Recently Mike Cirba and I played Minebrook Golf Club in Hackettstown, NJ, a public course that originally began as Musconetcong CC, opening as a private 9-hole course in 1920.
Mike had played the course previously about 10 years ago and suggested we play it after having visited the Steel Club "Hill 9" earlier in the day.
Before the round at Minebrook we met with a local resident, Karl Jensen, that has researched the origins of the course at an impressive level. We learned the original nine holes was designed by golden-age architects Herbert Strong and William Tucker according to a November 1920 article from the Hackettstown Gazette (courtesy of the Fulton History site):
In the 1965 the owner of the course, John Rocco, added another 9 holes and modified how one hole of the original 9 plays.
Here is how the original 9 holes would sit on the current Google Earth aerial:
Here is the hole-sequencing of the current 18 hole course:
So all of the original 9 greens still exist. An awkward part of the course is the now par 3 7th hole (originally the 3rd) that is played at a complete opposite direction as originally!
Of those 9 original greens, here they are pics of 4 of them (all are clickable to a larger size):
#3 (uphill par 4):
#7 (par 3):
#17 (par 3):
#18 (par 5):
You can view the entire photo tour of Minebrook here:
http://www80.homepage.villanova.edu/joseph.bausch/images/albums/Minebrook/index.htmlEnjoy!