[Patrick_Mucci]

Rumor has it that Ran is coming to New Jersey in the near future to see Bayonne, The Knoll and Essex County and to play a match at Mountain Ridge, site of the 2012 USGA Senior Amateur.

Rumor also has it that TEPaul will be there to act as a referee and witness.

Ran has asked me to describe all four courses and I basically told him that all four were very different, even though The Knoll and Essex County have a common architect.

It's hard to describe Bayonne except to say that it's really a modern golfing wonder, whereas the other three are olde classic courses on differing terrain.

Who has played all four courses and how would you describe them to Ran ?

[TEPaul]

Ran asked YOU to describe all four courses???


OK, Patrick, God-damn-it, forget about noon at Mt Ridge; for the good of architectural education I will be on the road of 6am and be there to explain all four courses to you and Ran. He asked YOU to explain those four courses??? God help us! You need to stick with your architectural mentor pal. You are not ready yet to go out there in the big reality world and try to explain these things. You need your "Master" as much or more than you've ever needed him. If you just try to pay attention for once, I will show you the way to The Truth and The Light and the Sunlit Uplands of Golf Architectural Life and Understanding.

[Garland Bayley]

Yes Pat,

Tom will explain it all to you. That is if you can Behr it.

[TEPaul]

Definitely your most intelligent post to date, Garland.

[Colin Macqueen]

What a lark! You wouldn't want to be lily-livered would you?

The Hielander

[Patrick_Mucci]

Yes Pat,

Tom will explain it all to you. That is if you can Behr it.

Garland,

I promised his dear mother that I would look after him, unfortunately, I have to admit, that I've done a very poor job.

As to his knowledge concerning golf course architecture, please don't burst his bubble, TEPaul still thinks that Max Behr was the 1934 Heavyweight Boxing Champion.

Bayonne, Essex County, The Knoll and Mountain Ridge are four exceptional golf courses, with three of them being located not far from one another

[Mike Policano]

Pat, you should see if Ran wants to tour two other recent Hanse renovations/restorations - Plainfield and Ridgewood.  Tell him he can play his hickories at RCC.

Cheers

[Garland Bayley]

Definitely your most intelligent post to date, Garland.

Tom,

I have to dumb one down every once in a while for your benefit.

[Jerry Kluger]

Pat: The issue in NJ is not where Ran will play rather where he will eat coming from Southern Pines - homemade sausage and great pastrami are essential.

[Jay Flemma]

Played three of the four.  Essex is out of this world, just superb.  The Knoll replaced Bethpage as my go-to course on weekends here in the city.  Bayonne is marvelous.

[Bill Brightly]

This is Mountain Ridge #9 and where I took this photo is my guess as to the spot of Pat Mucci's secret best approach.

Pat, you been a member there long enough to have those dumb spruce trees cut down behind the green...My God, the clubhouse is gorgeous, show it off! I expect these to be gone before Ran gets there!

[TEPaul]

"Tom,
I have to dumb one down every once in a while for your benefit."


Precisely! Sort of the theory of Contrary Opinion in actual practice if you know what I mean.

[George Pazin]

Kind of bizarre - in the last 18 months, I have had a few of my closest friends join Mountain Ridge, Bayonne and Essex. They have been hounding me to get out there - one even mentioned inviting Ran - and now Ran is going to beat me out there.

One of my friends has shared at least one round with a renowned NYC metro area golfer named Pat Mucci - he came away mightily impressed with all aspects of Pat's game and said he was a great gentleman as well, a real treat to join for a round.

I said that can't be our Pat.



(Because it seems necessary to explain all jabs on here, I will add I've shared lunch and a group dinner with Pat and told my friend in advance he was in for a treat.)

[Tim Martin]

Pat: The issue in NJ is not where Ran will play rather where he will eat coming from Southern Pines - homemade sausage and great pastrami are essential.

Forget the pastrami and go Italian. When Ran is in North Jersey(Essex County) he should go to Marzullo`s on Grove Street in Montclair or if in a pizza mood The Star Tavern on High Street in Orange.   

[Bill Brightly]

Here comes Ran!

[Patrick_Mucci]

Bill Brightly,

Thanks for the photo, but, instead of that iron going into his back pocket, I'll be going into his back pocket in a matter of hours.

Unfortunately, the forecast is calling for cool, rainy weather.
This has been one lousy spring.

Tim,

Ran will be eating at Lu Nello's in Cedar Grove.
Were I've arranged for a crazed Jersey Housewife to turn a table over on him.
You can't beat the food at Lu Nello's, it's consistently better than good.

George Pazin,

It's not me, it has to be my son or my twin brother.

Bill,

Thanks for the pictures.
That magnificent clubhouse overlooks the golf course and the mountains to the west.
It's quite a unique and beautiful setting.
The clubhouse is a Clifford Wendehack design, circa 1930.
I believe that Wendenhack did the clubhouses at Winged Foot, North Jersey and Ridgewood.

The golf course is nothing short of fabulous and the Superintendent, Cliff Moore keeps it fast and firm.
Unfortunately, the forecast is for cool, rainy weather, so Ran, TEPaul and others won't see Mountain Ridge when it's at it's best.

Ron Prichard and Cliff Moore have done and continue to do an excellent job with tree management.
The course is enormously improved in just one year.
It's probably got amongst the best set of par 4's you can find.
Of the three par 5's two are really unique.  # 6 and # 17
I love # 6, it's such a great risk/reward hole, and the green expansions really improved that hole.
The 4th hole has to be an all world par 3.  That green is just spectacular.  I also like # 14.

