54-59_Apr 2012_Course Spotlight_SH_v3_v4

54-59_Apr 2012_Course Spotlight_SH_v3_v4 3/29/12 1:09 PM Page 54
COURSE S POTLIGHT
Go West
New Jersey’s venerable Knoll West, a past Met Open and
Met Amateur venue, is enjoying a very public renaissance
BY M. JAMES WARD
Photograph by Maureen A. Vaccaro
T
he Met Area has an abundance of riches when it comes to classic courses.
Many of these beloved layouts were crafted during the so-called Golden Age,
a period from roughly 1910 through the 1930s. Golf course architecture was
hitting its stride, and momentous figures like C.B. Macdonald, Alister MacKenzie, Donald Ross, A.W. Tillinghast, Charles Banks, Seth Raynor, and William
Flynn made what are cited as, convincingly, the most enriching contributions to golf
course development in American golf.
Most of their treasured courses—among them
Winged Foot, Baltusrol, Ridgewood, Plainfield,
Shinnecock Hills, The Creek, Sleepy Hollow, and
Quaker Ridge—remain as they started out, as
private clubs. However, one stellar course opened
during that time frame now welcomes the public—Knoll West. It’s quite ironic, since the club’s
origins were far from egalitarian.
In 1928 a collection of 30 millionaires formed
the Knoll Association in suburban New Jersey. The
54
T HE M E T G O L F E R • A PR I L / MAY 2 0 1 2
founders included the likes of club president
Joseph Bower from Montclair Golf Club and
Arthur Hoffman from the exclusive Essex County
Country Club. IBM founder Thomas Watson,
from Baltusrol, joined in, as did other prominent
bankers and businessmen of the area. The Knoll
was an auxiliary club—meant to be removed from
the commotion of these men’s home clubs.
In that same year, the Knoll’s founders hired
architect Charles Banks. His famous moniker,
W W W.MGAGOLF.OR G
“steam-shovel,” was tied more to his overall efficiency and how much work he had on his plate
after his longtime partner, Seth Raynor, died suddenly in 1926 at age 51. Banks was left to complete
Raynor’s unfinished projects, and he soon made
his own mark in the business.
For the Knoll project, Banks’s focus was simple. Find a “suitable site, within a reasonable radius
of Montclair and the Oranges, where most of the
members reside” to build a superior course on
topography “ideal for their purpose—a course for
middle-aged and elderly men who wanted good
golf without trudging up hills.” Banks himself said,
“Since these men want quality…cost required less
consideration than is usually the case, except, of
course, there should be no waste or extravagance.”
After a few sites were inspected and summarily
rejected, a parcel of 339 acres was selected in what
is today the community of Parsippany-Troy Hills.
W W W.MGAGOLF.OR G
Clifford C. Wendehack, the man responsible for
the clubhouses at Winged Foot, Mountain Ridge,
Bethpage, and Ridgewood, among others, was
commissioned to build a clubhouse on a high
promontory—hence the club’s name. Wendehack
responded with a beautiful Georgian-style pillared
building with added elements of opulence.
Construction on the Knoll commenced in 1928
and was completed for a cost of nearly $2 million
dollars. The official opening was held on July 4,
1930—eight months after Black Tuesday, the great
stock market crash of 1929. By the time the course
was ready for play, roughly half the membership
were paupers, with the Great Depression looming.
The remaining solvent members attempted to
purchase the property a few years later, but that
effort failed because of an inability to make a profit.
These were bleak times indeed for the Knoll.
However, this is a hopeful tale of a 21st-century
The 18th hole at Knoll West
requires two well-played
shots to avoid the bunkers
and reach the elevated,
sloping green.
TH E M E T G OL FE R • AP RIL / MAY 2 0 1 2
55
54-59_Apr 2012_Course Spotlight_SH_v3_v4 3/29/12 1:09 PM Page 56
A 1934 aerial of what was
then called the Knoll shows
an expert routing and several
recognizable bunkers. This
photo proved invaluable
during the restoration.
56
renaissance, even though there were ups and
downs along the way.
The club saw its first real bit of good fortune
more than a decade after it opened. Joseph and
Gabe Aiello, who owned a business in nearby
Montclair, had been supplying the Knoll Club with
food and produce for years and were owed substantial monies. The club was sold to the Aiellos
in the early 1940s, for the bargain basement price
of $110,000. Through the Aiellos’ involvement, the
Knoll was revived and its membership rolls
increased largely by attracting successful businessmen and industrialists of Italian descent.
Following the end of World War II, the Knoll
became more than just a golf club—it was a scene.
