BillyBruno

Just played the Sanibel Island Golf Club course for the first time in 3 months, and the improvements to the layout, tees, greens, and fairways made this summer are fantastic. I liked this course 6 months ago. But I love it now. Tees, greens, hazards, and fairways are all much improved, and make this course a must play again and again.

I have played this course many times over the past 5 years, in a weekly league. It is always in very good condition, especially the greens (though they are never what you would call fast). The course provides a challange for good golfers who want to improve their short game. But it is also very playable for beginners. The front 9 is shorter and fairly easy for an average golfer. It is a good warm up for the longer and much tougher back 9, which has several holes between 196 and 250 yards. Water can come into play on holes 1, 10, and 12 (the longest hole on the course). Parts of the course are hilly. But it is walkable.

I had played Pautipaug CC many times before Mohegan Sun bought and had the golf course redesigned. I have no problem with the layout changes that they made to what was one of the better private courses in Eastern Connecticut. My big problem with the redesign of the course is related to the dificulty of the greens that were redesigned. There are probably 5-6 greens that are way too extreme for the average (20 hncp) golfer like myself to play without at least 3 or 4 putting. As with many golf course architects today, these 5-6 greens tend to be so extremely undulating with so little room for error that only a pro could play them without dificulty. An example would be the 6th green and the 12th green, both multi-tiered greens that have 5-6 foot drops between 2-3 levels. The day we played the course, I hit the center of the 12th green with an 8 iron and didn't quite make the top level, so my ball rolled backwards down the incline and all the way off the green. That being said, I still managed to shoot 102 from the white tees, and would play the course again once or twice in the future for a real challenge. One of my playing partners said this was the most difficult course he has ever played in Ct. If you want to test you golfing skills - play the new Pautipaug.