Plainfield Country Club

Overview: Plainfield Country Club is a private Donald Ross course in Edison, known for strategic bunkering, strong green complexes and a routing that can appear generous before the approach angles narrow. Gil Hanse’s restoration work returned important Ross-scale features and sharpened the relationship between fairway position and the putting surfaces.

History: The course dates to 1921 and remains grounded in Ross’s original design. Hanse led a restoration that addressed lost bunker scale, fescue edges and other architectural details. Plainfield has also been a regular stage for high-level competition, including FedExCup playoff events.

Did You Know? The course’s camouflage bunkers can look close to the green while sitting well short of it. That visual deception is a classic strategic device: the player must judge the true carry and the preferred angle rather than trust the apparent distance.