Baltusrol
UPDATED JULY 2023: I thought about just totally redoing this as I previously had no photos and upon reading and playing again, realized that I really didn’t capture the course. Plus Gil Hanse just came in and redid the whole Lower course. But I’ll keep my original post and add comments and photos below.
ORIGINAL POST: Played Baltusrol in 2006. This is one I know I didn’t bring my camera. I had some photos from around the web on my hard drive that I used for the scrapbook so if they’re yours, great job and I’ll give you photo credit or take them down. My buddie Billie has a friend whose a member here and that’s how I got on and my other buddy Billie also has a good friend whose a member here and said we can play anytime, so will hopefully go back soon and grab some original photos and update this. And play the Upper course. I rank Baltusrol and Winged Foot right next to each other and from my memory could go either way but I remember Baltusrol having slightly better elevation changes throughout the course so I’ll give it the nod.
The actual thing I remember most about Baltusrol is the clubhouse – pictured above from my 2023 round and taken from the 4th. They have great golf memorabilia and photos here from a bygone golfing era. The thing is a behemoth and despite all of that the pro shop is in a separate building off of one. If you’re designing a clubhouse and want to give it a classic feel, shoot up to Springfield, NJ and you’ll get the blueprint. In fact, Golf Digest did have it as one of their top classic clubhouses in a recent ranking. I actually think they got it right based on the ones I’ve been to. Here’s what they said, “Now a National Historic Landmark, the clubhouse, a Tudor Revival masterpiece, was designed in 1910 by Chester H. Kirk after the original clubhouse—the former house of a New Jersey farmer, Baltus Roll—was destroyed in a fire.”
While they did a separate ranking on clubhouses, I include it as part of the overall experience so that’s another reason why I rank Baltusrol so lofty among the courses I’ve played.
The “championship” course here is the Lower which is the one I played, though both courses here are highly ranked by the golf magazines – just like at Winged Foot. How would you like to have two world ranked courses at your disposal at your home club? As to the course itself, three things stand out. First, unlike Ellen, it’s straight. With the exception of 18, which I’ll get to in a second, the holes were pretty straight- maybe a dogleg or two but from my memory almost of the the holes were straight beasts with bunkers squeezing the landing areas. Second, like the pants they make you wear, it’s long. From my memory, we played this from further back (Baltusrol tees), I’m not 100% sure, but from my memory this was a long course. Third, it ends with two consecutive par fives. Just when you’re thinking your score ain’t too bad and even a couple of bogies to close will keep you in the 80’s, Baltusrol wipes the smirk off your face and the 80s off your card with a gargantuan almost 600-yard par five (from the Baltusrol tees), followed by one of the great par-5 finishers in golf.
Let’s revisit the second of these for a second, specifically choosing the right tees. All bogey golfers have been made to suffer from tee shaming or tee tee envy. Tee shaming is when the lower handicap player or masochist in your group shames you into playing from the back tees. This is usually done to try and get an edge on you in betting. Generally they’re longer or much better hitting low iron approach shots than you. They can erase your stroke advantage by making you hit lower percentage approach shots or wreck your drive tempo by subconsciously getting you to try and kill the ball off the tee leading to all kinds of evil. Then they take your money. Worse yet, is when they tee shame you on a great course you’ve never played before by saying something like, “Come on let’s play the blues, Why come to (insert name of nice course you’re playing here) and play the whites, you’re not getting the true feel of the course from up there.” Uh, rubbish! Nothing wrecks the enjoyment of a new course worse than playing from tees you shouldn’t be playing and spraying driver, three wood, hybrid into the woods (or pond/lake/schmoogies) all day. Unless you’re on the tour, you golf for leisure and recreation not to say you just climbed Mt. Everest. So if that guy in your group (you know who you are Rob) says let’s play from back here, let him go right ahead and you play from the whites. Yes you will be mocked. Your manhood will be questioned. But the short term tee shaming you get will soon fade and you’ll enjoy the course much more. Oh, but then don’t be that guy if you beat him playing from the whites and him from the blues that then starts heckling and preening if you win. Do this, then whatever shaming you get is well deserved. Shut your mouth. Be humble. And if you conned him into still betting you, donate your winnings to the drink fund after the round.
