Wethersfield Country Club

Wethersfield Country Club, a private club in central Connecticut, dates to 1916 and ranks among the state's older golf courses. The original design is credited to Robert D. Pryde, and the layout retains a traditional character, routed over rolling, wooded terrain with mature trees, wide fairways and demanding greens.

The club is closely tied to the history of professional golf in New England, having hosted the Insurance City Open and later the Greater Hartford Open for 32 years, from 1952 through 1983. Ted Kroll took the inaugural 1952 event, followed by Bob Toski in 1953, Tommy Bolt in 1954 — whose 60 stands as the course record — and Sam Snead in 1955, whose seven-stroke margin remains the tournament's largest. Arnold Palmer collected his first PGA Tour victory in the United States there in 1956, defeating Kroll in a playoff. Jack Nicklaus never won at Wethersfield, and Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson were the rare absentees from the field, though Nelson did play an exhibition at the club.