# Brooklawn Country Club vs. Country Club of Fairfield: The Fairfield Choice

Source: https://thecourserankings.com/blog/brooklawn-country-club-vs-country-club-of-fairfield/

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Course Comparisons / Connecticut


A deep sand bunker guarding a green. Photo: Santeri Viinamäki, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Two private clubs in the same Connecticut town, designed a decade apart by two of the defining architects of American golf's golden age, both still private, both in Fairfield County. This is the rarest kind of comparison we publish, because access cannot break the tie. Tillinghast against Raynor, inland against the Sound, championship record against pure design setting. Brooklawn and the Country Club of Fairfield have to be separated on the golf alone.

## Brooklawn: Tillinghast with a championship paper trail

Brooklawn was founded in 1895 and admitted to the USGA on January 22, 1896 as one of its earliest members. Its A.W. Tillinghast course, dated 1930 in the record, plays par 71 at 6,711 yards, rating 73.3, slope 138. The event list is the argument: the 1979 U.S. Women's Open, the 1987 U.S. Senior Open, the 2021 U.S. Senior Women's Open, the 1974 U.S. Junior Amateur won by David Nevatt, and the 2003 U.S. Girls' Junior won by Sukjin-Lee Wuesthoff. Gene Sarazen was an assistant professional here and still holds the course record of 63. The club continues under the restoration direction of Ron Forse, a Tillinghast specialist.

That is a century of the USGA returning to the same Fairfield ground, across men's, women's, junior and senior golf, which is a breadth few American clubs can claim. Brooklawn does not have one famous week. It has a habit.

## Country Club of Fairfield: Raynor on the Sound

The Country Club of Fairfield is a Seth Raynor design from 1921, ranked No. 3 in Connecticut by Golf Digest, one of three Raynor lineage courses at the top of the Connecticut ranking. It plays par 70 at 6,358 yards, rating 71.6, slope 133, with holes touching Long Island Sound. A.W. Tillinghast, in a twist this comparison could not have invented, sketched new fourth through sixth holes around a lagoon in the mid 1920s, later built, so Tillinghast's hand is in both courses in this matchup. Tom Doak was hired in the early 2000s to re-establish Raynor's greens and bunkering, with restoration expert Bruce Hepner becoming consulting architect.

Raynor at 6,358 yards on ground that reaches the Sound is a different proposition from Tillinghast at 6,711 inland. The Fairfield course asks its questions with templates, bold greens and wind off the water. Brooklawn asks its questions the way a championship course does, with length enough to matter, a 138 slope, and greens that have sorted out USGA fields in five different decades.

We place both in [the best golf courses in Fairfield](/blog/the-best-golf-courses-in-fairfield-ct/) and weigh them in [the 5 best golf courses in Connecticut](/blog/the-5-best-golf-courses-in-connecticut/).

## The verdict

Brooklawn wins on the complete record. The championship breadth, the higher rating and slope at a longer yardage, Sarazen's 63 still standing as the course record, and a Tillinghast under active specialist restoration give it the deeper file, and rankings are built on files, not on single afternoons.

The concession could hardly be larger, and the Country Club of Fairfield's side deserves it stated strongly. Given one round, one golden late afternoon, many golfers would choose the Raynor on the Sound, and some of our own panel would too. A No. 3 state ranking, template greens restored under Doak's direction, and holes that touch the water make it the more singular place. If you value the design conversation over the championship resume, pick Fairfield and do not let our verdict talk you out of it. If you value a course that the national game has tested, repeatedly, in every category it runs, pick Brooklawn.

There is a member's argument underneath the guest's argument, too. Brooklawn at 6,711 yards with a 138 slope is the sterner weekly examination, the course that will keep a low handicap honest across a whole season of medal rounds. Fairfield at 6,358 yards, par 70, is the course whose variety carries the repetition better for many players, because Raynor's templates change character with wind and hole location in ways a longer parkland test cannot always match. A golfer joining for a decade of Saturdays could reasonably weight that daily variety as heavily as Brooklawn's championship file, and our verdict, which is a ranking verdict, should not be read as membership advice.

Fairfield, Connecticut, population modest, holds both. Most towns in America would build a tourism campaign around one of these clubs. This one just has two, a few minutes apart, quietly outclassing almost everywhere else.

**Reader responses are open.** Please cite a specific hole, a price, or a round you have played.