Galloping Hill: Things We Never Saw Before

Despite the harsh winter, a lot of progress was made renovating Galloping Hill Golf Course for the 2016 NJ Open. In the next few weeks, the front nine will open to the public. Here's what to expect...

The front nine closed last fall so work could begin. Friday, Harry Goett, superintendent of Union County’s two golf courses, Galloping Hill in Kenilworth and Ashbrook in Scotch Plains, gave me a guided tour.

First, if needed, some background. Or skip ahead to WHAT’S NEW?

Since 2008, Union County has closed its least-used golf course, Oak Ridge, approved a $17.6-million bond issue to renovate its flagship, Galloping Hill, built a new clubhouse/catering facility/restaurant there, built a driving range and practice area and brought in TaylorMade to run it and Kemper Sports to manage the daily operation of the two remaining courses.

UC Golf Turns a Profit: In doing so, the county went from losing $500,000 a year on its golf operations to finishing 2011 and 2012 with net profits of about $500,000, according to Armando Sanchez, Union County director of golf operations. Last year, he says, Galloping Hill finished with a profit of $214,032, Ashbrook with $360,628. After paying management fees of $160,000 to Kemper, golf operations had a net 2013 profit of $414,000.

Eyes on the Prize:
Galloping Hill was awarded the 2016 New Jersey Open–since 1921, a tournament always held at one of the state’s august private clubs.

Last fall, Rees Jones and his team were brought in to begin further renovations needed to ready the course for the 2016 Open. Their winter assignment: the front nine.

Everybody up to speed? Here’s the highlight reel:

WHAT’S NEW?

–Bunkers: Those that hurt high-handicappers were removed. Those that remain were rebuilt with improved drainage. A few new bunkers were added to challenge low-handicappers.

The new bunkers were built, and the existing ones rebuilt, with–hold onto your hats–Better Billy Bunker Blankets. That name makes me think of tempestuous Billy Martin, sharpshooting Billy the Kid, a riot policeman’s billy club, or a tin-can-eating billy goat, none very golfy.

Be that as it may, according to Goett, the BBBB is a polymer sprayed over the gravel base of the bunker. It forms a hard shell that helps the bunker keep its shape when sand (and curse-uttering golfers) are added. Somehow, water drains right through the polymer shield, and dirt can’t work its way up, contaminating the sand. This summer, Goett said, even after a heavy rain, none of the front nine bunkers will look like birdbaths or kiddie pools.

–Trees: Hundreds were removed, partly to open up sight lines across the course, largely for healthier turf, meaning more sun on formerly enclosed greens, better air circulation. The latter means a bit more wind for golfers to contend with. "Don’t worry," said Steve Weisser, lead designer from Rees Jones’s office, who we ran into on the fourth fairway. ""Galloping Hill will never be a links course."

–Tees and Greens: New back tees were added, for example on three, where, in fact, the entire tee area at the top of the hill was expanded. The fifth green (the only par 3 on the front side) was expanded and redesigned.

–Pace of play:
A major goal, having nothing to do with the 2016 NJ Open, was to help high-handicappers stay out of trouble, get around the course faster. That should make golf more enjoyable for the vast majority of people who play Galloping Hill. Which means you get home sooner. Which means fewer fuming golf widows.

–Drainage: Anyone who has ever played Galloping Hill knows this has been the course’s Achilles heel. The low-lying areas get pretty squishy pretty fast. Goett said new drains were installed in several vulnerable areas of the front nine. Tree removal, increasing sun and wind exposure, also helps the course drain faster.


Here’s some elaboration for those who know GH well:

NO. 1, par 4: Since the hole, which begins right in front of the clubhouse, couldn’t be lengthened, a large bunker was added short left of the green, mainly to force the longest hitters to put a premium on accuracy.