I hope Ran is arriving in a Brinks truck.

I'm so excited I don't know if I'll be able to get to sleep tonight.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Pat, you should see if Ran wants to tour two other recent Hanse renovations/restorations - Plainfield and Ridgewood. 
Tell him he can play his hickories at RCC.


Mike,

Unfortunately, Ran won't have enough time to see The Knoll, Essex County and Bayonne due to the weather and his morning business meeting.
I'm sure he'd love to see Plainfield and Ridgewood.
Maybe this fall when he returns for another match.

[Bill Brightly]

Thanks for the pictures.
That magnificent clubhouse overlooks the golf course and the mountains to the west.
It's quite a unique and beautiful setting.
The clubhouse is a Clifford Wendehack design, circa 1930.
I believe that Wendenhack did the clubhouses at Winged Foot, North Jersey and Ridgewood.

Pat,

Wendehack also designed the clubhouse at Hackensack. It's funny we are always talking about golf course retsoration, but over the years HGC added on to our clubhouse and some of Wendehack's work was covered up with a crappy fake clapboard. As part of a roof replacement project, we decided to replace the clapboard and restore the exterior. We found cool features like round windows that were completely covered up with the clapboard!

His work was phenominal! Here is Mountain Ridge's clubhouse. When you take oot the spruce trees (to the right, outside of this picture) I think the red bush can go, too!

[Bill Brightly]

Hole 9 at Mountain Ridge. (Sorry about the golf cart...I was playing in an outing!)

[George_Bahto]

Pat - Cliff Wedehack also did the original Georgian clubhouse at The Knoll for those 30 millionaires

he worked with Raynor and Banks a lot

[TEPaul]

The day was----as my mother used to say---'a gentle English rain.'

The course was----I hate to use the word condition, but it was in immaculate condition---the fairways were bouncing and rolling and the approaches were really bouncing and/or rolling out depending on the various trajectories played. The greens were firm (light dent) to a good firm lofted iron from the fairway and they were fast---pretty much around the target of the US Open.

Those are some wonderful greens with their contours and the real highlight about them to me were their peripheries (expansions) with their counter-slopes flowing into the greens from the humps and bumps and shoulders of their surrounds. With those speeds the imagination level with putting can be phenomenal-----eg there are a bunch of pin positions out there where one actually has DIRECTION options on putts that can be as much as 20 to 30 feet of difference! This kind of thing on greens like that are a definite sales pitch to what some really great green expansions can produce (green expansions, by the way, are generally the most universally popular item with entire memberships).

The players were Forse and Nagel and Mucci and Morrissett and of course the featured match was a ribbing-infested singles grudge match between Mucci and Morrissett and it all came down to the final putt on the 18th green which was close but definitely not a gimme. I'm not going to talk about strokes given but let's just say Morrissett played the consummate "numbers game" and very wisely, but the time did come towards the denoument (17th) where it was obvious he would have to execute a difficult 75 yard lofted iron to a tough pin and get it down to put the match on a modicum of ice. He did hit the 75 yard lofted shot well to the difficult pin and got a slick app 12-15 foot gentle right to left breaker down! Mucci hit a marvelous bunker shot (longish, running-away and plugged to boot) to half that distance but unfortunately could do no better than wimp-sniff the low side of the hole!

Marvelous dinner at Lu Nello (?) afterwards where Patrick is treated like the Don of Dons (I think there were a few actual Dons in there who of course are pretty much required by North Jersey etiquette to kiss Patrick's ring too). The excellent youngish super Cliff Moore (he's been head super for seven years) joined us and the confabulation was terrific.

The course has had a Ron Prichard restoration which is on-going and I just can't tell you what a marvelous job Cliff Moore has done with maintenance et al. This course showed what I call the Ideal Maintenance Meld (IMM)-----even with the day-long "gentle English rain."

This golf course just has a great feel to it and those greens show the best of "late Ross" (1929).

Let's just say with the final putt of the day (Morrissett's), the home-town boy (Mucci) came up on the short end this time!   (NJ)   (NC)

To date I have seen these two wily competitors duke it out at GCGC, Pacific Dunes, Sand Hills and now Mountain Ridge---all fabulous golf courses.

Where will they take their "road show" next?

[Bill Brightly]

I think Mountain Ridge has the prettiest and best first hole in New Jersey. (I really can't think of a better one ANYWHRE.)



Note the new "up and back" fairway cut this year!

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Will this match be shown on the Golf Channel?

[TEPaul]

"Will this match be shown on the Golf Channel?"


Probably not but I think the Golf Channel should at least get Patrick to tape for them an instructional bit for golfers generally on how to hit a driver off the deck under a tree in the rain and roll it through the approach and onto the green. One does not get to see stuff like that every day or even in any one year! 

By the way, for those who have never played golf with Patrick, my new name for him is Patrick "Moe" Mucci in honor of the great shotmaker Moe Norman. Patrick has the same set-up as Moe Norman with seriously outstretched arms at address which obviously makes for a very consistent action----eg not too many moving parts.

I could also write a a medium-sized post on here in the time it takes Patrick to complete his backswing. I always thought Jay Sigel had the slowest backswing I ever saw but Patrick's is slower. I think I might buy him a little audio metranome device he can put in his pocket that goes----"tick, tick, tick...tick....whoosh!

[Bill Brightly]

Mr. Mucci is taking a conspicously long time commenting on this epic match... When he does find the words, I trust they will be in red and not his preferred green.

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