Pine Valley (Orrin Smith)

[mark chalfant]

Has anyone played this course near Waterbury Connecticut.
Smith ,who did some work for Willie Park and D. Ross.
His routings and greens can be quite interesting. Is that the  the case  here ?


thanks

[Brad Klein]

Did a drive by once, and on that very limited basis I'd say you could do a whole lot better than Pine Valley in Ct. Orrin Smith's Suffield CC (9-holes) is very thoughtful. He also did the site work for Willie Park Jr.'s Shuttle Meadow and I hear his Torrington CC is very interesting, though from what I've seen (not played) it's a pretty intense piece of land.

[Pete Stankevich]

I played there years ago and from what I remember....
It's an ok course, fairly hilly in spots, lots of back and forth, parallel fairways, nice views of Mt. Southington.  Nothing real interesting or outstanding from a GCA perspective.
Pretty busy public course just down the street from ESPN.
It's in Southington, near the Bristol, CT line.
Shuttle Meadow in Kensington is a much better golf course, but it is private.  
Torrington is also private.  Very hilly golf course, always in immaculate condition.   Not a difficult golf course from the tee, but the greens and bunkers can be pretty treacherous and the elevation changes can make things interesting.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Mark,
The greens are very good at Pine Valley but they aren't as treacherous as the ones at Torrington CC, neither is the terrain. At TCC you are always on the defense when putting, not so much at PVGC. A walk behind many of the greens at TCC reveals just how much earth was pushed up to build them, less so at PVGC. Bunkers are deeper at TCC and getting up and down from anywhere is more of a challenge.
I think TCC is around 6,700 yds, w/large clubhouse, all squeaked onto 106[ca.] acres.

I would imagine that some of the differences are private vs. public, but TCC was built 30 years earlier than PVGC and it feels it.

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