Blackledge Country Club - Anderson's Glen

The Safari Club of Golf played here on August 21. It was our inaugural trip to this fantastic layout with well over one-hundred of our members in attendance.

We were extremely impressed with everything about this golf course. The staff is exceptional and among the most accommodating we’ve experienced in all our years of traveling to 25 or better golf courses each season.

Blackledge is truly a “golfer’s” type facility and dedicated to that service. With two 18-hole championship courses they’re equipped and ready to handle almost anything.

We plan on returning again next season as our members all unanimously fell in love with the place.

Probably about an hour fog delay today. Course is in very good shape. Here is the frustrating thing about golf, if you wish to rush then you need to play like 6am. We all pay a decent amount of money to play (it's not cheap), so I'm not in any rush, I will enjoy being out in the open on a nice day! With that said there was a foursome in front of us that had the pace a little backed up (didn't bother me), but the frustration of the foursome behind me was quite annoying, because I have never seen the ranger so much in one round!!
That was a bit frustrating.

.Geoffrey Cornish, a Canadian-born architect and the late designer of Blackledge CC, planned more golf courses in New England than any other architect. Having won numerous, national awards in the field of golf architecture, he can be called one of the greats in this field of the 20th century, though I would still call him a bit underrated by the golfing public, who mainly think more readily of names like Ross and Dye, MacKenzie and Trent Jones when they think of ‘great’ architects. But I will venture to assert that Cornish’s work stands up, quite nicely, to that of these other luminaries.

The Anderson’s Glen Course at Blackledge, which Cornish created along with William F. Robison in 1963, is a complete, burly, and often difficult test of precision golf. It slopes at 127 from the championship tees. I have to look long and hard to find a better public course east of the Connecticut river in this north/northeast section of our state; among the ones I’ve played, only the Donald Ross-created Shennecossett equals (not betters) Anderson’s Glen.

The strength of Anderson’s Glen lies in its array of outstanding par-4’s. Take the third, for instance: a 404-yarder from the blues, it demands a drive over a large pond to a wood-lined fairway, then a solid mid-iron, typically, to a strongly contoured green requiring talent with the flat stick. If you miss this green, surrounded as it is by hummocks and other uneven terrain, you’d best be equally talented with a wedge. The front nine has other strong par-fours, namely 2, 5, and 7, all of which have significant elevation changes and tricky greens. The back nine, however, has the course’s finest four-pars, especially number eleven, an uphill 429 yard monster where a carefully-placed drive is a must, as eleven’s green is optimally approached from its frontal opening, an opening flanked by massive bunkers. And if you have a longer club in your hand for this approach, these bunkers will be genuinely intimidating. They’re worse when you find yourself in one of them. Is this the golf course’s best hole? Hmmmm, hard to say—with so many holes of similar challenge. Preceding the eleventh hole is the another gem, the downhill, gently-doglegging, and shorter tenth, highlighted by its splendidly sloping green (moving uphill, front to back) that may cause you to hit the three-putt panic button should you be any distance above the hole. Holes 14 and 15 provide another one-two punch; at 384 and 388 yards, respectively, they are stout enough to encourage you to draw driver from the bag, yet they also need some finesse and precision on both the drive and approach.

The par-fives are all solid at this course, yet the two longer ones stand out. The imposing 499-yard #4 will be three-shotter for most, in which your drive is threatened by left-side woods and scattered trees, rightward, while the second must dodge massive, Scottish-style mounds containing, on top, embedded bunkers. The heavily rolling fairway looks spectacular; it is also a switchback fairway, so negotiating the angles on shots one and two is critical. The third, likely to be a wedge to a canted green, will definitely demand care, and you’ll need to follow up with more cautious work: a smaller putting surface in the shape of a narrow, lengthy oval, will test your prowess on greenside chips/pitches, or curving putts, or both. This hole reflects the attention to detail that goes into all of the par-fives at Anderson’s Glen (also called “The Old Course” here), but hole twelve also stands out, a 491 downhill—yet straightaway—hole (the fairway tilts left to right to add interest) that is definitely reachable with a powerful drive. But expect to be in the fairway here if you prefer a clear shot to the double-bunkered green.

To round things out, let’s talk par threes. Among the two best holes on the course are eight and sixteen, both long one-shotters that will require a hybrid or long iron (Do they still exist?) or possibly a 5 to 6-iron for those who are aspiring tour pros. Eight is uphill with a pair of fronting bunkers, meant mainly to catch a truly missed shot, while the downhill sixteenth is better defended by three menacing greenside traps that will gorge themselves on more subtly missed approaches. Woe is you when you miss this green.

