Baltusrol Golf Club (Lower Course) - New Jersey, U.S.A.

Baltusrol Golf Club's Lower Course has been one of the USGA's favorite venues for the U.S. Open, although the hillier, heavily wooded Upper Course is an outstanding layout in its own right. Both courses were designed after the First World War by A. W. Tillinghast, two of Tillinghast's earliest and greatest in a line of great courses. The club had been founded in 1895 by Louis Keller, the reclusive publisher of New York City's Social Register. Keller had acquired 500 acres at the foot of Daltusrol Mountain in Springfield, named after Baltus Roll, a farmer who lived in a small house on the mountain where he was murdered by thieves on the night of February 27, 1831. Among the memorable tournaments hosted by Baltusrol, including a record seven U.S. Opens, were the 1967 and 1980 U.S. Opens, both won by Jack Nicklaus. Robert Trent Jones was brought in to strengthen the course before the 1954 U.S. Open, when he designed the famous par­three fourth hole that plays across a pond to a double-tiered green. When some of the members criticized the hole ,Jones took them to the tee and played a four-iron shot that rolled in the cup for a hole-in-one. "Gentlemen;' he remarked, "I think the hole is eminently fair." Baltusrol's majestic Tudor clubhouse, one of the grandest in golf, faces the fourth hole.

Plainfield Country Club - New Jersey, U.S.A.

Plainfield Country Club is one of the landmark courses designed by Donald Ross, located 25 miles from New York City. The club was organized in 1890 by a group of Wall Street brokers as the Hillside Tennis Club. Five years later, a nine-hole course was introduced, and in December 1897, the club moved to its present setting on rolling countryside that was the site of a battle during the American Revolution. The club changed its name to Plainfield in 1904. In 1916, Ross was engaged to build a completely new 18-hole course, which, because of the advent of World War I, was not completed until 1921. Plainfield is widely acknowledged as a Ross masterpiece, where he was able to take full advantage of the gentle ridges in the property. There are six water hazards, nests of cross bunkers, and many of the greens are crafted on knolls, creating the. shelves and knobs for which Ross is famous. In recent years, the club hired architect Gil Hanse to restore many of the subtle design features that had been lost over time, including restoring the original grass-faced bunkers, enlarging the greens, and eliminating trees that had obscured the angles of play. In 2005, Plainfield will host the U.S. Senior Open.