It’s hard to discuss the history of golf without mentioning Baltusrol Golf Club.
Founded in 1895 and named after Baltus Roll, a farmer who was murdered by thieves outside his house on nearby Watchung Mountain in 1831, the club in Springfield, New Jersey, has hosted seven U.S. Opens, two U.S. Women’s Opens, four U.S. Amateur Championships, two U.S. Women’s Amateurs, a U.S. Junior Am, two PGA Championships and will hold the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship on the Lower Course this week (there is also currently an Upper Course as well, and formerly an Old Course).
“I shall always count Baltusrol among my favorite courses,” Jack Nicklaus once said. “It is certainly one of the finest in the world.”
Now, as the best in the women’s game look to etch their name in Baltusrol and major championship lore, let’s take a look back at the club’s extensive history hosting majors.
1903 U.S. Open
Contested on the Old Course, Scotland’s Willie Anderson held a six-stroke, 54-hole lead, however, shot a final-round 82 to fall into a playoff with David Brown. In a rainy 18-hole Monday playoff — they couldn’t finish on Sunday because the course was reserved for member play — Anderson shot 82 to win by two strokes, his first of three straight U.S. Open titles, a feat that hasn’t since been accomplished.
1915 U.S. Open
Four-time U.S. Amateur winner Jerome Travers claimed his lone U.S. Open in a one-stroke victory over Tom McNamara.
Three years later, the Old Course was torn up and replaced by A.W. Tillinghast’s famed Upper and Lower Courses in 1922.
1936 U.S. Open
Tony Manero, who needed a chip-in on his final hole at sectional qualifying just to find his way into the U.S. Open field, was paired in the final round with his boyhood idol, Gene Sarazen. It appeared Harry Cooper — arguably the greatest player to never win a major — would finally get over the hump after setting the tournament scoring record at 284, however, Manero surpassed that mark by two with a final-round 67 on the Upper Course.
Manero’s unlikely triumph, though, didn’t come without controversy. Sarazen allegedly guided Manero during the final round, which is considered cheating. A complaint was filed with the USGA, but the organization found no evidence of any wrongdoing.
1954 U.S. Open
For the first nationally televised U.S. Open, millions watched Ed Furgol, who had a crooked left arm 10 inches shorter than his right due to a childhood accident, win his lone major in dramatic fashion — hitting his tee shot into the left woods on the 72nd hole of the Lower Course and then chipping into the fairway to make par to finish one stroke ahead of Gene Littler.
1961 U.S. Women’s Open
After the men had been given multiple cracks at Baltusrol in golf’s most prestigious event, 83 of the world’s best female players were given the opportunity to showcase their talents on the Lower Course.
“It’s fabulous,” former LPGA president Marilynn Smith said on the eve of the championship, “It’s the best course we’ve ever played. But you have to be able to hit pretty far.”
Mickey Wright did just that en route to winning her sixth major, finishing six strokes ahead of runner-up Betsy Rawls. After the victory, Sports Illustrated dubbed Wright, whose 13 major titles is the most all-time in the women’s game, “the finest woman golfer of this — and perhaps of any — era.”
1967 U.S. Open
The zenith of the legendary Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus rivalry was the 1962 U.S. Open, when Nicklaus earned his first professional win by besting Palmer in an 18-hole playoff at Oakmont.
Five years later on Baltusrol’s Lower Course, with their rivalry continuing, the Golden Bear forever got a leg up on The King.
Nicklaus and Palmer were tied heading into the final round, but Nicklaus ran away with a final-round 65 to edge Palmer by four shots. However, by the back nine, Nicklaus was chasing Ben Hogan’s 1948 U.S. Open scoring record of 276 — and needed a birdie on the closing par-5 to break it. Things didn’t look promising after Nicklaus hit his tee shot on the 72nd hole into the rough and had to punch into the fairway. But then he hit a legendary 1-iron shot onto the green and canned a 22-footer for birdie with his “White Fang” putter.
“That was a great tournament for me,” Nicklaus told ESPN in 2016. “I played well. It was a love affair with Baltusrol.”
1980 U.S. Open
Jack is back.
It had been two years since Nicklaus won, the longest winless drought of his career. But 13 years after his first triumph on the Lower Course, the Golden Bear won his fourth U.S. Open, holing a 22-foot putt for birdie on the par-5 17th en route to holding off Isao Aoki by two strokes. Nicklaus broke his own U.S. Open scoring record from ‘67 with a total of 272.
“I thought an awful lot this year about not playing anymore,” Nicklaus told ABC after signing his scorecard, “and after today, the way I played, as great as these people were, you know, you got to keep playing.”
1985 U.S. Women’s Open
America’s national women’s open returned to Baltusrol, but this time on the Upper Course, where Kathy Baker, in her first year on tour, won her lone major and first of two LPGA titles.
1993 U.S. Open
Another U.S. Open at Baltusrol’s Lower Course, another dramatic finish.
Lee Janzen, in pursuit of his maiden major win, was knotted with Payne Stewart with six holes left to play. Then came Janzen’s turning point. He sank a 15-footer for birdie on No. 14 to regain the lead he held since Friday and then holed a 30-foot chip shot for birdie on No. 16, giving himself a two-stroke advantage that he never relinquished to claim his first of two U.S. Opens.
Janzen shot in the 60s all four rounds and finished with a total score of 272, the third consecutive time at Baltusrol that the scoring record was tied or broken.
“They cut the rough at Baltusrol six weeks before the tournament and expected it to grow, and they got hot and dry weather and it didn’t really grow,” Janzen recently told PGATour.com. “So it wasn’t a normal, penal U.S. Open. It was playable. If you missed the fairway on the proper side, you could have a good enough line and go for the green, but you had to make a heck of a shot because the course was playing fast.”
2005 PGA Championship
The club had its sights set on hosting the 2006 U.S. Open. However, when the USGA awarded that championship to Winged Foot, its rival in Westchester County, New York, Baltusrol pushed for the 2005 PGA — and was awarded it.
Not a bad consolation prize.
In a Monday finish on the Lower Course, Phil Mickelson won by knocking a chip from the deep rough to 2 feet at the last, giving Lefty a one-stroke victory for his second major triumph.
“This is a special tournament and golf course for me,” Mickelson said ahead of the 2016 PGA, “because of having won the PGA Championship here in 2005. A lot of history has taken place here, and for me to be a part of it means a lot.”
2016 PGA Championship
Baltusrol’s Lower was awarded the centennial celebration of the PGA Championship, and Jimmy Walker would emerge victorious. In a 36-hole Sunday — the longest in PGA Championship history since 1952 — Walker didn’t make a bogey in his final 28 holes to edge defending champion Jason Day, who made eagle on his 72nd hole, by a stroke.
This week at the KPMG Women’s PGA, someone will add their name to this illustrious list — and then the men will get that opportunity at the 2029 PGA Championship.
A win — especially at a major — is always special, but winning at an iconic venue like Baltusrol adds another layer to the victory.
