Keney Park Golf Course in Hartford reopens after three-year renovation

 

HARTFORD, Conn. – For the first time in almost three years golf will be played at Keney Park Golf Course in Hartford on Sunday.

 

Keney Park GC reopens after an extensive restoration. No one has played an official round at Keney Park GC in the city's north end since August 2013. That year city auditors found such horrible conditions at the course – such as eroded cart paths, bridges and steps in poor condition, damaged tee boxes, fairways greens and bunkers, trees slashed down and fallen limbs throughout the property.

 

The conditions at Goodwin Park GC, the city's other public golf course in the south end, were similar, but it was able to remain open.

 

The city terminated its contract with MDM Golf Enterprises LLC in October 2013.

 

The next year the Connecticut PGA Section was hired to be a business consultant at Goodwin GC and Keney Park GC. The Hartford City Council approved a $5.8 million comprehensive restoration at Keney Park GC. The goal was to restore it to architect Devereux Emmet's original design of 1927.

 

"The routing of the holes has been kept the same," said Patrick Aldridge, Connecticut Section PGA golf properties consultant for the City of Hartford Golf Courses. "Every green has been rebuilt; many have been expanded. Small details in sloping and in other areas to the original design seen in the 1920s and '30s are there."

 

Extensive work also was done on tees, fairways and bunkers. A driving range and chipping green were added.

 

PGA Head Professional Peter Seaman and PGA Apprentice Fabio Colon are eager for the season to start. So too is the Connecticut PGA Section, which on Aug. 23-24 will conduct the Connecticut PGA Championship at Keney Park GC. The inaugural Hartford Women's Open will be played at Goodwin Park GC and Keney Park GC on June 18-19.

 

This article was written by Tom Yantz from The Hartford Courant and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.