Wintonbury Hills Golf Course

Course can be both challenging or not depending on tees you choose.. Nice layout with Undulating fairways and subtle breaks on the greens

Fantastic conditions even early in the year, great staff, nice facilities, Pete Dye designed...tough to beat this course. Even compared to other great courses in the area.

We arrived a little early. We were able to tee off when ready. It was very windy, the course was very beautiful. Can't wait to play on a warmer less windy day.
My tee time included a cart, when we arrived we were asked to pay another $40 for the cart. I explained that it was included with the pre-paid reservation. They asked for proof. This was the only hiccup we encountered. After looking up my reservation, we were able to play?
Please contact the pro shop before you click it!

We purchased 18 holes online and were told to purchase carts separately on the day we played. When we arrived we were told there was a 40min frost delay and offered a rain check. I declined thinking that we had time since it was 2pm. They neglected to tell us they also had a tournament going on. We only got to play 12 holes over 5 hours before having to leave because it was dark. When I asked for a rain check for the remaining holes they offered me 6.00 per person and nothing for the unused cart. Plus we had to redeem it within a month. I will not be returning or recommending them. They shouldn’t accept tee times with an active tournament in play.

Had a 11:20 tee time, a group was just teeing off at 11:15 and no one else was on the hole in front of them including the green, stater told me I had a 11:20 to 11:30 window to tee off which makes no sense. I understand it’s a Sunday but when the group is the 11:10 tee time and just teeing off at 11:15 and a wide open hole and no sense of urgency from the starter? Of course we wait on every shot for the entire 18 including their 10 minute stop after 9 and did not allow us to play through. Where is the monitoring of pace of play from a Ranger or the clubhouse since they supposedly monitor the pace of play via the carts?

Frustrating day and I paid $85, will go somewhere else next time.

Played this course for the first time in recent years. Will be again more often than not! Great layout!

Very nice course, great condition. Slightly pricey for week day

Not too many Pete Dye-created courses are found in these parts. As far as the Northeast goes, there is one in New York State. In western Pennsylvania, three. Over the rest of New England, north of Connecticut, there are none. That leaves exactly one Pete Dye course in New England: Wintonbury Hills, here in Bloomfield.

Luckily for the Nutmeg State, the late Hall of Fame architect created, in the truest sense of that word, something of high merit. Dye himself seemed impressed with the outcome, especially because this property turned out to be a strong one on which to build a rolling, quasi-links design.

Wintonbury Hills isn’t a highly ambitious Dye course when compared to the iconic designs seen on the PGA tour: e.g., Whistling Straits, Harbour Town, Kiawah. It’s more in line with Mr. Dye’s later philosophy, reflecting his mid-career prediction when he said,“there will be more plain golf courses without steep bunkers and exaggerated undulations.” For the most part, that seemed to be the overall gameplan here, even if the course is anything but plain. No fairway or green is beset with a surfeit of massive bunkers; no hole seems like a quick double-bogey (when a shot is slightly misplayed); the forced carries here aren’t overwhelming; only a few greenside falloffs punish misses severely. Still, I like this ‘less ambitious’ Dye because, despite their ostensible simplicity, these holes work so well. And they’re far from minimalistic.

The course is not quite a monster, then, but it is tough. You’ve still got to think your way around the course, play the slopes, calculate undulations, figure out the speed of these lightning-fast greens with their subtle borrows, and apply your short game well to save pars.The links-like nature of many of the holes--with scattered fairway bunkers impeding your progress--means a great deal of openness, but it also means lots of hills, hills of a scale seldom seen on a links: this is not the flattish, crumpled, seaside terrain of St. Andrews or Royal Dornoch. The short par-4 fifth exemplifies the hybrid quality of Dye’s style here: Hit from tee perched on a high hill (its great height is characteristic of many Connecticut golf courses) down to a bending but gently rolling fairway, then to a tightly guarded green with linksy bunkers.

The first foundation stone of this design, it seems, is an emphasis on top-notch par-4’s. The fourteenth is one that exemplifies Dye’s attention to detail in terms of hole shape, strategy and playability. Beautifully set down by the reservoir, fourteen is a strong driving test that nonetheless allows the player to favor a bounce from the tall, left-side bank back onto the fairway. The idea, of course, is to give a wide berth to the water on the right. The hole is long: 455 yards. But the tough second shot may be abetted, again (and only if you wish), by the cleverly canted, leftward slope: this may bounce incoming shots onto the fairly narrow but long green. Two more gems are the intimidating but still playable 2nd and 11th, both of which use the same imposing hill, but with fairways that pose different problems--and options--on the tee shots. The uphill approach shots on both of these four-pars can be equally daunting, with scant margin for error. I also like the demanding 420-yard closing hole here, where a precise approach is a must. But, truth be told, every par-4 at Wintonbury Hills, whether straightforward or complex, long or short, delivers the goods.

Dye’s second bedrock principle here--as it seemed to be always--was to create generally tougher and longer par-3’s than is the norm. The five of them here average 201 from the black tees; from the greens 172. The front side, which I find to be less difficult than the inward half, boasts the best two of these: seven, a downhill corker set beside a pond; and nine, a Reverse-Redan special that tests iron-game finesse.

The three par-5’s, having decent ground movement on their fairways but greater strengths around the greens, are less stirring as a group; they’re fairly conventional tee-to-green.

Playing Experience/Conditions/Staff:
Excellent day at Wintonbury, playing along with Henry and Xinhua (husband and wife). They were simply terrific companions and we greatly enjoyed each other’s company. Henry mentioned today that he’s played a couple of high-end courses in Florida (such as the Ritz-Carlton) in the $200-250 range whose conditions were comparable to Wintonbury’s. I’ll add that this is the best conditioned course I’ve played in 2021. The fairways and greens were outstanding, roughs and tees essentially perfect.

Greens were so fast that we were all having trouble gauging both speed and break. And the biggest joker in the deck concerns how much rollout you’ll get when your ball lands on these putting surfaces: again, lightning quick and perhaps too fast.

The Wintonbury staff was first-rate; I met the pro on duty and the starter, both of whom were personable.

Some Conclusions:
Wintonbury offers immaculate conditions, a well-appointed clubhouse to match its fine routing, and, most importantly, Pete Dye’s design magic. That all adds up to an unbeatable value. It ranks 3rd this year among Golfweek’s top ten public-access courses of Connecticut.

One of THE best courses you will find on Golf now, terrific course condition, and solid layout. Extremely reasonably priced.