Located beside the Long Island Sound, the Country Club of Fairfield was first designed by Seth Raynor in 1914, who transformed a flat, swampy onion field into a quality course by bringing fill onto the site via steam train to help create shape and build the necessary features. This is no Whistling Straits, however, as most of the movement is quite subtle, aside from the steep gradients off the main hill where the clubhouse resides.

Raynor’s design was first altered in the 1920s or 30s by A.W. Tillinghast then most radically by Robert Trent Jones in the 1950s, Jones altering the routing, bunker style and reshaping a number of greens to reflect the era. Tired and worn out, Rees Jones also made some modifications and more recently Bruce Hepner started a program to remove trees planted within the interior to return the windswept, quasi-links feel the course once enjoyed.

As a result of all the influences, the course at Fairfield is a little disjointed with the bunkering a mix of Raynor’s deep trenches and Jones’s flashed and more rounded faces. The greens are also diverse, most resembling the Raynor style – particularly the Redan-like 9th, short lagoon par three 3rd and built-up back-to-front 18th.