Seth Raynor & Charles Banks

Seth Raynor and Charles Banks are credited with designing five of Connecticut's hickory era golf courses. While these architects were not necessarily the most prolific golf architects in Connecticut, they may have been the most impactful. Three of Raynor and Banks' layouts rank within Golf Digest's top 5 courses in Connecticut, with the Country Club of Fairfield and The Course at Yale consistently ranking among the best courses in the country.

Seth Raynor, like Devereux Emmet, got his start in golf architecture with C.B Macdonald. Unlike Emmet, Raynor's career as a solo architect remained loyal to Macdonald's devotion to template holes from some of the United Kingdom's great golf courses. Raynor and Macdonald were some of the first American golf course designers to shape their terrains to fit their visions, although generally in very subtle ways that fit the landscape. Raynor built relatively deep bunkers and elevated greens that added character to flat landscapes. To this day Raynor courses are held in high regard by students of golf design.

Unfortunately Raynor and Banks' careers are marked by tragedy and what might have been. Raynor died unexpectedly of pneumonia at age 51 in 1926. Banks, who had started with Raynor not long before that, took up his mentor's mantle and finished several of Raynor's works while also tackling his own new designs. "Steam Shovel" Banks differentiated himself from Raynor by creating more dramatic mounding and greens complexes, primarily through the use of mechanical equipment. He also wrote about his craft and took interviews, giving some insight into his process. But Banks' career was cut short when he, too, died unexpectedly. Just five years after his mentor's death, Banks died at the age of 49.

Of the Raynor and Banks hickory era courses in Connecticut, the nine hole Hotchkiss School Golf Course is the only one that is open to the general public, excluding times when it is being used by student athletes. The course was built in 1897 but redesigned by Raynor and Banks in 1924. Banks was born in Amenia, NY, just a short distance from Hotchkiss School. Also worthy of note is Raynor's finest course: Fishers Island Club. Fishers Island is part of New York today but was once contested territory between Connecticut and Long Island, and it is still accessible by ferry from New London today.

Courses

• Country Club of Fairfield - Fairfield - Private - 1921 - Seth Raynor

• Greenwich Country Club - Greenwich - Private - 1892 - Seth Raynor

• Hotchkiss School Golf Course - Lakeville - Semi-Private - 1897 - Seth Raynor (1924)

• Tamarack Country Club - Greenwich - Private - 1929 - Charles Banks

• The Course at Yale - New Haven - Private - 1925 - Seth Raynor