A Look Inside Baltusrol Golf Club’s $23 Million Course Restoration

After a year and a half, Baltusrol Golf Club’s Upper Course has been reborn through a meticulous $23 million restoration project overseen by golf architect Gil Hanse, one of the hottest names in the design game.

The overhaul follows a similar treatment from Hanse and his team on the Lower Course, with both efforts honoring the championship legacy and historic standing of the club while staying true to the vision of Baltusrol founder, Louis Keller, as well as original architect A.W. Tillinghast. Founded over a century ago in Northern New Jersey – just over 20 miles from New York City — Baltusrol is home to the first dual championship courses in America, stands as the only facility in the U.S. to have hosted both the men’s and women’s U.S. Open on both its courses, and in 2014 was granted National Historical Landmark status.

When brought on by Baltusrol’s executive committee in 2017, Hanse, partner Jim Wagner and team were tasked with a difficult balancing act: to restore Tillinghast’s century-old vision while considering advancements in modern agronomic equipment and technology, to provide a fun and challenging test for members and guests of all skill levels, and to ensure that both courses could host championship golf at the highest level.

“Together, the restoration of the Dual Courses marks the most significant investment in Baltusrol’s golf infrastructure since Tillinghast arrived on property over a century ago,” said Hanse, who also worked closely with Superintendent Greg Boring on course conditioning throughout restoration. “And with it, the club is poised to continue its legacy as a preeminent dual course facility in America.”

Among the most significant changes:

• New drainage and irrigation systems
• Precision Aire technology beneath all greens
• All greens reconstructed to USGA specifications
• Green surfaces expanded by over 25% on average
• Tillinghast’s subtle green contours restored through advanced Greenscan 3D mapping to allow for more locations for pins that had been lost over time
• All tee complexes and green approaches rebuilt
• Approximately 260,000 square feet of bunkers were rebuilt with the Better Billy Bunker system
• New tees built to provide more opportunities for players with a wider range of skill level

Baltusrol Upper

While the two courses were originally built at the same time, Hanse said the design of the Lower Course is bolder and more aggressive because Tillinghast “didn’t have as much to work with” in terms of the contour.

“The Upper was a little bit more restrained because he had a better piece of land to work with,” Hanse said at the recent unveiling of the restoration. “And I think that shows the brilliance of a golf architect and that he understands the limitations of certain sites and what it needs architecturally, and he understands the advantages of certain sites and how you might ultimately soften that.

“From the perspective of the Upper, there had been significantly less done to it, meaning that the Lower had had gotten a lot of the architectural changes in the name of hosting championships. The Upper was this kind of sleepy little golf course that sat up there,” Hanse added, noting there was more excitement working with the latter because it felt you were “a lot closer to Tillinghast.”

Hanse said he felt a bit of “extra pressure” working on the Upper Course, even armed with original aerial maps, plans and irrigation plans, including photographs from the 1936 U.S. Open.

“We didn’t want to disappoint,” he said.

Expanded Sightlines

From a visual standpoint, the Upper Course has significantly opened sightlines. This is thanks to substantial tree removal – particularly pine trees that were non-native but planted at one time because they were fast growing — and canopies on other mature native trees that have been lifted. Those areas have been replaced by native fescue grasses that should improve the habitat for wildlife as well as creating dramatic vistas across the property.

“It presents the golf course in a much better way from the Upper down to the Lower,” said Hanse. “The views of the Manhattan skyline are spectacular, so you (not only) have longer vistas across the property, but also of the adjoining area. Not that Tillinghast would’ve seen that skyline, but it’s a nice bonus.”

As Hanse and his team started the restoration, they intended to abandon one of the two greens at the par-4 14^th hole, as the upper green that sat six to seven feet above the lower green led to occasional flooding. But when they began their work in earnest, they discovered the original grade and dug out the upper one significantly, allowing the side-by-side greens to again coexist.

“We’re going to take a year to look at it and see how it plays,” Hanse said. “And then we can determine whether it’s every other day or whether one green is more fitting for a championship than the other.”

Major Championships

Hanse said it was the club membership that drove improvements and there wasn’t any consultation with major championship organizers such as the USGA or PGA of America. When Baltusrol’s Lower Course hosts the 2029 PGA Championship it will be the club’s 20^th major championship.

“We’ve built up enough of a relationship with them and enough of a trust that they feel pretty good that we’re going to keep them in mind when we’re doing the work here,” Hanse said.

The biggest challenge when it comes to restorations is research, noted Hanse, adding that the main demand of new design is figuring out the best way to utilize a piece of property and build the most interesting golf course. With a focus on the vision of the original architect, in this case Tillinghast, Hanse and his team “kind of take our ego and plug it over here and our design thoughts and keep them out the door.”

While new golf course development is on a slight uptick in the post-Covid years – with Hanse and team taking an active role there as well – it’s the investment being made in the nation’s thousands of existing golf courses that are perhaps the most noteworthy sign of the game’s health and vitality. The National Golf Foundation estimated late last year that U.S. courses spent over $3 billion in significant discretionary capital investments, with enhancements ranging from the golf course itself to the clubhouse and other infrastructure. In some ways, the restoration efforts can be like a full rebuilding.

“When we’re restoring them and trying to bring back what he did, we’ve got to treat it like a new golf course,” said Hanse. “We’ve got to get the scale right; we’ve got to move things out. We’ve got to put bunkers in the ground the way they originally were. So, the disruption is bigger in that regard than what might otherwise be some other people’s approaches to restoration.”

Baltusrol’s Upper Course is not only back and better than before, it’s fully embraced Tillinghast’s architectural genius and the club’s championship legacy.