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*** REVISED AND UPDATED: 2024 ****

Once you get into the woods after hole #1, you'll find tight lines, tees set on the edges of bluffs, and tricky elevated greens protected by rocks. Lots of rollaway possibilities, the occasional stream running across or near holes, and valleys to throw across. The front nine is mostly straight or right-to-left, but the back nine includes a few distinct left-to-rights added in for variety.


One of the other things that makes this such a difficult course to score on is that many of the greens are raised - they're on top of, or on the side of, rocky hills. So there's no "skip" to be found: if you're even just a little low, you're going to hit a rock and stop dead (or worse: ricochet down away from the basket)

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- Tees and baskets are excellent, but the signage is aging. Some are completely faded, some are pretty beat up, others have a bunch of graffiti. There's some power line construction interfering with a few of the holes on the back nine.


- A "con" depending on your concern for keeping your discs pristine: this is rocky ground, and your discs are likely to take a few nicks

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~ Parking along the road with semi-permanent food trucks nearby. Large map, practice basket and an area for cookouts and all kinds of post-round enjoyment.


~ Short tees are natural, and short baskets allow for brave newbies to play a genuinely woods course


~ Veteran's is a premiere, if underrated, CT course. Of the 30+ courses I've played in Connecticut, this has to be one of the toughest courses to score on. It's a lot better challenge than the perennial "Best" course in the State (Wickham), and I would put it up as an equal to Mohegan, Rockwell and Killingworth.

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First off, I love the terrain of this course. Good elevation changes, and the course makes very effective use of them. A pretty good variety of holes, plenty of up, down, straight, righty and lefty holes (although maybe biased a bit towards lefties). I love the basket placement on hole 15, on a bit of a peninsula with a shallow ravine on 3 sides, very cool. And for a wooded course, the fairways all seemed to be plenty wide to allow a little margin of error with your drives, while still being tight enough to provide a challenge.

The broken glass has been mentioned plenty, and it is an eyesore, but not as bad as some reviews make it out to be. I might not have even noticed it if it hadn't been pointed out to me during the round. Another eyesore is the graffiti that's been popping up on some rocks/trees. Definitely unfortunate, but neither of these issues affect play at all. Also, some holes might have been difficult to find if I wasn't playing with a local.

I played from the long tees and most holes seemed to be in the 300-400 foot range. No gimme birdies on the course, and no real guaranteed 4's either, although many holes can be birdied with a good drive or bogeyed with a poor one. All of the elevation change helped mix it up enough so that you don't really notice the lack of variety in expected scoring from hole to hole, if that makes sense.
One other thing to be aware of, near the basket for hole 3, there are hundreds of ground bees (you'll see little holes in the ground all over). I've been told they don't sting, so they're not a hazard, but can definitely be disconcerting.

AMAZING design, Adam really pulled out his creative side when designing this course. Finishing up a quick 9 is easy since it brings you right back to the beginning of the course, 9,10,11 are right next to hole 1. Very challenging even for the most advanced players out there! This is NOT a very open course, only a few holes do you have the opportunity to really launch it out there. Mildly to densely wooded which makes it a more technical game to be on the MONEY with your drives, approaches and putts. PRECISION is key with Veterans,

Course is very new still so we must give it time but my personal opinion is a few trees here and there must be cut! Several spots are so unforgiving even with a beautiful drive, there will be one or two small nagging trees right there to take you down. 5 is especially the heart breaker, there is literally a wall of trees in front of you for your second shot. Time will tell and the future is bright.

With college back in session and the proximity to SHU (quarter mile) it is a hot spot for college students to hang. Most are respectful but it does seem to be turning into a problem with garbage. Although TONS of work has gone into cleaning this long forgotten park, some garbage is coming back. This is especially true at the picnic table where 14,16,17 meet and also hole 15s bench. Wrappers and paper of all kinds but nothing that a garbage can here or there wont fix.

Seven concrete tee boxes!! More to come. Holes are diverse. Starting from the first hole, which is a wide open drive into confined trees, then on to the 2nd which is narrow and downhill, the course winds itself around the terrain smartly, never boring! Only with all the leaves off the trees, you can see other holes that are hidden during the summer months. It's truly a beautiful Park filled with wildlife. Narrow doglegs, steep slopes, open long fairways...everything you could want!

