Inspired by Ran’s feature interview with Ed Brockner, I played Hendricks Field yesterday morning. The last time I played there was more than 20 years ago, a time that the interview describes as “the nadir of the course” . It was in very rough condition back then. Now the course is beautiful. As a result of the improvement in conditioning as well as numerous changes to the routing the course isn’t recognizable as the one I had previously played.
In Ran’s post about the interview, he says “Ed sums up the green work at Hendricks Field as follows: “The way I would describe it is that if Yale is at 100 decibels in terms of green design, Banks turned the volume down a little more than halfway at Hendricks Field.” " I think it was turned down even more than that. As I finished my round I wondered whether they should have gone a little bolder when doing the current work. For the primary clientele of the course it should be fine. However, for most GCA fans, it will likely be a little too “Banks-Lite”, although a nice change of pace when looking for a relaxing round.
The course is par 70, 6130 yards from the back tees. The new scorecard doesn’t have course or slope ratings yet, but my guess is that they will be low. The course is much gentler than my three favorite munis in the area, The Knoll West, Rivervale and the very nearby Rock Spring. Banks ingredients are present, but muted. As compared to most of the county owned courses in neighboring Bergen and Morris counties, which are mostly tight and heavily treed, Hendricks is much more open and forgiving. It makes for a very brisk pace of play and few, if any, lost balls. The greens have been enlarged and several are quite big. The turf on the young greens was high so the greens were rolling very slowly. Once they start cutting them to a more normal level they should be a very good set of greens. The bunkering looks very good to my eye.
Only the back 9 is currently open, with the front scheduled to open the first week of September. One of the rangers was kind enough to take me on a quick ride around the front. It looked like there was still a fair amount of work to be done with several areas yet to be sodded. My favorite holes were 13, 15 and 16 which are on the most interesting (least flat) portion of the property. Although I didn’t get to play it, #1 is a par 5 and will be a very good opener.
Here are a few photos. Here's a link to others:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/golfcoursepix/albums/72157719721202390
Hendricks Field #10 center bunker 
Hendricks Field #10 
Hendricks Field #12 Biarritz green 
Hendricks Field #13 
Hendricks Field #13 right of green
Hendricks Field #15 from Gold tee 
Hendricks Field #15 principal's nose 
Hendricks Field #16 
Hendricks Field #16 
Hendricks Field #17 Eden par 3