Bayonne Golf Club

Overview: Bayonne’s 18-hole card is set at par 71 and extends to 7,120 yards on a 150-acre Hudson River site only a few miles from Manhattan. Eric Bergstol created a links-style course from land that had previously been a landfill, using raised ground, broad sand features, fescue rough and strong skyline views to make the site play like a coastal landscape. The course’s unusual setting is part of its strategic identity: wind, elevation and exposed approach angles matter as much as the formal shapes of the bunkers and greens.

History: The Bayonne project began on a waterfront property once known for abandoned cars and informal late-night gatherings. Rinaldo D’Argenio first saw the golf potential of the site and brought the idea to Bergstol in the late 1990s. From 1999 to 2005, inert material was used to raise and shape the formerly flat ground, after which the course was seeded with traditional links grasses. Construction finished in autumn 2005 and the course opened for play in early June 2006. The castle-style clubhouse, complete with a lighthouse, followed in 2008.

Did You Know? The reshaped property reaches roughly 90 feet above sea level, a remarkable change for a site that began as a flat landfill. More than 58,000 plants from 20 species were also used to create the planted edges and natural links appearance.