Keney Park -- Hartford

The Facts
Place: Keney Park Golf Course, Hartford
Date of Play: 6-25-2008
Time: Teed off at 6 PM
Cost: $15.50 walking

My buddies and I grabbed 9 holes after work this past Wednesday. This was my first time playing Keney Park Golf Course. The course is nestled in the back of a public park in north Hartford. The park is quite large and continues on both sides of the street, so finding the golf course can be a bit tricky since you have to travel quite a distance through a park road before the course comes into view. I eventually found it. The club house is small, but gets the job done. The course was short, but interesting. It featured numerous hills, swales and contours not always typical in central CT golf courses. Definitely not a flat course. Most of the holes are short but the greens are fairly well protected to make up for the lack of distance. Fairways and tees were in good condition. Rough was short and forgiving. My primary criticism with the course was the condition of the greens. Naturally soft and slow, they were uneven with many pock marks. Getting a true roll was a crap shoot. Considering the amount of rain we've received this spring-summer season, the greens were not in the best of shape. They were not terrible, but there was definitely room for improvement. However, overall the course provided the standard municipal golf course experience. If you are in the area it's worth a try, but I would not consider traveling any distance to play this course. Certainly a public or muni course in your area would likely be on par or better than this course. The scores in my foursome included something in the neighborhood of 2 44s a 54 and a 55.
OK, that's the standard write up, now for a little story:At the first tee, the course has an "Ambassador" apparently to keep order. As often seems to be the case, this starter was an older gentleman, probably retired, working at the course for some extra cash. Well, give an old guy a cart with an "Ambassador" stamp on it and he suddenly becomes Idi Amin from The Last King of Scotland movie. The starter felt the need to show his power by yelling at me for "practicing" on his tee. I was just swinging the club back and forth to loosen up like nearly every golfer at every course does on the first tee. When I asked where I was supposed to practice, he replied "At home." I bit my tongue, but if you've ever played golf for any length of time, I'm sure you've run into the grumpy-old-man-starter-guy. The story continues...after the group ahead of us got sufficiently ahead, the first guy in our group teed up and hit. He was immediately scolded by the starter because he did not wait for his go-ahead. Fortunately everyone in the group was able to take a deep breath and let it go. We got off the first tee and had a fun round of golf, including a couple of cold beers. Players beware of the starter-Nazi if you decide to take a trip to Keney!