Greenwich

Founded in 1892 as Fairfield County Golf Club, making it one of the oldest in America, the club subsequently changed its name to Greenwich Country Club then called in Seth Raynor to redesign the original 18-hole layout.

According to Daniel Wexler in The American Private Golf Club Guide, “the club hired Seth Raynor in 1916 to redesign an existing Lawrence Van Etten layout, and though much about that course has changed (including the removal of the once-famous drop-shot 10th), enough of its corridors remain intact to give Raynor (as opposed to subsequent renovators Robert White, Donald Ross or Trent Jones) primary design credit.

Today’s edition features a strong close to the front nine at the 422-yard 8th (with a creek crossing short and right of the green) and the 420-yard 9th, a dogleg right around a pond which finishes at the base of the steep hill that flanks the clubhouse. The back nine’s best is the 516-yard creek-affected 14th, though the 419-yard 16th (featuring a diagonal line of Ross-like bunkers before the green) isn’t bad.”