The Stanwich Club

About the course

Understand the course before making an access claim.

Long, tight, and relatively flat, with trees lining all 18 fairways, the Stanwich course is truly an imposing test of golf. Perhaps its most memorable features are the Gordon-style greens, the fastest in the Met Area, canted severely from back to front and bunkered tenaciously at their front corners, and the lakes and streams which come into play on eight holes. The 13th is Stanwich’s postcard hole. From the back tees, it plays over a creek, then a lake, to a slightly-elevated L-shaped green built around a deep bunker across its left front. The putting surface is built up from the front, then falls away in its left-rear sector. The 14th is an S-shaped par 5. A conservative stroke from the tee must be played with a club other than the driver to avoid water straight ahead, and the second shot then must be played short or to the left of a second lake ahead on the right. But there is the possibility of carrying a set of fairway bunkers to the left off the tee, a feat that will be rewarded with the chance to go for the green on the second shot – over a lake. The 17th is a pretty par 5, with the brook that parallels the left side eventually expanding into a lake that must be carried on the shot into the green. Stanwich hired.