Pictures of the Forse and Nagel work at Alpine CC (NJ)

[Mike_Sweeney]

I played Alpine CC last week with Noel Freeman. It is a Tillinghast course that plays Winged Foot tough with Yale-like terrain. It is a very well conditioned course that plays very tough due to the greens which will be even tougher in a month. The 6800+ yards or so plays much longer due to the terrain. As the leaves pop in this week, my guess is that they could still do some tree work in order to accomodate the width needed by some of my tee shots that day.   The next day I played at wide and flatish Hidden Creek where the confidence came back.

The perfect course for qualifying a US Open?


#1 tee shot


# 1 green


Rebunkering, new green at no. 6..



The greensite at no. 7 with the bunkers that were found from digging that were buried in the 50s!


Perhaps Noel can describe in more detail the work of Force and Nagel.

[Mike_Cirba]

Cool course and great to hear the Naffer is out and about.

Did they do anything to #10?

It's likely the most unfair, controversial hole in the state of NJ and I'm hopeful that it still is.  

[Mike_Sweeney]

Cool course and great to hear the Naffer is out and about.

Did they do anything to #10?

It's likely the most unfair, controversial hole in the state of NJ and I'm hopeful that it still is.  

Noel will have to answer on the before and after, but the after makes 10 at Yale and 15 at Bethpage look like a walk in the park!

[Mike_Cirba]

Noel will have to answer on the before and after, but the after makes 10 at Yale and 15 at Bethpage look like a walk in the park!

Mike,

Now we're talking.      Can't wait to hear the details.

[RJ_Daley]

It is just my guess, but I'd have to think that Forse and Nagel still aren't happy with the number and placement of trees that appear about 50-60 years old.  IMHO, they could loose the cart path up the #1 right side, and go with dispersment on the turf.  The putting surfaces do seem to be reclaimed from the edges nicely.

[Noel Freeman]

Alpine is uber tough now with the addition of back tees on no. 11, 14, 16 and 18.. No. 18 is now 600 yards and we have only 3 par 3s and 3 pars 5s (no 7 is a 600 yard par 5 too!).   We dont have new scorecards yet but I think the course is one of the hardest 6900 yard-ish course one can play.. It really needs to be re-rated. Last year in US AM senior qualifying from the white tees (6500 yards) only one round was below par.  I would say Alpine only gives up 3-4 subpar rounds a year that I hear of by scratch golfers.  

The new 6th green Ron and Jim did is excellent.

We still need a few hundred trees down but with at $20 MM Winged Foot esque clubhouse being built and the resulting assessments to that, I don't think much will be afforded to more course work.

I do think the club hierarchy would like some sort of USGA event though.

The 10th is unchanged as of now although they did shave the back of the hill behind the green to allow a recovery shot.

Alpine still needs another 300 trees down by my estimate to really open it up as it needs to be.

[Matt_Ward]

Ditto the comments made by Noel -- losing 300-400 additional trees would be a huge plus to the layout.

Hats off to Ron Forse and the club leadership for bringing to life such a fine Tillie layout.

RJ's comments are spot on concerning the path to the right of #1. It is possible for that path to be moved further right in order to keep it away from the playing lane which happens to be down the right side -- if you look close you can see how the fairway tilts to the left. The path being pushed further to the right, along with additoial tree pruning on that same side would make the option of hugging the right side off the tee more practical to what the hole truly is. One other thing -- the 1st at Alpine is one of the great starting holes in all of Jersey golf -- only the 1st at PV and Plainfield top it in my mind.

One last item -- congrats to Alpine for being selected as "Club of the Year" for 2006 by the Met Golf Writers Ass'n. I was proud to nominate the club and I salute my fellow members -- both print and electronic -- for bestowing such a prestigious honor on such a worthy winner.

[RJ_Daley]

Noel, sell the tree removal project by telling them they can use the wood for floors and trim in the CH.

[JNagle]

Thank you guys for the kind words about the project.  It has been a joy working at Alpine.  Geoff Porteus, Hawk Shaw Golf did some great shaping out there.  This course is a great course.  The routing is superb.  The more I visit the place, the more I learn.  Alpine is worth the time to study.

The cart paths were not part of the work being completed.  More and more paths are becoming visible because of the tree removal.  It is unlikely the club will remove any paths because of the extensive use of carts.  The monies for this project focused on bunkers, trees, new tees, green expansions and rebuilding the 6th green.  I for one am gald to see the emphasis put on the priorities and not worrying about paths.

[Jeff Goldman]

Who did the work on the bunkers?  They look great.

[Tags:]

Tags: