Montclair Golf Club Will Provide Stern Test For NJSGA Open Championship
Next week, the New Jersey State Golf Association’s 98th Open Championship, presented by The Lincoln Motor Company, comes to venerable Montclair Golf Club, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary.
The 54-hole championship will be played Tuesday-Thursday (July 24-26) over the second and fourth nines of the 54-hole West Orange club. The event will be played as a tough par-70, 6,584-yard challenge, with the rolling terrain over which Montclair was built more than century ago serving as its most perplexing element of play.
Some 120 players are in the field. After 36 holes, the cut will keep only the low 50 and ties.
This year will mark the seventh time the NJSGA Open will be played at Montclair, the last time being 1993 when Greg Hamilton of Canoe Brook Country Club won.
Similarly, Montclair has hosted the NJSGA Amateur seven times, with Brian Komline (now of Black Oak Golf Club) the most recent champion in 2010. That year, Komline’s winning score was three over par. The last time the Metropolitan Golf Association conducted its Ike stroke play championship there, only one player was under par. It is expected that could well be the story once more.
“From tee to green, Montclair is pretty generous,” said head professional Mike Strlekar. “It is all about the green complexes. You always need to be approaching the hole from the correct side. The first thing you need to know is where the clubhouse is because the clubhouse is on top of the hill and everything breaks away from the clubhouse.
“You need to know, around the greens, where not to be, which typically is long. It depends on where the hole is; I’ve been here for 23 years and I pretty much know where not to miss things, but I’m still learning things every time I play it.”
Defending champion Luke Graboyes of Watchung Valley Golf Club, who won last year as an amateur, will not be on hand to defend his title because he has turned professional and no longer meets any eligibility criteria.
Runner-up was professional Grant Sturgeon of Arcola Country Club. Sturgeon finished second last year at Metedeconk National Golf Club in Jackson, one stroke behind Graboyes. On the final nine holes, the momentum swung for the last time when Sturgeon made bogies at Nos. 12 and 13 while Graboyes birdied 14 and 15.
Third place went to amateur Brendan Hansen of Spring Lake Golf Club, who led for the first two rounds and could be considered one of the favorites this year.
“I know the course,” said Hansen, 18, a rising senior at Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft who later in 2017 won the NJSGA Tournament of Club Champions. “I played in an AJGA event there two years ago and the Met Amateur there last year.
“I like the course. The greens are undulating, but playable. You have to hit good iron shots into the correct section of the green. You have to be confident on your short putts. You’ve got to play them outside the hole.
“You can win if you go out there and play some good solid golf. It doesn’t matter if you are an amateur or a pro,” Hansen said. “The skill set is pretty much the same. You’ve got to keep the ball in front of you. It’s mostly about confidence.
“Last year, at Metedeconk National, the course was playing very tough. I learned I could play a club or two less and try to keep it in play because of the firmness of the greens. I concerned myself with keeping it on the greens. Coming into the greens at Montclair, there are a lot of false fronts. If you come in with a spin, you could roll right off. So you have to be careful.”
Montclair, considered to be the 13th oldest golf club in the nation, has several noted architects to thank for its design: Tom Bendelow, perhaps best known for initially creating the three courses at Medinah Country Club, near Chicago; Donald Ross; Charles Banks; Robert Trent Jones Sr., and his son, Rees Jones. Ross completed three new nines in 1921, starting and ending each at the site of a new clubhouse that was eventually opened to Montclair’s membership two years later. Banks directed the design of the fourth nine, which opened in the late ’20s. More recently, Rees Jones redesigned the first nine in the mid-1980s.
Then, as if to constantly improve itself, Montclair merged in 2016 with the nearby Rock Spring Club, a Charles Banks classic. The result is 54 holes of historically-steeped but challenging golf that will host State Opens and Amateurs for years to come.
