Spring Brook Country Club to host 101st NJSGA Open Championship
When the 101st New Jersey State Golf Association Open Championship is held at Spring Brook Country Club in Morristown this July 19-21, it will be part of a year-long celebration of the club’s centennial anniversary. The superb golf course, which was designed by Walter Travis, wasn't “officially” attributed to Travis until 2008. It was only after diligent research by its membership that Spring Brook became rightfully recognized as such by The Travis Society, the preeminent authority on the architect.
“It was just before we hosted the State Open in 2010 that the membership did some research and discovered that Walter Travis indeed walked the grounds and laid out the golf course,” said Tony Santillo, who has worked at the club for 26 years and has been the PGA head professional for the past 14 years.
“The most obvious Travis characteristics are the greens. Travis is one of the most imaginative builders of greens in the history of golf architecture. Not only do the green contours require precise placement on the approach shots, but players must have skill to manage only two-putts when certain hole locations are used,” the pro stated.
Just over a century ago, Spring Brook was built on about 180 acres of Robert Dumont Foote’s Spring Brook Farm. At the time, Foote was president of the National Iron Bank, and his expertise and foresight was instrumental in the club’s prosperity in its early years. The golf course itself officially opened for play on July 4, 1922, but for the much of ensuing nine decades, the true course designer remained a mystery.
Prior to extensive research which concluded in 2008, the course design was credited to a “Robert Hucknell” – who after further investigation, was determined not to be the architect. Further, it was questionable whether that person even existed or visited the grounds. There was, however, a local professional at the time with a similar name, Thomas Hucknall, who assisted – to an unknown extent – with construction of other nearby courses, thus creating a degree of confusion.
When the membership discovered articles in two different local newspapers from the era which noted that Travis visited the Robert Dumont Foote estate in May, 1921, it was ample verification that Travis, himself, was the course architect. The articles both mention that Travis had been on-sight, surveying the grounds and “laying out a tentative course of 6,000 yards”.
Today, Spring Brook boasts magnificent examples of his work across an impeccably-maintained golf course. While some of the greens have shrunk over time because of changes in equipment and related mowing patterns, recent green restoration work – most notably on Holes 1, 4 and 18 – have returned those holes closer to the original Travis design.
This summer, Spring Brook will host the NJSGA Open Championship for a sixth time, and the first time since 2010. Only two clubs, Montclair Golf Club and Plainfield Country Club, have hosted the Open more times than Spring Brook, both hosting seven times each. Spring Brook previously hosted the Open in 1955, 1958, 1965 and 1973. In addition, the gracious club has hosted the NJSGA Amateur twice (1991 and 2004) as well as the NJSGA Women’s Amateur Championship in 2014.
There is no question that Spring Brook has stood the test of time – and that it presents more of a challenge than many might expect, as Santillo points out:
“This golf course is deceiving. When the players look at the scorecard and see 6,700 yards, people think they can go low. Then they see that there are five par threes. But the shortest one is 180 yards and none of them are easy.”
“I remember speaking with Mike Burke, Jr. when the Open was here in 2010. He also played in the Open in 1973 when he was still an amateur, and he said he was hitting the same clubs into the greens as he was back then, which is pretty remarkable given the fact that golf balls go so much further today,” Santillo added.
In the 2010 NJSGA Open, the course proved its mettle. Brian Gaffney of Rumson Country Club and Bobby Gage of Forsgate Country Club met in a playoff, tied after shooting just two-under-par after 54 holes. Gaffney won in a three-hole aggregate playoff.
“I remember the par threes around the lake, getting progressively more difficult, and I couldn’t reach the par fives except for No. 17, and I bogeyed that in the final round,” said Gaffney, now the PGA head professional at Essex Fells Country Club.
“Spring Brook is an interesting golf course. There’s an opportunity to shoot low on the easier holes, but you can quickly make a mistake on the par threes. Length isn’t the issue as much as knowing your way around the golf course,” Gaffney said.
Santillo echoed Gaffney’s thoughts about course knowledge.
“The greens here, more than at most places make for so much frustration. They’re extremely tricky, especially for first-time players. There are a lot of subtle breaks you do not see. Even myself, having been here as long as I have, the greens still amaze me,” he noted.
Wind is another factor that must be considered, due to its swirling unpredictability.
“The course sits in a valley and the wind goes all over the place. The wind near the ponds around the three consecutive par threes is tricky; even though each hole plays in a different direction, the wind can be in your face on all three holes,” Santillo commented.
Those three, par threes around Armstrong Pond are commonly referred to as “The Gauntlet.” They are Holes No. 9 (192 yards), No. 10 (180 yards) and No. 11 (206 yards) and they could very well determine the outcome of the Championship. The names for the holes, 'The Graveyard,' 'The Bowl,' and 'The Last Hope,' are truly intimidating and it is futile to imagine why Travis designed them this way.
“Those are all difficult, and unique holes. The three, par threes are the signature of Spring Brook,” Santillo said.