Celebrities routinely flocked there, among them
big band leaders Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey;
Frank Dailey, legendary owner of the famous
Meadowbrook music club in Cedar Grove, N.J.,
who was a member; Jackie Gleason and Perry
Como; and famed Yankees Joe DiMaggio, Yogi
Berra and Phil Rizzuto. Famous golfers from
T HE M E T G O L F E R • A PR I L / MAY 2 0 1 2
Walter Hagen, Julius Boros, and Lawson Little
visited regularly, however the most frequent of the
stellar players was Gene Sarazen, the first man to
win all of what are considered today’s four major
championships.
Following the end of World War II, the
Knoll became more than just a golf
club—it was a scene. Celebrities
routinely flocked there to play golf.
With this decade-long turnaround, the course
itself hit full stride in the 1950s. Turf quality was
enhanced and the Banks design, always wellregarded even in the club’s darkest years, flourished as it never had before and hosted a number
of prestigious championships. In 1954 the MGA
staged the Met Open, and the Knoll more than held
its own against the field. The championship was
won by Otto Greiner, the longtime professional at
Knickerbocker Country Club in Tenafly, N.J., who
edged PGA Tour star Lionel Hebert, then an assistant pro at the Woodmere Club on Long Island, by
one stroke. Four years later in 1958, The Knoll hosted the Met Amateur, and saw the renowned Robert
Gardner of Montclair Golf Club win the first of
his six Met Am titles in seven years.
In 1960, the Knoll hosted the New Jersey State
Open won by Al Mengert—who that year also won
the Met Open and the New Jersey PGA Championship. It was clear that the Knoll was a course
where the best players of the day separated themselves.
The late Dave Marr, the 1965 PGA champion
and famed ABC Sports golf analyst, started as an
assistant professional to Claude Harmon at
Winged Foot and competed at the Knoll on several occasions. In an interview in the May 1995 issue
of Golf Digest, Marr identified the Knoll as among
his 10 best courses ever played, alongside such
heavyweights as Pinehurst No. 2 and Pebble Beach.
Many outside the Met Area were stumped.
However, the good times would sadly change.
With the passing of the Aiello brothers and a growing unsavory influence at the club, membership
declined. The Knoll was sold to Bloomfield College, which had planned to use the golf site as an
expanded campus but never got off the drawing
board. In order to generate cash flow, the club
changed to a semi-private facility and invited the
public to play. The town of Parsippany, under the
New Jersey Green Acres program, purchased the
property in the 1970s and still owns it today.
For a number of years the facility muddled
along, its glory days in the rearview mirror. But
despite its checkered history the Knoll—which has
W W W.MGAGOLF.OR G
Three places in the world host two PGA Tour events a year.
This is one of them.
JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa — an environment of
simple, sophisticated elegance, where authentic experiences deliver
lasting memories and genuine traditions are crafted through enriching
activities.
Designed to compliment the natural beauty of the rolling Texas Hill
Country, TPC San Antonio, home of the Valero Texas Open and AT&T
Championship, encompasses 2,800 acres of spectacular scenery. Resort
guests receive exclusive access to play where the pros play on two
majestic courses, the AT&T Oaks and AT&T Canyons, designed by two
of golf’s most respected and innovative architects, Greg Norman and
Pete Dye.
Here, golfers of every skill level will play among the towering oaks and
rolling green hills while experiencing a level of service and personal
attention normally reserved for the greatest players in the world.
Highly anticipatory service, signature restaurants, an exquisite spa and
six‐acre River Bluff Water Experience round out our unique resort setting.
This is an experience you don’t want to keep a secret... be sure to spread
the word. You’ll be thanked later.
Stay & Play Golf Package
Includes one day of unlimited golf at TPC San Antonio, golf cart and
practice balls. Please use rate code GOF when booking.
For reservations please call 1 ‐866‐882‐4420 or visit
jwsanantonio.com.
2012 T+L 500 List of World’s Best Hotels
by Travel + Leisure
23808 Resort Parkway San Antonio, Texas 78261
Resort guests enjoy exclusive access
to the 36-hole TPC San Antonio, a
PGA TOUR golf facility.
54-59_Apr 2012_Course Spotlight_SH_v3_v4 3/29/12 1:09 PM Page 58
been called Knoll West since a second course,
opened in the 1960s by architect Hal Purdy and
named Knoll East—never fell out of favor among
golfers. For Steele King, the longtime head professional who started at the Knoll in March of 1970
at age 21 and concluded his term in December
2007, the course was an eye opener.
