Arcola Country Club

The course at Arcola Country Club is largely the product of three English-born architects.

The first of these was Herbert Haydn Barker from Huddersfield who, whilst working as the professional at Garden City Golf Club, set out the club’s original 18-hole course shortly after it was founded in 1909.

The second designer, Willard G. Wilkinson from Wimbledon, an assistant to A. W. Tillinghast, remodelled the course in 1930 due to the expansion of the 11-mile Route 4 highway between the Hudson River Bridge and Paterson.

The third architect, Robert Trent Jones Snr, from Ince-in-Makerfield in Greater Manchester, remodelled this layout in the late 1950s when the routing of another road, the Garden State Parkway, almost caused the club to move elsewhere.

In the end, fourteen new holes were constructed, with only the 1st, 2nd (present 9th) and 9th (present 18th) remaining largely untouched. The 12th hole was used for practice and holes 5 to 8 were completely abandoned.

In more recent times, Florida-based designer Steve Smyers has been involved in a renovation project at the club.

Today, the course can be extended to more than 7,,300 yards from the back tees, playing to a par of 72, and it features back-to-back par fives at holes 8 and 9. The best birdie opportunities are on the two short par four holes, the 348-yard 3rd and the 346-yard 13th, which doglegs right around water from tee to green.

Three of the four par three holes have water in play to the front or side of the green and the round ends very strongly with a trip of testing par four holes.