Conference 7.286::golf

613.0. "A True Story" by LESCOM::CLOSE () Thu May 18 1989 12:20

    Baltusrol is a club in Springfield, NJ that has hosted the open
    several times, and will again in '93. I went to the '67 Open there
    and followed an unknown named Trevino because there was no crowd
    around him. He came in 5th -- pretty good.
    
    The course was designed in the '20s by A.W. Tillinghast. I played
    the lower 18 (the Open course), and the Upper 18 when I was a teenager
    because my grandfather was a member. Killers!
    
    On the Open course the 4th hole is a 195 yd par 3. It's in all the
    books as one of the greatest 18 holes in golf, the "Fabulous Fourth"
    It's all carry over water to a very tough green.
    
    Well, prior to an Open, the club hired Robert Trent Jones to make
    some changes. He changed the 4th, and the members complained that
    it was too tough. Nonsense, he said. He took the pro, the president
    of the club, and the chairman of the greens committee out to the
    fourth tee.
    
    He teed it up, struck his drive, and the ball rolled into the cup
    for an ace. He turned to his playing partners.
    
    "Gentlemen," he said, "as you can see, the hole is not too difficult."