Located just outside the city of Hartford, Connecticut, is Keney Park Golf Course in Windsor, Connecticut. Keney Park was built in 1927 as a nine-hole golf course. It was designed by famed golf course architect Devereux Emmet. Emmet was a legendary American golf course architect whose designs include the Manchester Country Club, Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, MD, and Bethpage, the green course.
In 1931, a second nine was added by the city of Hartford engineer Robert "Jack" Ross. Ross designed or remodeled several courses in Connecticut. Ross did well to maintain the feel of the front nine on the back nine. The most notable difference is his iterations of the greens. They are fun but not as exciting and perplexing as the Emmet's front nine.
In conjunction with the PGA, the City of Hartford infused six-million-dollars into Keney Park for renovations and reopened the course to the public in 2016. Since then, the course has hosted the Connecticut PGA Championship, Hartford Women's Open, National Boy's and Girl's Junior PGA Championships and the Muni Tour. It is easy to see as you experience the golf at Keney park why the city of Hartford chose to invest $6 million into this golf course.
The course is challenging and exciting for all levels of golf. The course can stretch to 6,500 yards. While the layout is fantastic. The bunkering on the course is unique and in places that will make golfers think about them. Some bunkers are right in the golfer's face just off the tee boxes. So many courses are built without much thought behind the bunkering. They rely on a template of two bunkers by the green and one near the fairway. Keney Park's sand bunkers are spread thoughtfully about the golf course. There probably is not one sand trap that is similar to another.
While the designers challenge the shots hit on the course, they do not challenge the golfer physically. It is a gentle stroll around the Keney Park Golf Course. There is no need to take a cart, non-walkers will find this course enjoyable to walk.
The course is relatively spacious enough to recover from off-target shots off the tee. Most of the trouble facing golfers will be on their approach shots. The green complexes are small, and there is not much room for error. The greens are diabolical. Miss in the wrong the place and bogey or worse will be the only attainable score.
Most golfers will tell you, "It's all about the greens." Here, they were phenomenal. Not tricked up to make a mess of your score, but be prepared to think carefully about the putt and the risk for a missed putt. Rumor has it many of the members left nearby Hartford Country Club to join Keney Park due to the prodigious conditions and superb greens.
There are golf courses where architects of the same course will use similar holes on the front nine as the back nine, especially when the nines were built at different points in time by two different architects. Understandably it is to keep the different sides as similar as possible. Keney Park is not the repetitive golf hole type course. There is a lot of variety that tests all types of golfers.
The aesthetics of the course are the coolest parts. The course features a "Biarritz" green on the 7th hole that dissects the green diagonally. Then there is the green side church pew bunker next to the 8th green. A three-piece bunker and mound named the "principal's nose" protects the green from approach shots on the 17th hole. There is even an old zoo that golfers can see off the 4th tee box in the woods. Nothing is better than the golden age of golf courses that this course represents. The fairways are also notable as they are undulating, which will help move the ball along. This also means that there are few flat areas for golfers to hit from on the course.
Most golfers will remember the greens. However, if you do get to play with someone who knows the course well, ask them about the Hartford mob and how workers found a buried body under the par-3, 13th tee during the renovation before it reopened in 2016.
This course felt like a second shot golf course. Any misses of the greens or even hitting the greens in the wrong place can lead to big numbers. Distance control is probably the most vital skill to have when playing this course. Understanding that a club will put you over or under a bunker will matter immensely as you play your way around the course.
Conditions: Excellent conditions featuring some of the most diabolical greens on a muni.
Difficulty: Open off the tee and Diabolical green complexes.
Practice Green: Yes, there is a beautiful practice green, ideally situated next to the first hole.
Value: Fantastic value for golfers as the price is around $50 to walk for a course that has private club members lining up to join.
Range: Yes, there is a range open to the public.
Wear a hard hat: Definitely some holes that run close to each other and few tee boxes well in the range of an errant approach shot.
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