A Retrospective: Important Dates in New Jersey Golf

Each month, the NJSGA will feature the work of local author Kevin Casey who has compiled a monthly look back at historical moments in golf on a montly basis.

Here are some notable March dates in New Jersey’s rich golf history:

March 1, 2009 - Carolyn Cudone, owner of the longest consecutive winning streak in any USGA event, passed away. From 1968 through 1972, playing out of Montclair Golf Club in West Orange, Cudone won five straight U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur titles, becoming the only golfer, male or female, to win the same U.S. national golf title five straight times. She also won the NJSGA Women’s Championship in 1955, ’56, ’59, ’60, ’63, and ’65. As an indication of respect for Cudone, she has been inducted into the New Jersey State Golf Hall of Fame, the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame, the Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame, and the Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame.

March 20, 1931 – Charles Banks, a Golden Era golf architect who had a significant influence on golf in New Jersey, died at age 48. The third member of the National School of Golf Architecture alongside luminaries Charles Blair Macdonald and Seth Raynor, Banks served initially as Raynor’s right-hand man. When Raynor died unexpectedly in 1926, Banks completed many of Raynor’s most highly regarded designs around the country. He then proceeded to lay out several New Jersey courses, always with a characteristic willingness to move earth. Banks’ Garden State work can be found today at Essex County Country Club, Rock Spring Golf Club, Francis Byrne Golf Course, Hackensack Golf Club, Hendricks Field Golf Course, Knoll West Country Club, Montclair Golf Club, and Forsgate Country Club.