Hackensack Golf Club - Charles Banks - In Pictures

[Richard Hetzel]

Thanks to Mr. Bill Brightly, I was treated to a golf course that I have wanted to play for many, many years. Less than a mile from where I was born (Oradell, NJ in Bergen County) lies Hackensack Golf Club (1899). You would never know it was even there, locked within a residential neighborhood that was originally owned by the course. Bill showed me all the old aerial photographs in the locker room and gave me the history lesson from Banks, to Gordon, to Jones and Jones (Rees) again. What an awesome golf course. When I first arrived I was thinking it looked very tight with too many trees. Once played, that is really not the case at all. The course is currently being slowly restored in the Banks style and will be even better in the near future. In case anyone is wondering, I did 3 putt after hitting the #3 green off the tee...regardless, what an awesome par 3....enjoy the pics. One could be quite HAPPY playing here and nowhere else...... THANKS BILL!

[Barry Stern]

Thanks for posting these Richard.  The course looks fabulous.  I'm wondering how it compares to a place like Essex County, which i recently had the pleasure of playing. I found that the routing, use of elevation, bunkering (fairway and greenside), and the green complexes, all of which have received positive attention on this site, made the round memorable.  You have to think about every single shot, and the challenges are quite varied across the span of the round.  It is unusual that i can visually memorize a course from the first time i play it, but ECCC was one of those courses (great mens' grill also). I"m wondering how the features of  Hackensack compare.  I know that they are in the midst of a long-term restoration project designed to bring back, adapted for the modern game, the features Banks had intended.  But i'm wondering how the routing, bunkering, green complexes at present compare, and what the intended improvements to the course are.  any sense of this?  thanks again for the pics.

[Ben Voelker]

I love the look of this hole!  It doesn't quite look like a redan to me and it seems from the photos that the same bank that can be used to  feed the ball off of provides a bit of fear on the tee.

Thanks for the photos!

[Michael Barnett]

Thanks for posting these pictures Richard.  The course looks wonderful and appears to have held up relatively well considering the weather we've had in the Northeast this summer.  The staff appears to have done an excellent job.

A couple of questions for Richard or Bill; I am curious about the bunker depth at Hackensack compared to some of the NJ layouts that Banks was heavily involved in like Forsgate or ECCC?  It is hard to tell in these photos whether the bunkering is as penal/visually intimidating to the player?  Also curious about whether the club has plans to do further tree removal around the course? 

 

[Jeff Spittel]

Another example of a fine under the radar club in my anestral homeland of North Jerzee.

[Bill Brightly]

Thanks for posting these pictures Richard.  The course looks wonderful and appears to have held up relatively well considering the weather we've had in the Northeast this summer.  The staff appears to have done an excellent job.

A couple of questions for Richard or Bill; I am curious about the bunker depth at Hackensack compared to some of the NJ layouts that Banks was heavily involved in like Forsgate or ECCC?  It is hard to tell in these photos whether the bunkering is as penal/visually intimidating to the player?  Also curious about whether the club has plans to do further tree removal around the course? 

 

Michael,

Thanks, our superintendent has done a great job this summer. Richard played it with me in June before the extreme weather, but we really are in good shape even with all the heat.

To answer your questions, tree removal where warranted continues to be a goal and Mother Nature chipped in quite nicely this past March, taking out about 150...


Hackensack was Banks' first solo design. The bunkering was far more severe when he finished than it is today. The biggest offenses were committed by a 1961 "Modernization Committee" who hired William Gordon. He removed many bunkers and re-buit many other with sand faces while raising the floors. The bunkers were re-built again in 1992 and grass faces were reinstituted, but not the depth. We are in the 4th year of a multi-year restoration project to restore much of the Banks look that was lost. I agree that the Redan should have greater bunker depth to look more intimidating, but to be honest, you are NOT making par from that bunker at it's current 6 foot depth...the green is too severe...but yes, I would love it to be 10-12 feet deep again. The holes that we will get to first will have far more immediate impact on play, like this bunker on Hole 11 that was restored this year:

 

The tee was also shifted to the right, creating an angle over the bunker. The bunker was brought back to the tee AND out to the green. I'll take a picture of it once finished. The fairway was shifted to the left. If you know this hole, there were 6 huige spruce trees to the right of the bunker. They all went in the storm this past March, and the new more intimidating bunker is designed to make you keep the ball left and thereby, protect the 12th green and 13th tee.

We are restoring one hole per year within our normal capital expenditure budget.

[Bill Brightly]

Here is the finished work on Hole 11. Expanding the tee slightly to the right created an angle over the trap (which is 135 yards long.)

[Billsteele]

Bill-Thanks for the posts about the restoration. While I have played a few Raynor courses, I do not think I have played any by Banks. Is there any stylistic difference between Banks and Raynor that is discernible? The nickname "Steamshovel" always gave me the impression that he liked to really make his bunkers deep and penal but I have seen some Raynor bunkers that are quite steep also. How much more work needs to be done on the restoration? Is the one hole per year being done in sequence or is there some other way of determining the hole that is redone in a particular year?

[Bill Brightly]

There are two theories on how Banks got the nickname Steamshovel. One is that he lost one in a swamp while finishing Fishers Island after Raynor died. More likely, however, it was a comment on the use of the steamshovel to dig his bunkers. I have no doubt that it is a bad rap: his bunkers were VERY deep but almost always this is due to the existing terrain. If you look at the Reverse Redan thread, you'll see that he placed the bunker on a naturally downsloping piece of land, he did not have to move a lot of dirt to get the Redan bunker effect.

I think Banks definitely tried to follow Raynor very closely, and then he went a little further, a little bolder. This is certainly true with his green contours.  Here is an example at Forsgate where he followed Raynor closely. But if you did not know the course, I doubt anyone could guess if it was Banks or Raynor.