Tag: A.W. Tillinghast

This Tillinghast-designed Pennsylvania muni might be sold because city isn’t ‘equipped to be in the golf course business’

Designed in part by World Golf Hall of Famer A.W. Tillinghast, the course was established in 1921.

ERIE, Pa. — Citing a lack of financial resources, equipment and expertise, as well as the challenge of finding someone to operate it, Millcreek Township supervisors are attempting to sell the Erie Golf Club.

In a petition filed Oct. 20 in Erie County Common Pleas Court, the township is asking to sell the 18-hole course at 6050 Old Zuck Road to a private entity after the 2024 golf season.

“We’re not equipped to be in the golf course business,” Supervisor Kim Clear said. “We would like to sell the property so that we can invest that money into the already existing parks and recreation programs that we have.”

The township acquired the 160-acre course at 6050 Old Zuck Road in 2009 from the city of Erie as part of an agreement that allowed for the runway expansion of the Erie International Airport. In exchange for Erie Golf Club, the township gave up a portion of the now-six-hole Millcreek Golf & Learning Center at 3100 W. 17th St. A portion of the property was used to extend the airport’s runway.

But being in the golf-course business, Clear said, has not reaped many rewards. A private company can buy the course and run it properly, she said.

“Most municipalities in the commonwealth and throughout the nation have not found that they’re getting the return on the investment in it that they had hoped,” she said.

The petition was filed pursuant to a state law known as the Donated or Dedicated Property Act, which requires municipal governments to maintain the use of certain donated properties according to deed restrictions.

‘Continued viability’

Supervisors argue that the township is unable to meet the requirements of maintaining the property as a golf course and that it would be better served in the hands of a private company.

“The petitioners lack of knowledge and experience in operating and maintaining an 18-hole golf course — combined with the significant challenges it already has experienced and will continue to experience attempting to find an operator who would be willing to maintain and operate the golf course under a lease contract arrangement — threatens the continued use of the property as a golf course,” attorney Mark Shaw wrote in the petition. “A sale of Erie Golf Course would ensure the continued viability of the golf course in a manner consistent with the existing deed restrictions in place, but relieve (Millcreek Township) of the financial and administrative burdens that it has experienced since owning the golf course and eliminate the risk of failing to find a suitable operator for the golf course, which would impose more significant costs and burdens that petitioner is not equipped to assume.”

The township expects that it will incur at least $1.25 million in capital improvement costs at the course and another $1 million in equipment replacement costs over the next decade if the course is not sold. The course already operates at a loss for the township.

All the equipment used to maintain the course is provided by the operator. All of the equipment donated from the city to the township as part of the property swap in 2009 became unusable in 2019.

Supervisors also list the difficulty of finding a management company to operate the course, citing the previous operator’s decision not to renew its lease in 2019 and the township’s inability to attract more than one qualified course operator thereafter.

Designed in part by World Golf Hall of Famer A.W. Tillinghast, the Erie Golf Course was established in 1921. It is currently operated by 7637 Enterprises.

Clear said that if the township is permitted to sell the golf course it would then have the property appraised in order to set an asking price.

Matthew Rink can be reached at mrink@timesnews.com.

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A.W. Tillinghast on a budget: Private Ridgewood CC shines for U.S. Amateur, but there are public Tillie options

Check out these A.W. Tillinghast courses open to the public.

With the U.S. Amateur this week at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey, fans have their latest in a string of opportunities to see the work of Hall of Fame architect A.W. Tillinghast. After about a century — and with some celebrated restorations — many of these tracks still provide stern championship tests. As with most of Golfweek’s Best top classic courses, they stir something in the soul.

And although most of Tillie’s gems are behind private gates, public golfers need neither highfalutin connections nor deep pockets to experience the old genius’ nuances.

First among options is the cathedral of municipal golf, Bethpage State Park on Long Island. Bethpage has the highest concentration of publicly available Tillinghast holes anywhere. All five courses on the property have at least some Tillie holes. While the major-championship mainstay Black Course garners most of the attention, the state park as a whole offers a comprehensive view of Tillinghast’s ability to design holes for players of all abilities across varying topography.

Golf architecture: The ‘Great Hazard’ undergoes a renaissance, with modern designers rethinking, restoring classical cross bunkers

Modern designers are restoring and often rethinking Great Hazards, those giant cross bunkers with oversized impact on strategy.