It's newer, so not trampled down enough to eliminate dangerous and pesky brush and bramble. Poison ivy, prickers await those that venture off the fairway... Really rewards the accurate player, and frustrates the others. In the autumn, most of that is gone, and it opens up beautifully. The last three years has seen much traffic, all contributing to the "breaking in" of this new course. Lots of volunteers help to keep it clear and playable.

I really enjoy this course and look forward to it's maturity! Help out, grab a bag of garbage and take it out. Use the garbage cans. Carry out what you carry in. Maybe we could use some signs around to remind folks to do exactly that.

-Great variation in hole layouts
-A lot of trees make for some tricky throws
-A lot of shade for hot days

-16th hole is currently missing.
-A lot of brush makes finding stray discs a pain; could use more frequent grooming.

Some holes are unforgiving with missed putts, which makes for a very close competition many times.

The course is challenging with fantastic use of the terrain. Elevation changes are very well utilized, though there are more uphill than downhill shots. There are a few really creative pin placements. Baskets are usually easy to see and some have tall flags on them to make them more visible. Most tees are natural but flat and there are concrete tees on 17 and 18. Tee signs are on tall posts and easy to spot. The fairways are well defined and a lot of work has gone into designing and maintaining the grounds. It seems the course went through a recent minor redesign and a lot of brush has been cut back and tees have been flattened. The course is easy to find and navigation is well marked and fairly intuitive. Very accessible from the Merrit Parkway. The layout is good; the front 9 loops around to the beginning, so one could opt to play either only the front 9 or the back 9. There is one 'mando' which keeps players from cheating and circumventing the woods on hole 10. Two holes used O.B. well. Many holes have benches and there are trash bins at the head of the course. Hole lengths range between 190 and 475. Most holes are in the woods but a there are a few that open up and let you rip it. There are two tees on many holes.

Lately the course has been much cleaner than in the past which is great but still be warned that this place can get nasty. It's not as bad as when I first played here, but there is still significant and consistent disrespect for the cleanliness of the park. Empty beer bottles and cans can be found littering areas around many tee pads. The locals and regular players really need to step up their game and make sure this kind of disrespect doesn't happen.

Concrete tees or something more permanent would be a huge improvement especially when the weather gets damp. Some of the holes are very rough and sometimes the grass isn't mowed adequately. Keep your eyes peeled for poison ivy. Also keep your eyes peeled for your disc! It's easy to loose one here. However, the course has a lot of traffic and I've always gotten a call about discs that I've lost and they've been returned to me. Parking is a bit of a drag, it's just on the side of the main road along the park. No restrooms or running water that I could see. Path from 16 to 17 crosses the Tee pad for 14. Sometimes tee signs show two tees and the second is hard to find (e.g. hole 10). Some tee signs are missing. Hole 15 has a short tee that isn't marked on the tee sign.

As long as the maintenance here continues this course will be great. The sad reality is that there is a cast of characters who come here and leave beer cans and trash everywhere. Respect the course and keep it in good shape. Whoever has been organizing the work days has been doing a stellar job. Come with your technical chops well developed and you'll have a couple opportunities for a good bomb.

Great layout! Convenient parking. Easy to find discs (with 3 players, we didn't look for a disc for more than 10 seconds in 2 rounds!).

It would be great to have a course map near hole 1. Following smart phone/gps directions to "Veterans Park" brings you to Stratford. This course is in "Veterans Memorial Park" aka "90 Acres Park."

Played two rounds this morning with two buddies...the first time any of us had been there. We wanted to check it out thanks to the recent CT Post article where players compared the course in quality to Cranbury and Wickham.

This course is NOT like Cranbury or Wickham. Those courses have been used for national tournaments for a reason: they have flawless tee boxes, excellent signage, and they are spotless. This course has none of these characteristics.

With this said, this is a great course! Whoever designed the layout of the holes did a GREAT job! I can't imagine any better placement for any of the baskets.

Here's a summary of the course:

Hole #1
Open tee shot across the field. Approach shot is guarded by tall trees allowing overhand approaches. There is trash on the ground as you enter the woods, but this is by far the worst of it, and most holes are totally clean.

Hole #2
Wide tunnel tee shot. Missing tee shot left buries you. Basket is deceptively far as it is on the other side of a small hill.

Hole #3
Tunnel tee shot with slight right dogleg at the end of the tunnel. Straightforward hole.

Hole #4
Tunnel tee shot and long dogleg left...flat for the first half, downhill the 2nd half. Miss your tee right and you might be in a swamp.

