Why golfers can’t wait to play at Ridgewood Country Club
By Brett Cyrgalis
August 16, 2014 | 10:06pm
Even if it weren’t the playoffs, and there wasn’t $10 million on the line, a PGA Tour event at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J., still would be one most pros circle on the calendar.
That is because the 1929 A.W. Tillinghast design is a treat, a throwback to the Golden Age of golf-course architecture.
When The Barclays tournament kicks off the first of the four-tournament FedEx Cup playoffs on Thursday, the pros will get to revisit the big and sprawling bunkers and the greens that carry a subtle amount of undulation.
Large oaks and maples frame the fairways, and it all leads back to the beautiful Tudor-style clubhouse, designed by Clifford Wendehack.
Yet the course they are playing is not the same one laid out for the members, as there are 27 holes on the property, and for the tournament, the toughest 18 are chosen from all three nines.
“Such courses are often overlooked in ranking of the great ones,” wrote famed architect Tom Doak in his infamous course-criticism book, “The Confidential Guide.” “Fortunately, the rankings have finally caught up with this, one of Tillinghast’s finest efforts.”
Ridgewood was ranked the seventh-best course in New Jersey by Golf Digest last year, and got its first taste of the FedEx Cup playoffs in 2010.
https://nypost.com/2014/08/16/why-golfers-cant-wait-to-play-at-ridgewood-country-club/
