Hartford’s Golden Age Golf Course Potential

Introduction

A whisper is sometimes not even spoken when it comes to golf courses in the Hartford area. There should, however, be shouting not because of the golf that is there, but the great potential and history that has been covered over time that needs to be shown to the golfing world. However, more talking can be heard now when it comes to Keney Park, a municipal Devereux Emmet and Robert Ross design that was restored by Dusenberry Design in 2016. Tyler Rae restored a Donald Ross classic Wampanoag Country Club in West Hartford last year which earned Rae's firm the 3rd best renovation of 2023 by Golf Digest. These efforts will hopefully spark a flame for golden age golf architecture to be restored in the Hartford area and existing courses that can use similar makeovers.

  Devereux Emmet, Tom Bendelow, Willie Park Jr, and Donald Ross are some of the well-known architects that have done work during the golden age in the Hartford area, along with locals like Robert Ross, Orrin Smith and Robert D. Pryde. Lost designs and features done by some of these legends and locals include Manchester Country Club, Tumble Brook Country Club, Stanley Golf Course, Indian Hill Country Club, Hunter Memorial Golf Course, and Wethersfield Country Club (former host of the Greater Hartford Open). 

A fair amount of these courses have been grown in by trees overtime, lost features due to the wars and Great Depression, and then tinkered with by architects with no intentions for the playability of the courses left by the ones before their time.

Willie Park Jr.

  Park, who has credit for some of the best courses in the world (Sunningdale Old Course, Maidstone, etc.), has done his share of work in the Hartford area. One of these courses is Shuttle Meadow Country Club in Berlin (with Orrin Smith being the construction superintendent) that has already embodied Park’s original design well and where you can find some of the most severe greens in the entire state. The other is Tumble Brook Country Club in Bloomfield where he touched the first nine and has since then been grown in by trees. The trees cover up the magnificent land the course lies on. Greens have turned into small circles, fairways have been narrowed, and bunkers have been lost.

Devereux Emmet

        Emmet made his rounds around Hartford, touching land like Manchester Country Club, Keney Park, and Hartford Golf Club. His unique work at Hartford is however unnoticed as the terrific 18-hole layout he laid. Over time lots of greens had to be relocated as well as other features as the course expanded to 27 holes and multiple architects had touched the grounds of Hartford Golf Club. Later, Donald Ross came along and remodeled the 27 holes where a lot of his bunker and green features disappeared. A recent restoration of CC of Farmington (by Dusenberry Design, who also restored Keney) brought back most of Emmet's bold features especially when it comes to the greens and their surrounds, bunkering, and mounding. One of the biggest mysteries of courses in the area is Manchester. The layout remains, but the complexity and uniqueness of Emmet's original design isn’t as much. Some of the best land you can find in the area lies on most of the holes and there is even a lost par 3 that is no longer there but has potential to be restored, like many of the bunkers and greens that once lay on the property. For more info on Manchester refer to the section towards the end of the paper. 

Donald Ross

  Ross has touched Hartford and Wampanoag in the Hartford area which are 2 classics. The terrifically restored Wampanoag now includes all of Ross’ original work, even the cross bunkers that don't necessarily come into play but are visually intimidating. The course is the home of the Donald Ross Society, and Tyler Rae, Kyle Franz, and Bradley Klein took part in the terrific and well needed restoration. Ross’ redesign of Hartford incorporated some great use of the layout that Emmet had previously laid out, but Ross added his own use and look of bunkering. Lots of the Ross features remain but some of the work, mostly with the bunkering, still isn’t present. The course has been tinkered with by many architects since, and with the decisions that the club made with the property, the layout of some holes have changed especially when it comes to green locations.

Robert D. Pryde

Like most of the local architects in the state of Connecticut, their unique features that scream golden age golf architecture have gone missing. Pryde is one of these locals that deserve their creativity and knowledge to be shown once again. Prude has touched upon the grounds of Wethersfield (with contribution from Robert Ross) when it comes to the Hartford area. Lots of his golden age features can be found in the state at Race Brook and Alling Memorial. Wethersfield has the potential to be one of the finest designs in the area for the boldness of the bunkering and greens. The routing of the course remains but mostly all the original features no longer exist. Pryde was a Scotsman’s, and all the features seem to be to look highly inspired from old courses like Scotscraig where he worked as a boy in Scotland, along with inspiration from architects like Emmet, Raynor/McDonald, and Donald Ross, but with his own spring on a golden age design. Looking at Race Brook in 1934, it seems he really used his own unique design to incorporate the layout. Not to mention Pryde’s historical role when it came to Yale golf and him being their so-called “trainer”. He knew how golf courses were played by great players, and it shows in his work as Yale ended up winning 3 intercollegiate titles at Race Brook.