Hole #5
This hole sucks and accounted for the most strokes on the day from all three of us. It's a tunnel dogleg left and uphill, and if you don't hit the tunnel off the tee it will kill you. There are a few approaches towards the hole if you miss the fairway, but they are narrow. The basket is located in a nice rock bowl which did seem to attract our discs rather than bouncing them away like a force field, thank goodness!

Hole #6
Fun hole. Tunnels left and right so you have your pick of your favorite throws to reach the basket. Again, basket is located on a mound surrounded by rocks that seem to suck discs towards the target. Nice!

Hole #7
Fairly open tee shot uphill and definite birdie hole.

Hole #8
Another tough hole. Narrow tunnel tee shot into a right hand long dogleg. It doesn't look that narrow a tunnel, but the trees to split are a good distance from the tee and if you miss splitting them, you have problems wherever you end up. Better to miss right than left. Even better to actually hit the tunnel!

Hole #9
Fairly open shot to basket on top of a hill, slightly to the left. I birdied this one, but it's pretty easy to fade the disc too far left, or yank it right into a tree to the right of the tee. Also, the hill looks like it will cause approach shot roller headaches, but we weren't unlucky enough to experience this.

Hole #10
Tricky hole...dogleg left with a fairly wide tunnel that leads to fair approach shot, assuming you hit the tee shot, which I didn't!

Hole #10 (another approach)
A better shot is to risk the tunnel that leads to the open field where there is an easy approach shot to the hole. Our scores going dogleg route were 5 & 4. Going the direct route through the field were 3,3,4 & 5.

Hole #11
Fairly open dogleg right and even bad tee shots seemed to give good approach opportunities.

Hole #12
Cool hole with "Y" tree in the enter of the fairway close to the tee box. Out of our six drives on our two rounds, none of us hit the fairway for this hole. It doesn't look that hard, but the trees beyond the "Y" kept deflecting our shots like Wonder Woman's bracelets. Bogeys galore.

Hole #13
Uphill, dogleg left, tunnel. Miss the tunnel and it's extra strokes. Looks pretty difficult for a lefty/forehand player.

Hole #14
Nice easy downhill dogleg right. Unless you throw like we did completely missing the fairly wide tunnel to the basket. Out-of-bounds is a threat if you go long. Otherwise, pretty straight-forward.

Hole #15
Cool hole and pretty difficult. Choice of tunnels left or right off the tee. None of us were able to find the fairway off the tee (except for one short shot). The hole is short enough so that an approach can set up an easy par, but the impressive smattering of mature trees combined with what looks like a missile silo creates a very challenging approach.

Hole #16
Tee sign is missing. Uphill slightly right, narrow tunnel. No surprises.

Hole #17
Downhill and straight. It looks easy, but we failed to hit the gap leading down to the hole.

Hole #18
You could argue that this hole is similar to the open holes at Cranbury and Wickham. Tell my buddy that who found the clump of trees dead center in the fairway. You have to choose right or left of these trees and either way, the gaps are far enough from the tee to be somewhat challenging to hit. Still, we managed 5 of 6 tee shots unharmed. On a windy day, I'm betting this hole sucks!

Summary
We didn't see anyone else playing, but then we began at 7:30 am on a Sunday morning. We thought better comparisons for this course might be Leonard Park in Mt. Kisco or Page Park in Bristol due to its woodsy nature.

Hole #1 looks a little scary because of all the trash near the basket, but the course is nice otherwise. Nothing a shop vac and a generator couldn't remove in an hour or so. Elevations for the holes would be a nice touch as this information would be useful on many tee shots.

Overall, this was a wonderful course to play. Challenging, fun, and well-thought out.

Good variety of open and wooded holes
Challenging, technical
Good variance of long and short, excellent elevation changes throughout the course
Well marked now with the new signs in place
Getting a lot of love and attention so the fairways are getting cleaner and cleaner everyday

A little debris and trash throughout the course but whatcha gonna do its bridgeport.

Occassionally you get a douchhebag Dirt biker ripping up and down the power lines.

Tee pads are a bit rough still but this will be fixed in short order

A fantastic addition to the course cluster we have in and around fairfield county. I love the way this course looks when the sun is blazing its not a a dark course even though the wood is heavy, light pours into most of the fairways. The streams throughout the course are a nice natural touch as well. This is my favorite "close" course in the area at the moment and I live in stamford (Yes i like it much more then cranbury).