Hackensack!

[JNC Lyon]

What did the GCAers think?

I've played the course three times, and it gets a little better each round.  The new bunker on the 11th hole is phenomenal.  I love the look of this tee shot.  Joe Bausch and I both ripped drives that cut off a decent amount of the diagonal hazard.  Mike Cirba, using his powerful lefty draw, tried to gamble as close to the bunker as possibly, ending up just off the right edge of the fairway.  Since he plays from the wrong side of the ball, Mike was left with a brutal sidehill lie that yield a high number.  This showed how the bunker now tempts players into being aggressive, sometimes too aggressive, and leaves the player with plenty of options off the tee.  Usually I don't think of 440 par 4s as fun, but this one certainly is.

The Biarritz was also great fun.  Although we all begged Bill to put the pin in the swale, the hole was in it's rightful position on the back shelf.  I ripped a three wood that landed on the front shelf, rolled into the swale, out of the swale...then back into the swale.  What a thrill!  The first three par threes at Hackensack are all great, though we need to start a collection fund to fill in that pond on 17.

Overall, the day was awesome.  Hopefully Joe can add some photos and others can add the comments!

[Bill Brightly]

Jon,

Obviously, you hit your 3 wood too far on the Biarritz! 10 yards shorter and it rolls up to the back nicely!

Here is a picture of the offending pond on 17. I will gladly fill the pond in myself and I will do so with a few containment mounds that need to go. When you receive the donations, please collect enough to cover the wetlands disturbance approval process  if we do it legitimately, or fines if we don't. I'll also need the initiation fees for my next club after membership throws me out.

Seriously, while the pond has to stay, our plans do call for restoration of the bunkers left and behind the green.

[JNC Lyon]

Jon,

Obviously, you hit your 3 wood too far on the Biarritz! 10 yards shorter and it rolls up to the back nicely!

My tee shot landed just short of the top of the swale.  Would the ball have kicked forward more if it had landed on the back plateau?

I also love how that it is wetlands disturbance when the club removes a pond that the club built itself.

[Mike Cirba]

Mike Cirba, using his powerful lefty draw, tried to gamble as close to the bunker as possibly, ending up just off the right edge of the fairway.  Since he plays from the wrong side of the ball, Mike was left with brutal sidehill lie that yield a high number.  


John,

At age 52, anything I do these days that's described as "powerful" always gets my attention.  

The following day at Mountain Ridge, my "powerful lefty draw" almost killed the entire contingent of GCA congnescenti, as Ran, Patrick, Brad Klein, George Bahto, Tom Paul, and various other interested parties were teeing off #5, as my duck-hooked lefty 3-iron on the par three 4th curved around the trees to the right and came to rest just off the tee box where they were all congregating.

Almost immediately after, Tom Paul donned a long trench coat and pulled-down brimmed hat in an effort to go incognito deep-cover, likely assuming the offending shot was the start of a planned "hit" plot on him stemming from either Columbus, OH, or Los Angeles, CA.  

Despite his paranoia, there was a method to my madness.   Little did they realize that with my ultra-strategic golf brain, I realized that the sucker far back left pin position on the 4th could only be reasonably accessed from the far right side.   From the 5th tee, I wedged to that back tier and just slid the 10-footer for par by the hole.  

One would think that such an elite group would have applauded my strategy, but alas...    

The view from the tee.



My view from the 5th tee for my second shot on the 4th hole.      




P.S...

John, it was a real pleasure to play with you and hope we can do it again soon.

I enjoyed Hackensack a great deal, and it's exciting to see the re-Banksization that the club has been implementing...the Biarritz is beyond cool and they had a really good redan and Road hole as well.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Thanks again Bill for the experience of playing Hackensack. It's another course that flies under the radar because of its location. I thought the hole locations on the Redan and 18 were  excellent. Of course, the Biarritz was a joy to see.

The hamburger in the grill room was excellent. 

Was the clubhouse a Wendehack design?

[Dan Herrmann]

Boy - what a Biarritz!

I thought we had one on my home course - but I now know what a "manly" Biarritz looks like - what a wonderful feature!

[Bill Brightly]

Was the clubhouse a Wendehack design?

Why yes it was! Nice pick up!

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Unlike Winged Foot, Penn Hills and Mountain Ridge, Wendehack chose a non fortress style at Hackensack:

[Patrick_Mucci]

Steve Shaffer,

At Winged Foot, North Jersey and Mountain Ridge, Wendehack took the field stone from the property as the golf course was being built and used them to construct the clubhouse.

It's an efficient use of raw materials, especially in those days when people and developers were still frugal.

[Dan Herrmann]

FWIW, we used fieldstone from the property to build our clubhouse in 2004.  Frugality never goes out of style

[Dean Paolucci]

Bill,

It was a wonderful time at Hackensack.  I really enjoyed the changes and think the course is in superb condition.  A debt of thanks goes out to you for arranging the day.  Aside from the course, I most enjoyed link names with faces at the event.  It was a real treat.

My best,

DEAN