All Things Baltusrol

Now that I've reacquainted myself with this blogging thing, shall we discuss the long history of this week's iconic venue?  I thought so....

How Is That Spelled? - It's an awkward word we can all agree, the more so as it's actually the name of a man.... and quite the unfortunate man at that:

That guy was Baltus Roll, and for an inkling of his fate, look to his remains. They're

buried roughly five miles from the Baltusrol clubhouse, in the Revolutionary Cemetery, in Westfield, New Jersey. 

"In memory of Boltus Roll," his rust-hued tombstone reads. Note the misspelling. A minor insult added to his injuries. 

"Murdered," the tombstone also reads. 

Until the incident in question, on Feb. 22, 1831, Roll led a quiet, rural existence, tending oxen and raising crops on the same lilting land where the golf club lies today. He was a thrifty fellow, or so the locals said. Rumor was that he had lucre stashed away in the farmhouse he shared with his wife.

Like a lot of rumors, it fell on the wrong ears.

Around midnight, on that frosty February date, two men burst through the farmhouse door while the Rolls were sleeping, according to testimony provided to authorities by Roll's wife, Susanna. After demanding to know where the money was, the intruders, she said, "dragged my husband out of bed, punched and beat him, and took him out of the house."

It's usually the wife in these cases, but Mrs. Roll seems to have an alibi.... 

News of the murder spread quickly. So did a police investigation, which focused partly on a clue fit for a Hollywood film. No, they weren’t looking for a one-armed man. They were hunting for a horse with a missing shoe; its hoof-prints had been found at the crime scene. 

As it happened, just such a horse belonged to a man named Peter Davis, a local ne'er-do-well whose distinctive blue eyes, it also happened, matched a description of one of the killers provided by Susanna. Throw in the fact that in the weeks before the murder, Davis had been overheard in town talking about his need for money, and the cops had a prime suspect. The other guy they wanted was Lycidias Baldwin, who was known to run in Davis' company but likely aroused suspicion with his name alone.

Why?  Baldwin is a common-enough name.... Oh, I see, Lycidias is the knid of name you'd invent if it didn't already exist...

As a manhunt closed in on him, Baldwin holed up in the boarding room of a Newark-area tavern and took his own life, overdosing on opiates. Davis, who was apprehended quickly, went before a judge and jury in a highly publicized procedural that the tabloids helped sensationalize. 

"It was like the O.J. trial of its time, the 'trial of the century,'" Wolffe says. 

Among other highlights, the courtroom spectacle featured a pit-bull of a defense attorney, a "Johnnie Cochran of his era," in the words of one modern-day newspaper story, as well as the testimony of a rope expert, who linked rope found on the three-shoed horse to rope that had been used to hogtie Roll.

If the noose doesn't fit..... 

Pre-Tillie - Baltusrol is justly famed for its two Tillinghast designs that have been faithfully maintained all these years, but the club's history predates Tillie:

Golf has been played over the grounds at Baltusrol for twelve decades, first on a rudimentary nine-hole course, then on the “Old Course” of 1895, and now on the Lower and Upper Courses, designed and built by A.W. Tillinghast between 1918 and 1922.

You may be surprised to learn that the club hosted both a U.S. Amateur (1904) and a U.S. Open (1915) before the sainted Tillie stepped foot on the property.  The N.Y. Times, of all places, has an interesting article on a unique feature of that Old Course:

There is nothing exotic about the 16th hole on the Lower Course of Baltusrol Golf Club. Competitors in this week’s P.G.A. Championship in Springfield, N.J., will encounter a 230-yard par 3 that plays slightly downhill to a well-bunkered green. The most dramatic moment to occur at No. 16 was in the 1993 United States Open, when Lee Janzen holed a chip shot for a score of 2 during the final round on his way to a two-stroke victory over Payne Stewart.

Where the putting surface of the 16th hole is situated, though, once existed one of the most talked-about features in early American golf: the sport’s first island green. The site was the location of the 10th green on Baltusrol’s Old Course, an 18-hole layout created in 1900 that was used for two decades before the opening of the Upper and Lower Courses in 1922, built by the noted golf course architect A. W. Tillinghast.

A postcard showing Chick Evans teeing off on the famous 10th hole, which featured an island green, in the 1915 United States Open at Baltusrol Golf Club. Credit

 There's a wealth of historic detail to be found, including this bit:

The British stars Harry Vardon and Ted Ray played an exhibition against Low and Alex Smith at Baltusrol the week before the 1913 United States Open in Massachusetts. In the morning round of the 36-hole match, Ray hit his tee shot into the moat fronting the 10th green, the ball settling in mud a few inches below the surface of the water.

Ray went into the moat and was cheered by spectators when they realized he was going to attempt a shot. “Then came a moment of stillness,” reported The Sun, “followed by a shower of spray, and the ball shot across the green, coming to rest about five feet from the cup.”

That U.S. Open referenced above?  It was only The Greatest Game Ever Played. 

Tillie did away with the island green here, but built a couple of his own, lest you think the idea originated with Pete Dye:

Although Tillinghast ultimately did not resurrect the island green at Baltusrol, he was a fan of them in his designs. Before his work at Baltusrol, for example, he created the ninth hole at Shackamaxon Country Club in Westfield, N.J., in 1916 and the 15th hole at Galen Hall Golf Club in Wernersville, Pa., in 1917, both of which featured island greens.

