Played Shennecossett this past weekend with Dr. G. Childs..
Only hiccup was a slow round 4hrs 45 mins and that might have been caused by the club championship in front of us. We had 2 members playing a match with us who were both 20 handicaps. It was amazing to watch, the chili dips, wild drives etc.. it was a see saw affair.. but I digress..
Shennecossett is a wonderful, eclectic muni. It is maintained especially well for a muni or any course for that matter. It was firm, fast, brown and had wonderful native roughs grown around it. It played very much and looked very much like a links course--being so close to Block Island/Fishers Island Sound helps as well!
I'm sure it has been talked about here but the course was changed a few years back due to a land swap b/t Pfizer and the town of Groton Ct. Mark Mungeam came in and built 4 new holes (9th,15-17th), expanded the 18th into a par 5 and changed a few other holes to existing greens (5th, 8th I was told). Anyway, things I really liked--
1st hole- Is a short, gentle Ross handshake that doglegs left. The green is uphill and distances are camaflouged nicely by the bunkering scheme. I should know, I airmailed the green despite a good shot.
2nd hole- Very quirky due to a burn and a private railroad that bisect it. Has a very offensive tree hanging from a neighbor's property right in the line of a good tee shot from the box. Please get it cut!
3rd hole- Semi blind second shot which can use the landform slope before it to be run in perfectly to a canted green. Is a very challenging shot with OB left and in back of the green!
4th hole- A terrific par 3! Uphill 208 yards to a skyline green flanked with bunkers. There are 2 trees in back of the green I guess protecting a tee that if they came out would make this hole sublime.
5th hole- Cool par 5 with cross bunkers.
8th hole- Easily reachable short par 5 that Mungeam also reconstituted. Has 3 center fairway bunkers that were pretty cool and used to be on the right side of a previous hole.
9th hole- one of the new holes.. mid iron par 3 to an okay green but not as wild as several of the past ones I had played.
10th hole- My favorite hole and the best looking one on the course. Dog legs left and then back up to a slightly plateau green with a great back right sucker pin. Well bunkered throughout and a nice rolling fairway. Notice the gun platform tee (great feature) on the 14th hole too. The green here is a Ross special and is like a wavy potato chip. Great stuff to putt on.
12th hole- Another dandy short par 3.. only a wee pitch or 9 iron but its elevated nature makes it very distorted to judge and one worries about being too short and watching their ball rush down the hill.. Needs some tree cutting on the right though to show more of the bunker there.
13- Wonderful links hole again. Terrific approach shot.. Great sloping green.
Holes 15-17 are the new Mungeam holes on land that used to have tennis courts and horseshoe pits. It abuts the water right by the entrance into Fishers Island Sound. Very beautiful shades of blue/green were seen to my eyes. The lavish Griswold Inn which went bankrupt and used to be where people stayed when playing the course when it was a country club used to be on this land as well.
The 15th is a 190ish yard par 3. It looks Ross like to me but the green was again like the 9th--not as wild as some of the original ones. Still a fine hole that my playing partner thought looked a bit reverse redanish from the tee.
No. 16 is the money shot and the prettiest hole on the course due to the water views. A very good par 4 that bends left with excellent bunkering in the corner of the dogleg. You tee off from wetlands and try to shorten the hole. Green is sloped back to front but again lacks some of the internal contour of the Ross originals. Still a very good golf hole, the most in character of the new holes (despite the wetland tee).
#17 short par 4 of 345 yards where you tee off with the water behind you ( a 100 yards away or so) and wetlands on the right prevent you from pulling the driver out with confidence. Hole looks the least links like at Shenny due to the wetlands effect.. Green is elevated a the pic shows.
18-short par 4 was stretched to 500 yards and now par 5. Hole rises to a crest and then drops semi abruptly to a new green by Mungeam. I think it is a good short par 5 but one of the members said it may be shortened into a long par 4.
Overall Shenny was a wonderful golf course, plenty of room to play (except in a few spots near the property line) and a terrific maintenance meld. It again dispels that Connecticut is golf poor. For $40 walking on a Saturday, precious few are greater values in golf--for Ross and links!