Tee tee envy is the other bane to bogey golfers everywhere. This is where you’re playing a new course with a lower handicap player that you don’t know. This is my Baltusrol story. So your host, tees up from the back tees but says, “Hey guys, don’t mind me and just play from where ever you want.” He then tees up and smooths a 300 yard drive down the middle of the first fairway. Tee tee envy creeps in so you peg up on the blue tee on one and for the rest of the day and don’t enjoy the course the way it was designed to be enjoyed. Most bogey golfers drive the ball 230 to 250 tops. On a 420 par four from the blues, that has a green complex designed to be approached with a nine or wedge, you’re hitting a hybrid in. If you play from the whites and it is 380 or so, then your “good” drive at least puts you in range with a seven or eight. I guarantee you, your host – the good golfer – really doesn’t care that you play from the whites. In fact, he would prefer it since you’ll enjoy his course more and he will spend less time hunting for your balls. Just don’t wager and if you do and win, don’t do the preening, smug thing. If he asks on the first tee if you want to bet, say, “sure but I’d prefer to play the whites if you don’t mind so if you want to cut my handicap back, that’s cool.”
UPDATE 2023: Well, if you read above, I misremembered things a bit. There were a lot more doglegs than I remembered here. Plus the Gil Hanse re-do really changed the strategy of the holes. Then and since the time I played, which I now know had to be 2005, shorts are allowed for gentlemen and according to our host, have been since 2006.
I’ll leave the course description to the captions below. I will tell you that the Gil Hanse re-do is pretty controversial with the members – and he redesigned the Upper and construction starts next year (2024 the course will be closed). Also, when I met Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus a couple of years ago, they talked about the course and Gary, in particular, really did not like what Hanse did. He thought Jack should have been given the redesign job noting his history here (and that he has a plaque and a few walls of memorabilia dedicated to him).
Here’s #1, par five, straight away and 470 yards – this is from where my drive was. You big hitters would be up closer to the sand traps. Hanse added (or enhanced) a lot of cross bunkers and you can’t see the one that affects your second shot from here. Cross bunkers are the most controversial aspect of the Hanse redesign as the members we spoke to said they punish too many well played shots. We played the III tees (6,225 yards/70.4/134). The other controversial aspect of the redesign was the elimination of any first cut. It goes green/fairway then thick rough. This drive was my breakfast ball. I yanked the first one left as my bloody had not yet kicked in and I was a little tight. The only lost ball of the day. I slightly hooked the second shot from here but would have been in the first cut if it had not been eliminated. Instead I was in deep rough and tried my 7 and hit a 20-yard shot that stayed in the rough. Tried to kill an 8-iron out of the rough and caught it clean but yanked into the left trap. Sand shot + three putt = snowman on the 17th handicap hole. Ugh!
#2 – Only 350 yards, here from my drive. Big hitters would bomb it well over this right fairway bunker but there’s another out-of-sight cross bunker right beyond here that would keep driver out of the hand of the big hitters and they would likely end up here. On in three and another three-putt. Five over after two and two of the easier holes on the course.
#3 from my approach. A 400 yard hole and my approach was 180+. Just left and awesome flip wedge but jacked my putt long (always look for the mountain to know where the ball will break or when it goes downhill) and another three putt. Sneaky breaks and greens are fast. Just listen to your caddie.
#4 is a 135-yard par three. 8 iron and about six feet from pin. Missed the birdie putt but finally a par and the bloody is now working.