Robert Ross

  Little is known about Ross’ work at Wethersfield, but that’s good enough to argue why Wethersfield is one of the most deserving clubs in the state for restoration efforts. What stands out about Ross' courses is his use of bunkering, but you can’t find them anywhere in today’s day and age. At courses like Stanley in New Britain, TPC River Highlands (before it turned into condo golf), and Indian Hill. Wide corridors for fairways with cross bunkers that have different sizes, shapes and angles that are like some of Donald Ross’ bunkering. At Stanley, which is now a 27-hole public course and had changed dramatically due to land being sold to build a Costco, Ross used a unique routing with his own touch of bunkering including a large front bunker on a short par 3 with grass mounds in the middle of it. Indian Hill Country Club in Newington is the one that still has some of Ross’ charm. The layout is still there, but a good number of interesting bunkers has been lost along with green shapes. The land at Indian Hill is ideal for golf with ridges and water throughout that Ross’ routing uses widely and is still intact.

Orrin Smith

Smith’s designs include characteristics that are present of Donald Ross’ course, since Smith helped shape some of Ross’ courses and worked with him on many courses and can be called a student of Donald Ross. He also served as the construction superintendent for Willie Park Jr. at Shuttle Meadow. Smith used a steam shovel for most of the shaping which is why you can see bold features, built up greens, deep bunkering, and hummocks similar to what Ross used in his layouts. Smith’s original layout can be found around CT, and one of them is the Smith 9 at Tumble Brook, which was the second 9 added after Park’s first 9. Smith is without a doubt one of the most underrated architects in New England, as a lot of his work has been lost. A course that has most of Smith’s charm still left is set to be even better with a Ron Forse master plan in place, is Torrington Country Club in Goshen, CT, where only lost bunkers need to be restored, corridors made wider as well as green expansion. But for the most part, Smith's layout is still standing in Goshen. Other great layouts by Smith in CT include Longshore (Smith routing intact) and Birchwood (completely rerouted) which lie near the Long Island Sound. Smith’s original courses from the golden age provide a great shot shaping course with deep greenside bunkers, cross bunkering throughout the fairways with big corridors and big sloping greens. If these Smith courses resort back to his original bold work, not only will Smith’s name be remembered but the clubs can benefit greatly.

Conclusion

  What you can find in Robert D. Pryde and Robert Ross’ courses are inspired from some of the great courses in the world by the great architects but with their own spin. A revival of these Pryde and Ross courses can bring this distinctive charm back to some courses in the Hartford area that have lost this charm and history. Orrin Smith’s work is more inspired from the ones he learned from, Donald Ross and Willie Park Jr. This brings about bold golden age architecture features with fun mounding and big features because of his use of the steam shovel and bulldozer. These three are the ones who fly under the radar, who don’t have a lot of courses, but the courses that are still around still hold great value and potential.  All these golf facilities mentioned have great land for the game where we see many great golden age golf courses being restored on similar land in many metropolitan areas. A revival to these courses by the architects who have been somewhat concealed along with the revival of the ones whom they have got their inspiration from will give golfers a reason to go out of their way and visit the Hartford area.

Click on the “Work & Research ” section for before and afters of potential looks for Manchester and Tumble Brook.

 Sources:

https://campuspress.yale.edu/yalegolf/topics/yalies/architects/pryde/

https://www.tumblebrookcc.com/History#:~:text=Tumble%20Brook%20Country%20Club%20was,Miller%20farm%20in%20Bloomfield. “Courses”

https://www.wethersfieldcc.org/the-course.html  “The Course”

https://www.cthickorygolf.org/the-courses/courses-by-architect “The Golf Greats Who Designed Connecticut's Hickory-Era Courses”