ENGLEWOOD GOLF CLUB
Just over half an hour from Baltusrol, straddling the border of Englewood and Leonia in New Jersey, Englewood Golf Club was another major host that fell, although it wasn’t replaced by golf. The track was built in 1896 as nine holes but by 1900 had 18 and was regarded as one of the area’s finest venues. Consider that it hosted both the 1906 U.S. Amateur—arguably the most prestigious event in golf at the time—and the 1909 U.S. Open, becoming New Jersey’s only other course to date to host that major, along with Baltusrol. A U.S. Open scoring record was set at the 1909 event, when English victor George Sargeant made 290 and took $300 for his work. The tournament featured two other notable moments as well, when Tom McNamara (69) and David Hunter (68) became the first two competitors to break 70 in U.S. Open play. Two years after the major, the club hosted the Met Open, and shortly after that Donald Ross was brought in to sort new bunkers and new green contouring. Despite the club’s optimism for the future, its national event days were over. Englewood’s relatively short length (6,205 yards during the U.S. Open) and a 1920s boom in course development likely kept it out of the running for more majors and, as writer Daniel Wexler had it, the club eventually became “a ‘colorful’ place featuring many show-business and Mafia personalities.” Still, Englewood wasn’t done-in by its changing audience. Rather, the lauded venue was bisected by Interstate 95 in the 1960s, with the on-ramp to the George Washington Bridge cutting right through the course. Play continued for a while, but by 1976 the economics weren’t working and the club closed. Cross Creek Point condominium complex was built on the Englewood side of the property while homes appeared on the Leonia side, the latter keeping the only remnant of the course alive with a street named “Golf Course Drive.”
Colorful characters came to Englewood but the real killer was I-95, which cut the course in two