Alpine Country Club

Situated in the hilly, forested western slope of the Jersey Palisades, not far from the Hudson River, the course at Alpine Country Club lies within a 196-acre site that required a fair bit of rock blasting by architect A. W. Tillinghast in order to fashion the fairways back in the late 1920s.

Originally named “Aldecress” by the club’s founders, combining the names of three towns (Alpine, Cresskill and Demarest) surrounding the property, the course was one of the most difficult ever built by the esteemed architect, as later noted by Tilly in correspondence:

“Among the hundreds of golf courses that I have designed and constructed, Aldecress was by far the toughest to build that I have ever encountered. There was a deal of tree removal (big fellows), draining and above all, we were messing around in huge stone outcrop over the entire area.”

Because of the challenging conditions, it took two years to complete the course, routing the fairways through mature forest across severely sloping terrain. Many of the holes appear as relatively wide corridors through the trees but they play narrower due to the inclination of the land.

Alpine has undergone a few substantial alterations in recent times, under the guidance of architect Ron Forse, with much of this work involving the rebuilding of bunkers, restoring others that were lost over time and adding a number of new back tees.

Notable holes include par threes at holes 5 and 8 on the outward half, along with three short par fours on the inward half, and both nines conclude with long, but reachable, downhill par fives which present reasonable birdie opportunities.