Somerset Hills Named Top 100 Golf Courses by Golf Magazine

Somerset Hills, NJ, USA

7^th hole, 445 yards: The downhill approach with a long iron to the inviting, sloping green is one of the most appealing shots on the course. Most players do not enjoy long-iron shots, but Tillinghast had the unmatched ability to make long iron shots appealing. As with the 8^th at Pebble Beach, the relatively uninteresting tee shot becomes more significant as the player wants to catch one so he can enjoy the approach shot. The second shot is inviting, encouraging a good, aggressive swing. It is so easy to picture the proper shot landing just short and chasing up the sloping front half of the green toward the hole.

11^th hole, 415 yards: On this dogleg right around a creek, the player in control of his driver can fade his tee shot to the corner, leaving him only an 8-iron into the green. However, most will elect to hit 3-wood off the tee to the center of the fairway and take their chances with a 5-iron to this large but wildly undulating green. Either way, the golfer faces another most appealing approach shot.

12^th hole, 145 yards: A treasure in American golf; there are few more natural or appropriate water par threes. The lake short and left of the green grabs the player's attention, but the sloping green from right to left is the hole's real defense. The farther right and away from the water the golfer plays, the less his chances of making par. Conversely, many a member can perfectly use the green's slope to feed the ball toward the left hole locations. Tillinghast believed the quality of a course's par threes went a long way in determining the overall quality of the course in general. The one-shotters at Somerset help place the course among his two or three finest designs.

15^th, 365 yards: Even more so than at the 11^th, the player has a choice off this tee: play a big fade with the driver around the dogleg and down the hill to have a pitch into the green or hit a 3-wood down the center and have a 6- to 8-iron left. While the hole does not appeal from the tee, the player faces one of the best views in inland golf as he comes around the corner to look down at the angled green set inches behind a babbling creek and tucked into the trees. If there was not a golf hole here, thinks the player, this would surely be part of a garden. The green is ample to accommodate the longer approach but has more than its share of rolls to fend off any undeserving pars.

What is a recent course built that the informed golfer would describe as charming? Not many spring to mind. Why don't more architects instill the variety found at Somerset into their own designs? Why the pre-occupation with length?

One frequently heard comment about Somerset Hills is 'Boy, would I like to play there every day!' Tillinghast would have smiled.