Blanchfield Achieves Goal Of Playing Every Course In New Jersey
It simply occurred to Bill Blanchfield one day that he had played a lot of New Jersey golf courses. Then he began to wonder how many he still had left to play every single one of them.
Then he was down to just one course – Bayonne Golf Club.
Blanchfield finally achieved his goal of playing last of the 243 courses on his personal bucket list on the morning of Friday, June 27, 2014, courtesy of Bayonne member Dan Levinson and Bayonne owner and designer Eric Bergstol.
“I felt I had a chance at it after I played Pine Valley in 1999, but then they built Liberty National, Trump National in Bedminster and Bayonne. Then it made it tough enough. I finally said this is enough. I can’t thank these guys enough,” Blanchfeld said.
“This is a perfect ending to my journey. It’s such a beautiful and challenging golf course,” said Blanchfield, who promptly parred the par-4 first hole.
“Golf is about people and character and that’s what separates it from every other sport, when you can do something that’s important to people. It’s what makes golf special,” Bergstol said.
Levinson, the tow-time and defending low amateur at the NJSGA/NJPGA Senior Open said he couldn’t resist helping out Blanchfield, even though they had never met each other.
“If anybody is going to play every golf course in New Jersey, why not help him out. That’s pretty impressive, something I would never think to do,” said Levinson, who also was a member of the gold-medal-winning USA Senior Team in the Maccabiah Games last summer.
Blanchfield recounted how it all started.
“I guess it just happened one day in 1979. I had played in all but 50 courses at the time because I played in so many member-guests and outings. I was also a faithful player in the John Caliendo Winter and Summer Golf Leagues.
“A little later, I found a list and I started adding to it. Between 1995 and 2004, about 50 courses were added in the state and I started falling behind,” said Blanchfield, an insurance broker who lives in Belmar.
“To me, it was not a big deal to publicize this. The guys I’ve played with told me I should. I figure there are a lot of golfers in the state who have done something similar.”
Blanchfield, 68, was able to catch to all but one course in the state as the building boom halted over the past decade.
“Now, we’ve lost a mess of them. I liked to play the courses in the winter, especially the country clubs, because nobody was there.”
In total, before Bayonne, there were 242 of the 243 Garden State courses with a minimum par of 65 that he has crossed off his list. To Blanchfield, though, it is more than just playing the courses. He ranks them in groups of 10 – naturally Pine Valley is No. 1 – and he makes notes about his experiences on new venues.
An example: “Pine Valley, 12/4/99, 65 degrees and sunny with a light breeze until the last several holes when the wind came up a bit.” Blanchfield then goes on to write a paragraph on how he played each hole.
Blanchfield, who grew up in Ho-Ho-Kus in Bergen County, was a member of Fairleigh Dickinson University golf team than won the Met Intercollegiate Team Championship. That team was recently inducted into FDU’s Hall of Fame.
In the late 1990s, Blanchfield’s handicap index was around 3.5 and he played in a number of NJSGA championships. Throughout the mid-80s, playing out of Old Orchard Country Club where he won two club championships, he was paired with Kyle Ross, then a student at Penn State, and the duo qualified for the NJSGA Four-Ball Championship.
“I always enjoyed the NJSGA events. Hey were great for me, and gave me an opportunity to play great courses for little money.
“I’ve been playing since age nine,” said Blanchfield, who now plays out of Suneagles Golf Course. “I started at Orchard Hills, where Bergen County Community College now sits. When I was 13, my father, a retired New York City fireman, became a golf pro in Maine. I had never seen him happier.”
Blanchfield’s siblings are also in involved in golf. Brother Bob was a member of the golf team at the University of Alabama while brother Fred at one time was an assistant pro at Spyglass.
“If you count my national and international courses, I’m well over 500 courses played.”
An operation on his right elbow 10 years ago curtailed some of his play.
“I’m blessed to have great playing partners over the years who would follow me to all these places. I do get a sense of satisfaction from when I think of all the guys I’ve dragged around with me and all the fun we had.
“Sometimes there’d be a public course and hour-and-a-half away. I didn’t bother the guys those days. I just have a cigar and a cup of soup on the way home. “
Over the years, Blanchfield says there have been two main groups of playing partners. “One of the guys in my first foursome, Charlie Weissman, brought me into his business and I’ve been with him for 34 years.”
Another is the aptly named Red Winter, who accompanied Blanchfield to more courses than anyone else. One New Year’s Day, Winter and Blanchfield traveled to RiverWinds Golf and Tennis Club in Gloucester County to add the course to the list.
“The temperatures were close to freezing with wind and rain. Red stayed with me but didn’t play the last few holes because of the extreme weather,” Blanchfield remembered.
While Blanchfield ranks Pine Valley No. 1, (he shot a very respectable 85 there), if he had one Garden State course to play, it would not be there.
“I’d pick Ridgewood. It’s got three nines, It’s got elevation, it’s got water, it’s got everything.”
“I never worried about the weather. I’d play all winter and never concern myself with the temperatures. One day we played and it was never above 10 degrees. When I finished one winter day, I noticed a gray spot on the back of my hand – frostbite!”
Blanchfield’s quest recalls the mission of Joe Martin of Little Mill, who has played more than 1,000 different courses and all but one (Augusta) of Golf Digest’s top 100 courses in the United States.
To be crossed off his list, Blanchfield had to complete 18 holes on a particular course. He does give himself a little break, adding clubs to the list when he has completed 18 of a 27-hole layout. His exploits have taken him around the world.
He has played in Ireland (10 courses including Ballybunion and Old Head), Scotland (eight courses including St. Andrews and Royal Troon), in Canada and around the Caribbean.
Nationally, he has played in 29 states, including 62 courses in Florida, 28 in South Carolina, 25 in New York and 17 in Virginia.
Then there’s the 242 in New Jersey.
His personal Top 10: Pine Valley, Ridgewood, Somerset Hills, Plainfield, Baltusrol (Lower), Ridge at Back Brook, Galloway National, Canoe Brook (North), Metedeconk National and Hollywood. Next 10: Knickerbocker, Ballyowen, Arcola, Mountain Ridge, Laruel Creek, Fiddler’s Elbow (Forest), Trump National-Bedminster (Old), Canoe Brook (South), Essex County and Due Process Stable.
One thing his passion for the sport can’t help:
“In all this time, I’ve still never had a hole-in-one.”
