The Connecticut Golf Club in Easton will welcome the state’s top senior golfers when it hosts the 7th Connecticut Senior Match Play Championship on June 3rd – 5th, 2013.
The club has quite an interesting history, having been originally constructed by Lawrence A. Wien, one of the owners of New York’s Empire State Building. Wien built the facility with the original intent of having the club restricted for his own personal use; however, he would go on to open the club for restricted membership, pitching the club as a getaway for avid golfers from New York City.
The course was originally designed in 1966 by renowned architect Geoffrey Cornish, known for designing hundreds of courses in New England throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s. As Cornish noted in an interview, “When I first looked at the site, which was solid rock, I told Larry Wein it would be impossible to build a course there. It was really a tough one, but I had unlimited funds to work with.”
Cornish used the vast resources at hand to blast ledges, move streams, create elevated tees and dramatic doglegs – all before stricter environmental restrictions came into play. The club is truly a special place and the mission remains unchanged; to provide a golf retreat in the middle of a stunning New England landscape, far removed from the busyness of daily life.
One of the great features of the course are its green complexes, which feature a variety of contours, sizes and multiple elevations. Perhaps the best example of this is the par-4 16th, which has a total depth of 68 yards and four tiers. The par 3’s all feature elevated tees with dramatic carries over water and the par fives require the player’s to navigate around doglegs and water hazards. It goes without saying that the course will prove to be a challenging, yet fair test of their golfing skills.
This will be the club's fifth CSGA Major Championship, having previously hosted the Senior Match Play in 2007 and 2008, the Mid-Amateur Championship in 1996, and the Senior Amateur Championship in 1999. One player sure to be excited about move back to Connecticut Golf Club will be two-time Senior Match Play Champion and 2012 Player of the Year Dave Szewczul, who captured the Connecticut Mid-Amateur Championship when it was held at Connecticut Golf Club in 1996.
