Country Club Of Fairfield

Founded in 1914 by Oliver Gould Jennings and a small group seeking a quieter alternative to crowded golf, the Country Club of Fairfield hired the young Seth Raynor for one of his earliest solo commissions. Raynor had learned under C.B. Macdonald at the National Golf Links, and he brought that template-hole philosophy to a challenging coastal site. Much of the land was reclaimed onion fields, salt marsh, and beachfront, requiring years of dredging and imported topsoil; work began around 1916 and the course finally opened in 1921, with Walter Hagen among the guests that first day. After Raynor's early death in 1926, A.W. Tillinghast made revisions in the 1930s. Today the layout is prized for its firm seaside turf, Long Island Sound views, and enduring Raynor design DNA.