It is considered in practically all specialized rankings as the best golf course in the world. Augusta National, Cypress Point, Pebble Beach, St. Andrews or Muirfield are other of the most outstanding courses in the lists elaborated by traditional golf publications or Internet.
The truth is that Pine Valley, located in the New Jersey town that gives its name to the club, is a course that leaves no one indifferent. There are several reasons for its well-deserved success. For example, it has more holes of world fame and quality than any other course, it has the most manicured greens, the best collections of par 3, par 4 and par 5, the best three opening holes and the best three finishing holes. In other words, it has it all.
This course became a meeting and discussion point for designers during what is known as the Golden Age of golf course design. The history of Pine Valley Golf began in 1912 when hotel entrepreneur George Crump acquired the estate where the course was built, which was visited by many golf architects, some of whom contributed to a greater or lesser extent to its design: Harry Colt, Hugh Wilson, George Thomas, William Flynn, Charles Blair Macdonald, Walter Travis, Robert Hunter, A.W. Tillinghast, Alister MacKenzie, Donald Ross, William Fownes, Charles Alison and Perry Maxwell. All of them, authors of most of the great courses in the United States, appreciated that Pine Valley raised the standards of golf course design that had existed up to that time.
Although Crump hired Colt as a consultant, although he consulted with many of the aforementioned designers, and although he died -at only 46 years of age- before four holes of the course were completed, there is no doubt that Crump deserves all the credit for the success of Pine Valley for incorporating so many elements of classic design. Crump was the person who found the estate, who lived on it, who prepared it week by week until he found the ideal routing, and who supervised the construction of fourteen of the holes in detail. He was, in short, its true designer. Pine Valley would be his first and only work, a masterful creation.
When Crump, in 1909, discovered the 75-hectare (750,000-square-meter) estate where the golf course is located, the land, in an area of pine forests, was covered with sand that the strong winds blowing in the area had deposited there. One of the first designers to see the estate with Crump, Charles Blair Macdonald, said, “There will be one of the best golf courses in the world here…if the grass grows.”
Crump followed a few basic principles when designing the par-70, 6,400-meter course: no hole should run parallel to the next, no more than two holes would be played in a row in the same direction, and players would not be able to see more holes than the one they were playing. He also thought that a round of golf on his course should require the use of every club in the bag.
Crump, who was familiar with the area from hunting trips, sold a hotel he owned in Philadelphia and invested the money in the camp. The swampy ground had to be dredged and 22,000 stumps were uprooted with heavy steam-powered machinery and horse-drawn cables. All this was being done at a time when most golf courses were being built with minimal earthwork. The first eleven holes were unofficially opened in 1914, but when Crump died in 1918, four holes (12 through 15) had not yet been completed. The official opening date of the course is 1918.
Pine Valley grew with more land later, to 2.5 square kilometers, of which 1.7 are preserved as virgin forest. Since Crump’s death, the course has undergone some renovations by several major designers. The club, which has a second course, with ten short holes, designed by Tom Fazio and Ernest Ransome III, is strictly private and non-members can only play if invited and accompanied by a member. Two members lost their membership for charging guests $10,000 to play a round at the famous club.
The devil and hell
The club boasts one of the most difficult golf courses in the world, with a slope of 155 from championship bars. Pine Valley’s ‘trademarks’ are the “Hell’s half acre”, a large area of barren ground on the 7th hole that is probably the largest bunker in the world; the “The devil’s asshole, an extremely deep bunker on the 10th hole, and the famous 18th hole, which incorporates many different elements of golf into a spectacular finish.
CURIOSITIES
WOMEN MEMBERS. To become a member of Pine Valley, you must be male and have the approval of the club’s board of directors. Women are only allowed to play on Sunday afternoons.
MAJOR TOURNAMENTS. In its long history, the famous New Jersey course has never hosted a Grand Slam tournament. The cause is none other than the lack of space to accommodate thousands of spectators.
TIGER WOODS. Curiously, the undisputed and unbeatable number one in the world for many years, Tiger Woods, has not yet played in what is considered the best or one of the best courses in the world. And it has not been for lack of invitations precisely.
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