Forsgate Country Club (The Banks)

Overview: The Banks Course uses an 18-hole, par-71 card and reaches 6,932 yards at Forsgate Country Club in Monroe Township. Charles “Steamshovel” Banks built the course around open ground, tree-lined corridors and the strategic green forms associated with the Macdonald-Raynor-Banks school. The layout has the scale of a classic parkland course, with holes that use diagonals, deep hazards and shaped putting surfaces to ask questions from the tee through the approach. Forsgate’s setting still carries traces of the country estate and working farm from which the club developed.

History: John Forster built Forsgate as a large agricultural estate with horse breeding, dairy production, orchards and greenhouses. During the Depression, he decided to add a country club and golf course, hiring Clifford Wendehack for the colonial clubhouse and Charles Banks to build the golf. Forster selected holes and ideas from European courses he had visited, which Banks translated into the finished layout. The country club was completed in 1931 and received its liquor license in 1933. The Banks Course remains the historic centerpiece of a club whose roots combine farming, architecture and golf.

Did You Know? Forsgate’s famous Biarritz hole is part of the course’s architectural identity and is frequently cited in the club’s own historical material. The course’s name also comes from the estate name Forster chose in honor of his wife’s Gatenby family.