The original nine-hole course of the Waterbury Golf Association was laid out in 1896 by Arthur Fenn, although the club was not incorporated until 1899. By then it had an abundant membership of 200 golfers playing on what came to be called “the golf lots” along the Naugatuck River.
The club purchased 200 acres on Oronoke Road (at $50 an acre) in 1906 and became known as the Country Club of Waterbury. After the Naugatuck River flooded in 1908, a clubhouse, nine-hole course and four tennis courts were constructed. The course was extended to 18-holes in 1919, and in 1929, course designer Donald Ross assigned Charles Baskin to supervise construction of the present course and clubhouse.
The course record from the championship tees was set at 62 in 1963 by Dick Siderowf while qualifying for the USGA Mid-Amateur Championship. W. Bucky Merriman represented the CC of Waterbury when he won the North & South Amateur in 1923, and Frank English carried the club banner during two Connecticut Amateur Championships. Caroline Keggi holds the women's course record at 66, set in 1984, a year in which she won the Connecticut Match and Stroke Play Championships, the New England Amateur Championship, and qualified for the USGA Amateur. She was club champion several times before moving to the LPGA Tour.
Present club professional, Tom Gleeton, was the club champion in 1974, before spending a year on the PGA Tour in 1986. He has won several Connecticut Section PGA events, placed second in the Connecticut Open in 1998 (the same year he was named Connecticut Section PGA Player of the Year) and has served as president of the Connecticut Section PGA.
