SPRINGFIELD, New Jersey — Quick, name the only private club in America with 36 holes that has hosted a women’s and men’s U.S. Open on both of its courses. Tough one, isn’t it? The answer lies in Springfield, New Jersey, at Baltusrol Golf Club.
The club’s Lower Course has hosted four U.S. Opens, most recently in 1993, and the 1961 U.S. Women’s Open. The Upper Course was the venue for the 1936 U.S. Open and the 1985 U.S. Women’s Open. Now both courses, originally designed by A.W. Tillinghast in 1922, are better than ever.
Gil Hanse deftly restored the Lower Course in 2021, and the club recently unveiled his equally impressive effort on the Upper Course. The latter project included expanding greens and teeing grounds, rebuilding bunkers, and installing a new irrigation system.
“The two golf courses were built at the same time,” Hanse says. “So, from a feature standpoint, they're very consistent in their presentation. I think the Lower was a little bit more bold, a little bit more aggressive, because he didn't have as much to work with down there. The Upper was a little bit more restrained because he had a better piece of land to work with. I think that shows the brilliance of a golf architect and that he understands the limitations of certain sites and what it needs architecturally, and he understands the advantages of certain sites and how you might ultimately soften that.”
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The Upper remained relatively unchanged over the decades compared to the Lower, which was tweaked over time for a long list of events, most recently the 2016 PGA Championship (that major returns in 2029).
“It was always, honestly, a little bit more exciting working with the Upper because you felt like you were a lot closer to Tillinghast in regards of what we were doing there and it wasn't as big a change,” Hanse says. “I 100 percent believe that golf course could host any championship that it wanted to from an architectural and playability standpoint.”
One thing that Hanse and his team (including Kevin Murphy and Jim Wagner, who worked with Baltusrol superintendent Greg Boring and his staff) did not do during the project? Correct any perceived mistakes from Tillinghast’s work.
“It's something we don't allow ourselves to do. We really don't,” Hanse says. “One, it's a very slippery slope, once you start guessing or thinking, that's not quite right, or I would do this differently. Unless it was something that you made a mistake, like that green couldn't be maintained because the infrastructure and the way they constructed it was very, very challenging. Things like that. Obviously, we modernize golf courses, we move bunkers down range, we move tees back, etc., but trying to ascertain why he did something or was that a mistake, it's something we really try to avoid doing that because it just leads to other conclusions that might not produce the best results from a restoration standpoint. We will talk about it, but it's more from a learning curve stuff like, this is kind of funky or it's really different, but it's what he did so we're going to put it back. But more often than not, we're stealing really, really good ideas instead of pointing out mistakes because they made very few.”
Hanse didn’t hesitate when asked which hole on the Upper that he would most want to ask Tillinghast about. “The hole that I love out there, and it's not one that probably anybody would pick, is the eighth hole,” he said of the par 5. “I love the way that hole sits in the landscape and just the rumples and how it flows up and over. The bunkering is modest, but it's appropriately placed, and we shifted one for the second shot down range. And that green complex, how it just sits up on that shelf. Spectacular.”
The sidehill topography of the green complexes on holes two, three and four also piqued Hanse’s interest. “I would be really curious, and I expect the answer would be yes, he understood this, but when you put greens on the sides of hills, your eyes can't help but be influenced by what's going on above you, and you've got all this slope coming down,” he said. “So those putts are impossible to read, and they're challenging greens. I would wonder if he understood that as he composed those green surfaces, that they were going to be really, really challenging.”
While Tillinghast’s design portfolio includes many acclaimed courses in the greater New York City area, including Winged Foot, Ridgewood, Somerset Hills and Quaker Ridge, Baltusrol claimed a special place.
“He was obviously very good at self-promotion and when you read his advertisements, Baltusrol is always there,” Hanse says. “Other courses come and go from the list, but he was always proud of the work he did there. It was an opportunity for him to work on an amazing stage.”
