74 staple of championship golf. While the pair have hosted both US Opens, over the years the Lower has become the preferred venue for the USGA and PGA, largely because its gently rolling landscape can better accommodate the spectators and infrastructure that now comes with major golf. But for most golfers, the more undulating land of the Upper, and its more varied and memorable holes, may give it the edge, particularly now that architect Gil Hanse has completed its restoration. Hanse was adamant that his firm would only agree to be retained by Baltusrol if the club desired to support a restorative approach to the golf courses. He is well placed to interpret Tillinghast’s intent, having completed projects at several of his other designs, including Winged Foot, Quaker Ridge and Ridgewood. When asked the extent to which he would be prepared to ‘improve’ on the Golden Age architect’s original design, if he saw opportunity to do so, Hanse said: “It’s something we don’t allow ourselves to do. We really don’t. It’s a very slippery slope once you start guessing, or thinking that’s not quite right, or I would do this differently.” It is Tillinghast’s name that remains on the scorecards. That’s not to say there is no sign of Hanse’s hand at Baltusrol. Despite having an archive of over 5,000 items of material to reference, all of which survived a clubhouse fire in 2019, there are inevitably areas of both courses (Hanse also completed a restoration of the Lower, in 2021) where photography or documentation is somewhat open to interpretation. The club also needed to keep up with advances in club technology, which came through a combination of adding tees and shifting hazards further up the fairway. The most obvious example of the latter is on the Lower course, where the Sahara bunker complex was moved 40 yards further up the fairway of the par-five seventeenth. This hazard, incidentally, has matured beautifully in the four years since it was rebuilt, menacingly enveloping the rolling fairway and a thrill to carry – as any of Tillinghast’s ‘Great Hazards’ should be – particularly if the previous shot was anything less-than-perfect. The Lower course leans on imposing bunkering, like the Sahara and the cross bunkering on the second hole, to provide character. The Upper course, on the other hand, gets much of its identity from what members refer to as ‘the mountain’ that encloses the northwestern border of the property. The first four holes of the Lower play right along a ridgeline before the drive on the fifth carries players off the steepest part of the hillside to lower ground. The fourteenth climbs back towards the hill and the closing holes play along its lower slopes. “The two courses feel like they belong on the same property but there are The closing fairway of the Upper course blends into its counterpart on the Lower BALTUSROL UPPER Photo: Evan Schiller “ For most golfers, the more undulating land of the Upper, and its more varied and memorable holes, may give it the edge”
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