#5 is a 360-yard par four. I flew the fairway bunkers from my drive but you see how well protected the green is plus a dramatic false front. Tell yourself, “Don’t be short. Don’t be short. Don’t be short.” Well I was short but at least beyond the traps. chip and two putt bogey.
#7. I missed the #1 handicap 6th which is 375 yards and while hard (and I took a six) it is not the toughest hole on the course nor the hole where I would imagine the score differential between the bogey golfer and scratch player is greatest, Seven is a short, 465-yard par five. #15 handicap. Dogleg right and dogleg protected by a bunker. Bogeyed here.
#8 is 350 yards and the furthest point from the clubhouse. In all the front nine is just a hair over 3,000 yards from the III tees. Both par fives were sub-500. This is certainly a manageable course for the bogey golfer. Even a bad drive won’t kill you on most holes as long as you deal with the fact you won’t hit anything beyond an eight-iron to get out. For a few of the holes where you don’t see my approach shots from the fairway, I was able to get an iron out of the rough and within 100 yards. My putting was the issue. Here took another bogey on a long three putt.
#9 is a 180-yard par three and here is a shot right off the tee box. I flared a five iron right and into the bunker. Left it in there. Then on and two-putt five for an absolutely craptacular 50 on the front.
#10 from the tee box area. 380 yards. Straight ahead. I was hellbent to keep the back under 50 so grabbed a couple of Coors Lights at the turn and just missed a par putt here for a bogey. Again I was right on the drive but didn’t try to hit too low an iron, just got it back in play and on in three.
#11 I think. I I took a double and think this is the hole where I played well to within 50 yards of the green. Duffed a chip with the Lovett from the fairway. Another short chip to the front of the green and three putt. No more doubles until 17 at least.
#12 is a 155-yard par three (from the card) but think this played a bit longer – guessing closer to 180 yards as I played stumpy (my 7 hybrid). Left side of the green and watched my buddy Billie’s putt and followed him in for a great lag and tap-in par.
#13 is 360 yards and the number 2 handicap. The creek bisects the fairway and left my drive about two feet from it in the right rough. Decent fade from here to just off the green but Texas wedge from there and a bogey.
#14. My GPS on the phone is a little wonky so not 100% sure but if so this is 375 yards and I bogeyed again.
#15 comes back the other way, parallel to #14. You can see the “mountain” to the right. You see the big ass bunker in front of you but the course map doesn’t show it so not sure if that is the one that is in front of the green or it has been added by Hanse and not marked. All I know is I took another bogey.
The par-three sixteenth from just off the 15th green. Very well-bunkered green. I hit a piss poor five iron which just trickled into the big ol’ right bunker. There was not a prayer I could get out of there and I didn’t but on the second bunker shot I hit the Lovett to within a foot. Bogey.
The 17th and the first of two consecutive par fives to finish. Hanse added the cross bunker called Sahara that is in the foreground. Beyond it is a sea of additional bunkers so I tried to kill my three wood which I left short of Sahara. Good right? Well I was 220 out to an uphill green that you just couldn’t miss but there was no easy lay up area either so I tried to kill the three again and duffed it into Sahara, then tried to get a 7 iron out and couldn’t and the ball was in my pocket. Fuck Gil Hanse!
#18 is a 490-yard par five. You see the pond there on the left. Perfect drive left me just right of the pond and the play should be along the right of the pond down the fairway. I asked my caddie though whether there was any trouble left of the pond but just rough and pretty wispy. Another good shot left me 125 out and was able to get a nine up and onto the green and end my day with a nice par. In all, a couple of friends asked how I could rank Baltusrol above Winged Foot which I do and was very curious to see if I still would post-Hanse and after about 18 years. Well I still do. I mean we’re splitting hairs but I do like the interesting topography with a slight lean away from the mountain on the greens and more all-time memorable holes here like 18 – my favorite – than there are at Winged Foot. Just one man’s opinion but still have Baltusrol ranked ahead of Winged Foot.
Golf Scrapbook 