Gillette Ridge Golf Club

Gillette Ridge Golf Club occupies a distinctive place in Connecticut golf: it is the only public golf course in the Northeast designed by Arnold Palmer, built in partnership with longtime design collaborator Ed Seay and opened in 2004 on what had been the corporate campus of Cigna (formerly Connecticut General Life Insurance) in Bloomfield. As a daily-fee public course it has no membership barrier of its own — anyone can book a tee time — but it is also the organizing amenity for a real, purpose-built 55+ residential community, The Greens at Gillette Ridge, developed by Ginsburg Development Companies (GDC) directly along the course's fairways.

The course briefly hosted tournament golf of its own in its first decade, including the LPGA Futures Tour's Cigna Golf Classic (2005-2008) and PGA Tour Travelers Championship local qualifying rounds (2010-2012), giving it a modest competitive pedigree alongside its residential story.

The genuinely open question for a buyer is what, if anything, living in The Greens at Gillette Ridge actually gets you at the golf course. The community's original developer marketing describes residents enjoying 'special privileges' at the course, but the club's own current membership materials and at least one independent local review both describe no special playing privileges for residents beyond the same optional VIP Platinum membership program (roughly $3,000/individual annually, per available sources) that is open to any member of the public. This is a real, unresolved conflict rather than a settled fact either way, and it should be confirmed directly before a purchase decision is made on the assumption of bundled or discounted access.