Stone Hedge nurtures game
Toolbox
Published: July 10, 2009
It's family fun. It's a short-game session for accomplished players. It's a starting point for some, a finishing point for others.
Oh, and if you're a single handicapper, playing 180-yard shots to small greens is a challenge wherever you go.
Stone Hedge, a par-3 course in its second coming, has something for everyone.
The 9-hole course's star is on the rise, and for more reasons than the ones tied to your tightening budget. While offering a quick-and-easy golf fix at an affordable price, it's a place you can take your kids to get them started in the game or your grandfather who still loves to play and walk, but isn't up to trekking 5 miles on a traditional course.
It'll help you put a wrench to your short game, too, big shot.
"It's a lot less intimidating and people who haven't golfed a lot who are not comfortable with their level of play, they get intimidated on a full course. They're a lot more comfortable here," said Richard Bendig, who is in his third year of ownership with his full partners, sons Chriss and Shawn.
"A lot of people like to come in here who play golf regularly just to practice their short games," Bendig said. "I see good players walking off the course shaking their heads.
"It's amazing the variations we get. Some of them are 5- or 6-years-old. And on Sunday, there was a couple here in their 80s. The guy was walking with a cane but they took a riding cart and they moved right along."
Just like the course. If you have not been to Stone Hedge in a few years, you'll be surprised with what you find there now.
Everything the eye can see is clipped and cleaned and looks tidier than a 30-dollar haircut. Areas of undergrowth and borders where brush used to encroach upon play have been cleared out. Everything from tee boxes to fairways and greens look green, healthy and spic-and-span. It almost gives the effect of playing golf in your backyard. You see a picnic table next to the main building and wonder, where's the barbeque?
But make no mistake, there's nothing cut-rate about the conditions. Nongolf grasses are slowly being taken off the fairways, tee boxes and greens. Those greens are small, lush targets that will hone that iron game. While a little on the slow side, they putt true to the line you see when you get down behind the ball.
There's a fulltime greens keeper, Scott Gondella, who cares for the greens and implements fertilizing, pesticide and aeration programs.
The course has motorized golf carts and rental clubs.
As you might expect, most of the latter are for kids.
"The first thing you see when you come into the pro shop is six or eight sets of kids clubs. Those are exactly the kind of people we want to see," said Shawn Bendig, a systems engineer with Aetna who stays involved while living in Granby, Conn. "I've golfed here quite a bit. I've brought my kids here and they absolutely love it."
The Bendigs sees Stone Hedge as a gateway to golf and a tool to nurture the game's future, if only in the Rutland area.
"We're trying to become stewards of the game," Shawn Bendig said.
Richard Bendig was an investor in the course when it was owned by Bob Matteson, who had the original layout built. The course conditions had deteriorated in recent years and when Matteson put it up for sale, the Bendigs stepped in.
"It seemed like a no-brainer," Shawn Bendig said. "The timing was right and the idea to grow this golf course was appealing.
"We were looking for this course to be part of the Rutland County fabric. We want to provide a golf opportunity that is affordable. We've sort of met our goal reintroducing (the course) to the public."
The Bendigs, primarily Richard, went to work on cleaning up the perimeters and removing undergrowth, beautifying the layout, exposing ages-old stone walls and making it easier to find wayward shots. Now the areas around the greens are in close-clipped condition for those little stroke-saving chip shots.
"Basically the course itself, we haven't changed the structure too much," Richard Bendig said.
The main building, which once doubled as a maintenance building, is now the pro shop, office and snack bar area, with a new detached maintenance building.
The course plays to just over 1,100 yards and is much more than a pitch-and-putt layout.
There are two holes of at least 180 yards (one uphill and another with a carry over a pond to an elevated green), two 150-plus-yarders, and a variety of full- and partial-wedge holes to really test your ability to hit "feel" shots.
"I lived in Florida for 35 years and I've played a lot of courses, and there are not many around here with greens that are better," said Don Tuttle of Rutland Town as he had a post-round bite in the snack bar. "I got her started," he said motioning across the table to his wife, Charlotte. "It's a great place to learn how to play."
"The people we have seem to enjoy themselves and they keep the course in good conditions and that's important on a course like this," Shawn Bendig said. "In my three years we've seen no deterioration in the conditions because of play."
The Bendigs say there is still work to be done. They want to make the course even more aesthetically pleasing. Members have asked about lessons, so the Bendigs are having dialogues with potential teachers. They have a goal to install a practice green, possibly with a bunker (there is no sand on the course), though not this year.
"The sky is the limit with what we can do with this course," Shawn Bendig said.
Indeed.
Richard Bendig first saw the opportunity at Stone Hedge as an investment.
Shawn Bendig's vision is the same, with one little tweak.
"This is my retirement plan in waiting," he said. "At age 55, I'll be turning in my laptop and I'll be the one greeting people as they go off to the first tee."
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