“I grew up in Rome, Georgia, and never saw
such amazing greens with massive contours and
tremendously deep bunkers,” said King. “It was
something truly special.” King lived through a
whole slew of the starts and stops during his tenure.
“Things at times were frustrating because we tried
to be both a public course and at the same time
tried to combine elements of a former private club.
Thankfully, the course didn’t get tinkered with so
much that it lost its fundamental character.”
MAUREEN A. VACCARO
Course architect, author, and
Knoll West member George
Bahto (above) led a decadeslong quest to make the course
a shrine to Banks’s legacy.
Below: Two MGA major
championships held at the
Knoll in the 1950s produced
prominent champions.
And now, a six-year rehabilitation has been
completed, bringing back the best features of
Knoll’s glory without altering those fundamentals.
The project was overseen by course architect and
longtime Knoll West member George Bahto, and
approved by the township council. Bahto’s work
began in 2006 and is a pure restoration, allowing
the layout to once again round into what Banks
originally sketched out 84 years ago.
“I had been a longtime advocate for the preservation of the Knoll as a textbook example of
Charles Banks’s architecture, much as National
Golf Links of America is a virtually untouched
course of C.B. Macdonald and Fishers Island is the
untouched handiwork of Seth Raynor,” said the
spry, 82-year-old Bahto. True to Bahto’s vision,
there have been no modifications to the Knoll’s
undulating green surfaces and only four inconsequential bunkers, long out of play, were removed.
It’s bittersweet that a nadir in the Knoll’s
history—the fire in 1986 that reduced Wendehack’s classic clubhouse to smoke and ash—
opened up Bahto’s interest in researching the
background of the Knoll. A Bloomfield, N.J.,
native, Bahto is one of the premier historians of
classic American golf course architecture, as well
as the acclaimed author of the definitive history
on Macdonald, “The Evangelist of Golf.”
Knoll West starts upon a teeing ground perched
on the highest point, and the first green tells you
all you need to know about what lies ahead. A maddening ridge line runs across the green, forcing
players to hit accurate approach shots lest they
leave a treacherous long putt or roll off the green
entirely. Many courses provide putting surfaces
devoid of mental challenges; Knoll West seldom
grants such comfort.
“For those not familiar with the course, when
58
T HE M E T G O L F E R • A PR I L / MAY 2 0 1 2
W W W.MGAGOLF.OR G
they play it the first time they think they’re
going to take charge. In fact, the opposite
usually happens,” said the recently retired
general manager, Pat DeFalco.“The hole locations on the green determine so much, and the
design remains as pure as the day it was built.”
DeFalco also noted the effective collaboration
that took place between himself, Bahto and
course superintendent John Grady.
Things ramp up at the second, a par four
of nearly 450 yards featuring an upside down
“C” green, with wings to each side. At the third
hole players encounter, in the words of Bahto,
a “moderate” Redan. During the restoration
it was discovered that five feet of sand had been
filled into the front bunker, bringing it much
closer to the putting surface and removing its
teeth. Bahto dug deep until he discovered the
original bunker floor and drainage lines,
restoring the bunker to its original, frightening depth.
Despite the encroachment of suburbia,
Knoll West is well-hidden from view and few
intrusions or noises of modern life impede the
experience. The holes weave through the property with greens and tees in close proximity,
promoting the course as one that can be
easily enjoyed on foot.
The original Banks course measured 6,436
yards, and was lengthened through the years
on a few occasions. Yet, most holes remain as
Banks envisioned—the short par-3 sixth hole
features an oasis of green surrounded by
sand, for example, and the long par-3 13th,
measuring nearly 250 yards from the original
back tee, features a Biarritz green of mammoth
proportions. This hole is particularly notable
for the front “fairway” section short of the
green, where players must contend with two
marvelous hog-backs seldom seen on remaining Banks/Raynor Biarritz holes.
Knoll West ends magnificently with a
closing long par four. At 440 yards, the 18th
features a cavernous bunker, one of the most
feared in the Garden State, standing guard to
a sharply elevated, angled green.
While today’s Knoll West tips out at nearly
7,000 yards, the core remains as is. The additional length is largely due to keep the course
up to date with advancements in technology.
“The Knoll was close to death any number
of times,” said Bahto. “But she survived and
I’m thrilled today’s public player can enjoy
what so few people had seen in its earliest days.”
Indeed, to the benefit of all who play golf
in the Met Area, a course whose origins reflected the Gilded Age and the creative genius of
Charles Banks is once again front and center
for all to enjoy. ■