One of early American golf architecture’s most dramatic design features is being reinvigorated for the modern game. 

Inner-circle Hall of Fame architect A.W. Tillinghast pioneered the “Great Hazard,” a massive expanse of wasteland usually set in the middle of a par 5. He often coupled this with a smaller but still gnarly bunker complex at the front of the green. In combination, this system demands a series of great shots, whether the player is going for the green in two, three or even four strokes. 

The smallest imprecision off the tee forces the player to recalculate the odds all along the way. Four shots, including a punch-out and back-to-back layups, may be required to hopscotch up to the green. The overconfident player who mismanages the percentages could be in for a huge number. 

But over the past century, players and equipment have evolved to the point that many of the original Great Hazards no longer threaten the tactical headlocks their creator intended. Longer hitters simply blast over the wasteland to set up an approach with a lofted club over the greenside bunker complex. 

That’s why architect Gil Hanse, who has restored about a half-dozen Tillinghast designs in New York and New Jersey, made major changes to No. 17 on Baltusrol Golf Club’s Lower Course. Hanse moved the network of fairway-interrupting bunkers and tall-grass islands downrange some 40 yards,  with the leftmost portion potentially gobbling drives and the rightmost path offering the most aggressive line to the green. Either way, it’s a big carry out of or over the hazard. 

“When you have big hazards, they ask big questions,” Hanse said. “They ask you to make big decisions. In this day and age, accomplished golfers were able to drive it into the (Great Hazard). That’s why the shift occurred. If you get out of position, now the positioning of the hazard is you have to hit a monumentally good shot to get over.” 

Indeed, be anywhere but perfect and you’re blocked out and hitting sideways, setting up a third shot with a long iron or wood, uphill to a raised, multi-tiered green with intimidating bunkers in front and left. Throw in three bunkers that protect the second layup area, and it makes a hole the pros might not often birdie when the PGA Championship returns to Baltusrol in 2029. 

Hanse said the original hazard at Baltusrol had become smaller over time. He used Tillinghast’s plans and photos from the early years to reestablish the scale and dimensions of the original work, but he moved it to the new, more strategically demanding position. 

The Great Hazard on. No. 17 on Baltusrol’s Lower Course (Courtesy of Baltusrol/Evan Schiller)

“Moving the Great Hazard exemplified Gil Hanse’s statement of a ‘sympathetic restoration,’ ” said Baltusrol club president Matt Wirths, who worked closely with Hanse on the exacting details of the project. “It restored a signature design element of a Tillinghast course, but in a way that recognizes the changes that have taken place since the original hole was built.” 

And it’s not just Baltusrol. Great Hazard holes are being rediscovered, reinvented and stiffened at courses around the country. 

With golf season set to start, public high school told it can’t use Tillinghast course — but private school can

Renowned architect A.W. Tillinghast designed and created the course in 1926. It was part of Fort Monmouth.

TINTON FALLS, N.J. — To use a golf analogy, the Monmouth Regional High School golf team is stuck in a sand bunker with no wedge to get out.

On March 4, just days before spring practices were to begin, the local course it uses for practices and games — Suneagles Golf Course in Eatontown, a small town about 10 miles north of Asbury Park — informed the team’s coach that they weren’t going to be allowed to use the course for the season.

Renowned architect A.W. Tillinghast designed and created Suneagles Golf Course in 1926. It was part of Fort Monmouth. The fort was decommissioned in 2011 and its properties are being sold off to private owners.

Head Coach Andrew Wardell is now scrambling to find a new course. A worst-case scenario is they don’t have one and they play all matches on the road or have to cancel the season.

The team has 12 varsity members and its first home match of the season was scheduled for April 7 against St. John Vianney.

What irks Wardell though, is Suneagles’ golf pro informed him that Ranney School, a private school in Tinton Falls, is being allowed to use the course.

Also, Wardell said they could have used more notice that they wouldn’t be invited back.

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Suneagles is owned by Martelli Development. The owner Sal Martelli did not return a call.

Ranney School’s athletic director did not return a call or email.

Wardell said historically, the government let Monmouth Regional use the golf course for no charge. When Martelli Development purchased the course in 2017, it required $2,500 in course fees, which he said the school paid.

When Jersey Shore native Dan Radel is not reporting the news, you can find him in a college classroom where he is a history professor. Reach him @danielradelapp; 732-643-4072; dradel@gannettnj.com.

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