Great River

A Tom Fazio design that first opened in 2001, the layout can play to a very challenging slope rating of 146 from the back markers. Most sensible golfers will see sense, however, and tee it up from one of the four more forward tees on every hole.

On the front nine, the par threes at the 214-yard 2nd and 224-yard 8th provide more than a modicum of golfing eye candy as a spectacular thirty-foot waterfall backdrops the green at the former and an alluring wetland area fronts the bunkerless putting surface of the latter.

The back nine holes play through an undulating wooded landscape – with half a dozen little wooden bridges linking uneven sections of the terrain – whilst the front nine is laid out on more open ground, with six of the holes set alongside the Housatonic River.

The backside at Great River Golf Club begins with a par three. What might look like on paper as a gentle introduction to the second half is anything but as this 197-yard hole plays to a demanding sand-protected, raised green that sits behind a creek.