What is also remarkable about Anderson’s Glen is the outstanding conditioning this course receives. When I used to play this course regularly in the early 2000’s as a member of the men’s club, Blackledge’s overall conditioning was fine, but not this good. Today, the rough was quite playable, though it could be punishing in places; the fairways, bunkers, tees and greens were all superb; even the interstitial areas between holes seemed well-conditioned! And, while it’s not Augusta National, Blackledge probably ranks among the best-conditioned public courses in Connecticut, and I haven’t experienced a better manicured track that I can recall, over the last five years and among multiple states. The conditions are truly ‘country club;’ the only types of places I’ve played that exceeded this standard were very fancy ones, such as Jack Nicklaus’ Grand Cypress in Orlando or Cog Hill #4 in Chicago-land, the former long-time home of the Western Open. For those who are conditioning fanatics (I am not, actually), this is your golf course!

What was unremarkable about the course was negative service in the bar. It would be unprofitable to cover the tedious details what happened here as we were trying, merely, to pick up a few items we had ordered ahead at the turn, and most readers probably won’t be interested, but suffice it to say that our round was unnecessarily delayed, and for no good reason (in my estimation). So the good walk was spoiled, as Mark Twain was popularly alleged to have said (but did not). Oh, well; this form of pettiness won’t keep me from coming back to Blackledge—though next time I’ll visit only the golf courses.

On the other hand, the pro shop radiated a much sunnier atmosphere, where John Martinchek, a staff Professional, was engaging and very friendly, as we talked about changes in the courses, made after I had played here regularly.

Played gilead today staff person did not have carts ready had a bit of an attitude. Very mediocre Mark Mungeum design. Most of course was cart path only due to curbs along cart paths. Do not play if you have ambulatory issues I had handicap flag but it was basically useless. Greens were decent however
I will not return

Check before you pay and play. The course was recently aerated and in recovery mode. I was unaware of that and I would’ve gone somewhere else.

...to play Andersen's Glen. It's certainly not the toughest track in the central CT area; however, it is a lot of fun to play. Staff is always friendly. Pace of play was fantastic (a 4:10 round on a Saturday morning is pretty much unheard of these days!).

Two minor suggestions:
The course's website is really good, so they should use it to report when aeration is taking place Luckily, they used small tines when they aerated earlier in the week, so the greens weren't bad at all...but still.

Put "real" cups on the the practice greens (maybe on one of the two, at least). This is just my pet peeve, but c'mon, it really doesn't wreak that much havoc, does it?

If you haven't yet played either of Blackledge's tracks , what are you waiting for?

I play all over the country 60+ times a year, but always get in 2 or 3 rounds a year at Blackledge. The course is always in good shape, value priced and with 36 holes you can almost get any time you need, assuming there isn’t a tournament or a busy weekend.

Played here on 8/7 and the greens were immaculate and lush, fairways perfect and the rough exactly what you expect in a CT course.

For anyone that hasn’t played here, do it! If you are a regular, I know you hate my review but you wouldn’t argue my points, and surely agree.

I love Blackledge. Keep up the great work staff!!!!

I have played this course a few times each year. This was my first round playing the Andeson Glen Course and I was plaesantly surprised that the course was in such good condition, From tee to green, the course played well. The greens were moderately fast and true. Most of the bunkers were clean, full and recently raked, but a few of them had stones and needwd attention. I had an early tee tine, and finished the round in 3 hours. This is a 36 hole course.

Play here many times a season. Always enjoy the round. Five hours to play 18 is too long though.

Beautiful course! Excellent upkeep! Friendly staff! Challenging but forgiving course with some blind greens! Highly recommend!

There aren't many easy holes here. I lost my concentration a couple of times and both times it resulted in a triple bogey. Lots of elevation changes, too. I'll be back.

Got to play with 2 Men’s Club Members today. What a great day of golf.
The staff is great !
Course was on very good shape considering the tough spring weather.
Will def return !!!!

Greens were aerated recently, but in general, course in great shape!

On the day we played the front nine pace was very good. The back nine not so much. I paid attention to the group in front of us and they definitely was not the same at the turn. Other than that course was in great shape. Greens were a bit slow though. Good golfnow rate helps.

A very nice course. Enjoyed playing there even if my game wasn't up to par that day. Lol. Will definitely play there again

I have played Blackledge many times, the only complaint I've ever had was the greens were a little slower than I like. I mentioned this to the proshop staff and they obviously listened to my feedback and acted on it. On Saturday the greens were perfect! Fast and true.