With chilling history, Baltusrol is one of America's great courses
Correction/clarification: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the hole where a plaque is located to recognize one of Jack Nicklaus' greatest shots. It is on the 18th hole.
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — On a chilly February night in 1831, Baltus Roll, a farmer who led a quiet life alongside his wife, Susanna, was murdered by two men seeking a rumored buried treasure.
Billed by the New York newspapers as the “Crime of the Century,” the alleged killers, Peter Davis and Lycidias Baldwin, never found any lucrative cache as they ransacked the cottage and hogtied and strangled Roll to death. Baldwin would soon take his own life, while Davis was acquitted of murder charges but later convicted of forgery and died in prison.
Fifty years later, Louis Keller, publisher of the New York Social Register, purchased the rolling farmland in the hills 20 miles west of Manhattan and established the fifth-oldest golf club in the U.S. Honoring the man who once farmed the land, Keller joined the names of Baltus Roll and thus fabled Baltusrol Golf Club came to be.
Against that chilling backdrop — Roll’s tombstone rests five miles from the clubhouse and reads in addition to his name, “Murdered,” — the 98th PGA Championship begins Thursday on the Lower Course.
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While not as ghoulish as the namesake’s demise, the course is a brute. Unlike Roll’s final hours, however, renowned architect A.W. Tillinghast’s gem will be a fair fight for the best players in the world.
“Everything is straight out in front of you,” world No. 4 and two-time PGA champion Rory McIlroy said of the Lower that will play to a par of 70 and 7,428 yards. “There's no real hidden secrets to it.”
But there are plenty of distinctive features on the tree-lined layout that has sizeable greens and just two water hazards, including the back-to-back par-5s that close the course, a rarity in golf.
The titanic 17th, at 649 yards one of the longest par-5s in major championship history, is a beast with its collection of heavy rough guarding the thin fairways, four large, mischievous bunkers that dissect the fairway 425 yards from the tee and seven deep bunkers that protect the elevated green. A mis-hit tee shot could force players to stay short of the cross bunkers with their second shot, setting up an undesirable approach of 250-300 yards.
The 18th at 554 yards is more manageable, but can still deliver trouble. There is a plaque 237 yards from the green commemorating one of Jack Nicklaus’ greatest shots. En route to winning the 1967 U.S. Open – he also won the 1980 U.S. Open at Baltusrol – Nicklaus used a 1-iron from 237 yards to reach the green in three after he was forced to lay up after an errant tee shot. He made the putt to establish the then scoring record of 275.
Other holes can are cause for concern, including two par-4s stretching over 500 yards – the third and seventh. Three of the four par-3s are longer than 200 yards, and the 4th, the course’s signature hole at 196 yards, has a water hazard running right up the front of the putting surface.
“You've got to drive the ball straight, for sure,” said Phil Mickelson, who won the 2005 PGA Championship here. “It doesn't have to be long. If you notice, the great thing about Baltusrol is how the front of the greens are always open. You have an opportunity to run shots up.
“The only holes that are closed off are the short holes where you're coming in with a wedge, like No. 8. Every hole allows you an opportunity to chase one up. So you can get it on the green, even if you do miss a fairway. ...
“Putting is a challenge here because the greens have a lot of contour, and they are not consistent contours. There's a lot of little rolls and knolls. You can see multiple lines and only one of them is correct, and it's sometimes hard to see. I think reading the greens is going to be the biggest challenge for most people out here.”
World No. 3 Jordan Spieth is hoping to add a third leg of the career Grand Slam to his resumé this week. To do so, he’ll likely have to conquer the last three holes of the course, which begins with the 230-yard par-3 16th.
“Fantastic finish with the last three,” Spieth said. “I think the course is fantastic. It's a big golf course. It is unique that you play 16 holes before you see a par-5, which leaves you with a couple less birdie holes on the front nine.
“You've got to hit the ball long and straight, and then from there, if you keep it in or right near the fairway, you're going to be able to take advantage of quite a few of these holes with 8-, 9-iron or wedge into the green.
“I consider it one of the top American golf courses that there is.”