Does building two make him a fan?  Pete Dye has an amusing comment about how that's all poeple think of with him, and he had done the same number as Tillie....

The one at Shackamaxon is now their finishing hole, and I played it a couple of weeks ago....  I offer no opinion on it because a miscommunication with our caddie (that's my story and I'm stickin' to it) left me hopelessly out of position....

Tillinghast -  From the club's website:

The courses which opened in 1922 were the culmination of Tillinghast’s “Dual Courses” project, a bold initiative to build two courses side by side at the same time. Untried prior to Tillinghast’s proposal, the Dual Courses concept was an historic accomplishment in the world of golf course design at the time and made Tillinghast’s career. In fact, his seminal work at Baltusrol was designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior's National Park Service. Baltusrol is also listed on the State of New Jersey and Federal Registers of Historic Places.

It was the roaring 20's, and Tillie was very much of his era....He died penniless and a drunk, but what a legacy....   I'll save it for another time, but the fact that he was only honored with entry to the World Golf Hall of Fame last year is an enduring disgrace, although perhaps that invests the hall with too much significance.  Because Tillie was far more than an architect, he was a significant writer and photographer of golf, and probably the most influential proponent of our game of its early days in this country.  A truly significant figure in the game...

David Fay was a longtime member, and penned this reflective feature on the club.  This is the most important bit:

Most first-time guests want to play the Lower Course, site of two of Nicklaus' four U.S. Open titles and Phil Mickelson's PGA Championship victory. But the members are partial to the Upper, site of the 1936 Open. The Lower is a brute. The Upper is far more nuanced, built into the side of Baltusrol Mountain (more like a bunny slope) with wild greens. Both courses were built in 1922 by A.W. Tillinghast. True, the range isn't great, but it's a helluva lot better than those found at other Tillie gems such as Winged Foot, Somerset Hills and Quaker Ridge. 

Playing a few holes on the Upper on a late afternoon is one of the joys of the game. The course is so expansive and bucolic, yet from a number of vantage points, you get great views of the Manhattan skyline less than 25 miles to the east.

The range is now first-rate, but the Upper is such a great course and far more enjoyable than the Lower.  There's not a flat lie to be found and the greens are simply spectacular....  Play those greens and then tell me what you think of Bethpage Black!

The Upper is so good, that Travelin' Joe Passov shares twelve things we need to know about it, including this bizarre moment:

3. No stranger to big-time events, the Upper played host to a U.S. Open before the Lower did, when Tony Manero claimed the title in 1936. Paired with Gene Sarazen in the final round, Manero blitzed the Upper with a five-under 67, for a score of 282, breaking the all-time four-round mark by four shots and edging perennial hard-luck bridesmaid “Lighthorse” Harry Cooper by two. Cooper was further victimized by one of the strangest 72nd-hole scenes ever: he was forced to wait nearly 15 minutes to hit his birdie putt after his playing partner, Leslie Madison, had his wallet picked from his pocket. After a bizarre, frenzied search for the thief, Cooper went back to work—and three-putted.

And this is the appropriate spot to work in Wrong-Way Ed Furgol, testament to why players need to know the rules:

4. The Upper did see pivotal U.S. Open action in 1954. During the final round, Ed Furgol took the title when he made par at the final hole after snap-hooking his drive into the trees. He played his eight-iron second up an adjoining fairway (the 18th) on the Upper course, hit close to the 18th green of the Lower with his third and got up and down for par. He wound up beating Gene Littler by one.

The Opens -  The club has hosted seven U.S. Opens, the last in 1993.  Only the last four of those were on the Lower, two of which you don't need me to know were won by Jack Nicklaus.  We discussed Furgol above, and the 1993 edition was won by Lee Jantzen, a good player but no Ed Furgol....

If I don't seem enthused about the Lower Course, it's just that it's the Bataan Death March of courses....  One long, tough, heavily-bunkered Par-4 after another.  They're all fine golf holes on their own, but there's little memorable about them...

I do agree with David Fay on this as well:

I love everything about Baltusrol except its most photographed hole, the par-3 fourth on the Lower. The hole itself is good, but that damn stone wall guarding the green just doesn't seem in balance with the other 35 holes. It has a Florida look. I wish in the redesign that Robert Trent Jones Sr. had opted for a grass slope, kind of like the 12th at Augusta National, where a ball just might hang up on a tuft of grass near the edge of the pond.

It's just completely out of character with the rest of the place.....

But that's not the only damage inflicted by the Jones family....  Rees came in to toughen the joint before the '93 Open, and added his typically saucer-like bunkers which look like eyesores next to the deep Tillie bunkers.  I've never understood the strategic value of bunkers that shallow, but it's the contrast that really grates.... 

I do think both finishing Par-5's are really strong golf holes, and love how differently they play.  But it's such a weir routing, where the only two three-shotters are the final two holes.  Seventeen is of course famous for its length, but it's the crossing bunkers that make it work.  Players that find the fairway with their drives will not give them a passing thought, but from the rough they will torment the players.  And the finisher is just a classic reachable Par-5, though one can find all sorts of trouble off the tee.

It's a fine golf course and will be a fair test for the boys.....it will, however, not televise especially well and you'll struggle to remember the holes.  And if like me, you're lucky enough to count a Baltusrol member among your friends, ask t play the Upper when invited.

There's also this wonderful B&W gallery that you may enjoy.