Founded in 1899, only ten years after the first hickory golf clubs arrived in America, our club was founded by famed business and community leaders including Stanley, Corbin, Smith, Hart, Pease, Moore, and Baldwin. The club became an early leader among clubs, co-founding the Connecticut State Golf Association the same year. In 1916, the club's decision to create a world-class course helped bring forth the "Golden Age" of golf architecture with the design of its "new" Shuttle Meadow facility. The club's commitment to quality and traditions of "the royal and ancient game" became its guiding vision, and left a heritage of excellence for a privileged membership.
Shuttle Meadow represents golf as it was meant to be—an authentic original designed in the Scottish tradition by Willie Park, Jr., known as "the man who brought golf to the world." He designed and built ONLY thirteen golf courses, and this was his historic first on this side of the Atlantic. Park's elite courses include Sunningdale in England and Maidstone, Olympia Fields and Woodway in the United States. His courses have hosted US, British and Canadian Open Championships.
When he arrived in America, Park was the most influential man in the game, a two-time winner of the British Open, the second largest club manufacturer in Britain, holder of four patents for club designs, author of two golf books and an accomplished golf architect whose innovative designs paved the way for golf as we know it in the United States. His courses stand the test of time, and today he is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Established on its current site in 1917, the club opened its historic clubhouse, designed by Kenneth Murchison, an architect of other club facilities enjoyed by discerning families including the Astors and Vanderbilts. The elegant Shuttle Meadow clubhouse is steeped in history, and unlike so many other clubhouses, it is also an original.
Many of the greatest golfers in history have admiringly passed through our doors, and along our fairways; they have amassed 35 British and US Open Championships. Bobby Jones once said that our 14th hole was among the 18 prettiest holes he had ever played. Historic Shuttle Meadow has been artfully placed and preserved on almost 400 natural acres. With superlative golf, clubhouse, pool and tennis facilities, it is considered one of the most beautiful and traditional golf and country clubs anywhere—a vision from 1899.