You couldn't ask for more contrasting courses...and communities. I've reviewed Fox Den at this site on January 31, and you can read the review by clicking here . In a nutshell, the Willard Byrd course, renovated by Bill Bergin a few years ago, is of the classic style, with subtle, more than dramatic, elevation changes, and water and sand only where they seem necessary to enhance the challenge as well as the view. The surrounding community, not connected to the private course, is a little long in the tooth, with a number of homes reaching the point where some cosmetic and maybe even structural touches would help. Real estate prices reflect the age and condition of the housing stock.
River Highlands, which has been worked over by Pete Dye, Bobby Weed and others in the past, is in the top rank of courses in Connecticut and New England. If you have been watching on television this weekend, you have seen its most dramatic elements, namely the Golden Triangle of holes that begins at the 15th, a short par 4 with a crowned green that is within a driver's range of the tee box. The tee ball almost begs for the big stick since a lay-up leaves a delicate pitch shot or wedge anyway, to an unreceptive green. The medium-long par 3 16th is all carry over a lake to a green that is not deep. Hit the green and par is a possibility, depending on what contours are between your ball and the cup. Miss the green and bogey is almost a certainty.
Then there is #17, with one of the most intimidating tee shots in golf. With that same lake on the right and a steep bank of gnarly rough on the left, a ball in the fairway is a must if you are to have any chance of clearing the water on your approach (and the closer the drive to the water the better). After a successful tee shot, you almost feel relieved to be faced with a shot over water at around 150 to 160 yards to a back-to-front sloping green just beyond the lake.
The community at the edge of the TPC is a mix of town homes and single- family dwellings on smallish lots. They appeal mostly to empty nesters and young singles. Views of the course are from on high - the homes are well above the fairways on the 18th hole and the 12th & 13th; these latter units look across the fairways and down to the Connecticut River. Many units do not have views of the course but are a short walk to the clubhouse. The community is small at just about 200 homes, with prices generally in the $500s to $700s range.
River Highlands offers a range of membership programs from around a $20,000 initiation fee, but one feature is especially attractive; membership confers access to all other TPC courses, which now number 26. River Highlands is considered one of the best by the golfing professionals who return year after year (although tournament officials haven't figured out a way to lure Tiger, even when the sponsor was Buick).