Essex County Country Club

Essex County Country Club, the oldest in New Jersey, has a long and storied history. Founded in 1887 as the result of a merger of the Essex Hunt Club and the Essex Toboggan Club, its first course was designed by pioneering architect Alex Findlay. The course that’s played today goes back to 1918, the work of a rookie golf course designer, A.W. Tillinghast. Tillie’s layout opened to rave reviews and provided the springboard to his assignments at Baltusrol and Winged Foot.

In 1925, the club decided it wanted a 36-hole complex and hired Seth Raynor. Raynor designed 18 holes that now play as the adjacent Francis A. Byrne municipal course (the club sold that course when it came upon hard times in the 70s). High on the adjacent hill, Raynor designed the current course, retaining seven of Tillinghast’s holes (1-6 and 9), but designing eleven new ones. Raynor died before construction began, but his assistant, Charles “Steamshovel” Banks completed the work—the first of many that Banks would go on to create. Banks and Raynor favoured the template holes of their mentor—Charles Blair MacDonald—and Essex County Country Club boasts a number of them: Redan, Maiden, Double Plateau, Eden, Punchbowl and Alps. The 14th hole also features another Raynor special; a Lions’s Mouth bunker.

Fast-forward into the new millennium and Essex County Country Club underwent a significant restoration under the stewardship of Gil Hanse (with input from George Bahto). New tee boxes were added, lengthening the layout to more than 7,100 yards. New fairways bunkers were also installed and every other bunker on the course was renovated. But, most significantly, hundreds of trees were removed to improve airflow and playing strategy.

Essex is now a layout capable of hosting big tournaments and with six par four holes that stretch out way beyond 400 yards, it’s a tough course on which to post a low score. The four one-shot holes vary in length considerably from 169 yards to 255 yards, so par is never surrendered easily.

Feature holes on this old masterpiece include the 534-yard 8th (played downhill and across water), the 328-yard 14th (played uphill to a punchbowl, kidney-shaped green) and the 488-yard 18th, where the round concludes on a tricky two-tiered home green in front of the clubhouse.