No. 2, par 4: The first fairway bunker on the right side was removed, because, Goett explained, "It was punishing guys who could only hit 200 yards." The longer bunkers on the left side, where the fairway begins to climb toward the green, were rebuilt. They now have higher fronts. A new bunker was added on the right to give long hitters something to think about. Trees were removed.

No. 3, par 4: The tee complex was rebuilt and expanded, with a new back tee. Trees were removed on the left side of the hill, widening the chute for the tee shot. At the bottom of the hill, about 40 trees were removed right of the cartpath, an area (dividing three from seven) that used to catch a lot of sliced tee shots.

"Now," said Goett, "you have a shot to either lay up short of the water or even go for the green, because more than half the trees were removed."

A large fairway bunker was added to the left side of the fairway, a little less than 150 yards from the green. Only low-handicappers need reckon with it. "If you go in it," Goett said, "it’s not the end of the world. It’s a 140-yard shot from a flat lie, though if you hit it fat, it could go in the water."

Greenside bunkers were brought a little closer to the green, "pinching" the approach, as Goett put it.

No. 4, par 4: The tee shot will be less narrow because trees were removed from the hill on the right. On the left side, fairway bunkers were removed, new ones added downrange to challenge long hitters. Trees were removed on the hill right of the green, making an aerial, instead of a low running, approach possible.

No. 5, par 3: Dramatic changes. Larger, redesigned green, still two-tiered but with fairer sloping. Many trees removed on the right side of the green (see photo, left) to let the morning sun bathe the green. A new lease on life for the bentgrass.

No. 6, par 5: The two back tees were rebuilt. Six large trees on the hill, left of the fairway but right of the cart path, in range of most tee shots, were removed. "Now the landing area plays 50 yards wide instead of 50 feet wide," said Goett.

Good news for righties who slice (or lefties who pull) their tee shots. That death valley on the right has been cleared out, brush and junk and little trees removed. The area will be grassed.

"You will have a mich better chance of finding your ball and hitting some kind of effective shot out," Goett said. Bottom line: faster pace of play.

The greenside bunker, on the right, was rebuilt and restored to its original, two-bunker configuration.

The large tree left and just short of the green, the one that forced you to run your approach low if you were on the left side of the fairway, has been "limbed," as Goett put it. It’s now a tall sturdy trunk with no limbs. No overhang. "We took the funkiness out, and made it a normal par five," Goett said.

No. 7, par 4: The first fairway bunker on the right was removed, having been found guilty of trapping high-handicappers. A new bunker was built on the right a little closer to the green. A new large fairway bunker was added on the left, to make bombers sweat bullets on the tee.

The much-hated bunker on the right side of the hill, just under the green, is gone, and good riddance.

"It was a death trap," Goett said. "You went in there, you were lucky to get it out in one shot, let alone get it on the green."

The green itself was regraded. "Now you can actually see the green from the tee," Goett said.

No. 8, par 4: The first of the two big trees on the left, which used to cramp your tee shot, is gone. The second one, at the inside corner of the dogleg, remains. A new back tee was built, lengthening the hole to 417. It’s no picnic from there.

No. 9, par 4: Lot of trees removed on the right for a friendlier tee shot.

ABOUT THE NEW VISTAS:

I found the openness disconcerting at first. My eyes skittered, searching for the familiar boundaries, the sentinel trees that enclosed each hole in a cathedral-like privacy.

I mentioned this to Goett, saying that I find something magical in the way each hole on a parkland course can feel like a world onto itself. Now that illusion is gone.

"I look at it this way," he responded. "It’s a beautiful piece of land. You have the hill, the valley, the ridge, the meadow, and we have water features. It all flows together. It’s beautiful.

"Now," he continued, "if you had a picture of a beautiful woman, would you rather look at her as a whole, or broken into 18 individual pictures, so you’d say, ‘Oh, look, an elbow!’?"

Women reading this may want to object, or reverse the gender. And gay readers will have their own take. As for me, I could only laugh out loud and concede the point.

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