere mortals might approach such a golf course, checking in, as it does, at only 5900 yards from the back tees. It was clear to me, right away, that Wendell Ross, this course’s designer, had an eye for detail and was influenced by another Ross—Donald (the prolific one). The greens here are small and contoured; the fairways on the open side but with movement; greenside traps can be formidable. Also from the outset, it seemed clear that only very long hitters, provided they can hit the ball relatively straight with the driver, may find this too easy to overpower, and thus may tire of hitting a surfeit of drivers and wedges into an excess of short par-4s. The other 98% of golfers, however, should find this an appealing course for several reasons: about a third of the holes are still relatively lengthy, strategic thinking is useful throughout, and every single hole has some form of challenge.

Further still, I couldn’t find a clinker among these eighteen holes, though a few of them are play a bit on the docile side. Holes one through three, with generous driving areas, will tempt you to rip it with the driver, though the small greens will rein in your short irons. Perhaps these short par-4’s will lead to a fast start, but after this, the course will begin to play havoc with your long game. Hole four presents a driving zone for which driver is an automatic choice, as its fairway is bisected by an enormous oak tree, an obstacle that must be fired over—or around. I hit a five wood aloft and found myself with a short pitch to the green, but bolder golfers may want to give this a go in two, perhaps by threading a drawn driver through the right side gap between woods and lone, central oak. It’s tantalizing risk-reward stuff.

After an interesting but very tight 5th, another par-four, we face the gorgeous 6th, a downhill 149-yard par-three to a well-protected (bunkers, encircling woods) and contoured green. Its excellence is actually exceeded, no less, by the other par-three on this outward half, the uphill and long (209 yards) ninth. Its semi-table green demands a high, floating tee shot if you are to hold the moderately-sized putting surface. The other hole of strong challenge on this front nine is the classic 8th. Here the uphill tee shot to a plateau fairway is followed by a steeply downhill tester to a small (16 wide by 21-yard deep) green, which features drop-offs on three sides, one of which is especially steep on the back-right quadrant. A GIR here is nearly mandatory if you wish to earn par.

The back nine simmers for a bit on its first four holes, though these are not without challenges. The best of these is #12, a classic short three-par of 149 yards, perhaps ranking among the best-looking as well as best-designed holes of its type in Connecticut. A solid tee shot here must often traverse (given typical pin placements) the tall left/center lip of one of the green’s frontal bunkers. At hole 14, though, the course again flexes its muscles on a brawny 417-yard par-4. This is a stunning hole from tee to cup, with an especially demanding approach: OB/stone wall down the left side; sloping and woodsy trouble behind the green; another problem, in the form of a large, magnetic trap, to its right side; and let’s not leave out the rolling contours on the putting surface itself. This terrific hole is followed by the slightly less difficult 15th, a shorter affair but nearly as tough on the approach. Sixteen follows up with a tight and finicky driving area (favoring a draw) and an even tougher approach to a perched green, sided by a gaping and very deep left-side trap. You’ll need a well-struck wedge to hit this one. Seventeen, on the other hand, is another long par-three, and will require a confidently struck mid-iron or hybrid to its downhill, two-tiered putting surface, which is bunker-less but nonetheless has a steep fall-off—in back—that leads ingloriously into deep woods. The stirring stretch of holes that began revving up at 14 ends at the inspiring eighteenth, an uphill par-five that does not quite qualify for epic status (as its driving zone is quite open), but does intimidate with length, at 565 yards, and another small green, flanked—much to our chagrin—by sizeable traps. In sum, this is a tricky finishing stretch of holes that should have you fighting to ward off an untimely bogey or two. For low-handicap golfers, the challenge of breaking par here—it always takes some doing—is still a stern one.

Playing conditions ranged from good to excellent here, with the greens standing out by their smoothness and lack of blemishes. A few—but only a few—of the fairways were subpar; most were in good and playable shape. The amenities are fine but what stood out most was the friendliness of every person I met on the staff (I’m echoing previous comments in these reviews). Kevin, whom I met after the round, was quick to make conversation and a nice resource on the history of Pequot GC, especially concerning Nicklaus. He’s also well-versed on Connecticut golf in general, and quite funny.

It can be well inferred from these comments that Pequot spoons out an array of shot-making challenges that will satisfy avid golfers. For me, it perfectly completes a trifecta of strong, well-designed shorter layouts that everyone should at least sample in this more rural area known as eastern Connecticut, the other two being Skungamaug River and Norwich. Each of these certainly enjoys steady play, but on a weekday you’ll likely find them less crowded than what is typical in other more populated areas of the state. In all, each features its share of rigorous, cleverly-designed and tactical golf holes.

I have Pequot dozens of times.

Today my group was stuck behind 2 foursomes, having a bachelor party.

They were not golfers, hackers.

They did not rake bunkers, they took huge divots out of tee boxes with their drivers.

Did not repair ball marks on the greens.

In the 18th fairway, they crashed 3 carts together.

This course was laid out very nicely. Each hole was a different shot Made it exciting, challenging, and fun.

I’ve only been golfing for a few months and really enjoy this course. It’s challenging yet achievable for new golfers like myself. The course is in good condition and easy to navigate. The only real complaint I would have is that some of the cart paths are in some serious repair and maintenance. Other than that I really enjoyed it. This was my second time playing this course. The staff is friendly and take care of you. There was a senior league ahead of me when I came to the front 9, I played the back 9 first, so I just played the back again. Which was fine by me. I would absolutely recommend this course to anyone.

Today's round was a bit slow on the back, and the greens have just been aerated, so they were also very slow. Still had a great day.

I really enjoyed playing this course. This was my first time playing Pequot and look forward to playing many more. The staff was friendly and the pace was good. Overall the course was in great condition with a great mix of holes. I am certainly a beginner and I was still able to have fun and challenge myself. I would recommend this course.

What an amazingly beautiful course. Booked my next round before leaving Connecticut! Friendly staff, excellent greens. 10 out of 10

Course is in rough shape. Greens were shaggy and inconsistent. Customers were rude and unruly. I will not go back for a long time. Many other nearby courses that are better for the same price. Staff doesn’t care about your golf experience, they just make excuses.

I have been playing this course once a week for most of the summer and it is well kept and consistent. The greens are in very good condition and I keep going back because of its good value for the cost.