PGA Elite Coming to Jersey City Golf Course

by Patrick Villanova
Tuesday July 21, 2009

Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and the rest of golf's elite are coming to Jersey City.



In a little over a month, the FedEx Cup, the PGA Tour's points playoff, will kick off with The Barclays at Jersey City's ultra-exclusive Liberty National Golf Club, Aug. 27-30.

In hopes of making the four event FedEx Cup playoff more competitive and exciting, this year's edition of The Barclays will feature a field of only 125 players. That number is down from the 144 that competed last year. Past winners of the FedEx Cup include Woods, who won the inaugural Cup championship in 2007, and Singh, who claimed the title last season.

This year's purse is worth $10 million.
"We think we've got the FedEx Cup playoff series figured out this year. Unlike last year, we're going to start to weed out the players and end with a champion at the Tour Championship," explained David Pillsbury, president of the PGA Tour Golf Course Properties. "The event here at Barclays is really where it all starts."

Hype is swirling around Liberty National's debut on the national stage, as the Barclays will be seen in over 450 million households in over 200 countries.

Among the members of the $129 million golf club are Eli Manning of the New York Giants, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Members enjoy Liberty National's world class golf and amenities, as well as breathtaking views of New York and Jersey City skylines, and the Statue of Liberty.
"From a setting perspective, in Jersey City with these views, I don't think there's any place in the world quite like this," Pillsbury said.
"I think our players are going to love it. We think it's going to show beautifully on television."
"It has meaning because the golfers are going to be competing for (the FedEx Cup)," said Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy, who was in attendance at a press conference at Liberty National yesterday. "The greatest golfers on Earth are coming to what I consider to be the greatest golfing venue on Earth, which is this golf course."

While last year's FedEx Cup champion, Singh, has yet to play Liberty National, he said during a teleconference yesterday he plans on coming to the area to scout out the course as the event approaches.

"Apparently it's an unbelievable venue. A lot of guys that played there said its an incredible golf course," Singh said.

Like the course it will be played on, the event itself is unique, for its strong connection with charities in the area. As a part of the PGA Tour's "Tickets Fore Charity," the American Red Cross of Northern New Jersey is selling tickets to The Barclays, for which it will receive 75 percent of the proceeds from those sales.

"Hundreds of charities will be touched by this event and we're very very proud of that," said Pillsbury. "Over a million dollars will be left in this community to local charities."

"It certainly has great rewards for our city. Not only the economic impact with the hotel, the restaurants, small businesses, but millions of dollars will be left behind for Jersey City's churches, charitable institutions and public service non-profits," Healy said. "We're looking forward with tremendous hope and optimism to Aug. 25 through 30."

"Golf and sex are about the only things you can enjoy without being good at it." - Jimmy Demaret

William Wordsworth: "Golf is a day spent in a round of strenuous idleness."

Mark Twain: ?Golf is a good walk ruined.?

Have you ever spelled GOLF backwards?

Unfortunately, no cheaper golf alternatives in Hudson county, unless you wanna pay 150k-450k for those exclusive clubs, which anyway are likely sitting on notoriously environmentally contaminated land. With too much political wrangling/corruption in Hudson, don't count too soon on the long-touted plan for Jersey City Rt 440. Life is short, and many courses to enjoy south in NJ, Staten Island or even to Long Island.

I remember some talk a while back about turning part of Lincoln Park into a Par-3 course. Something like a Flushing Meadows pitch and putt would be a great thing for JC. Lighted for play at night in the summertime. Rent a pitching wedge and a putter and work on your short game!

Brian_em:

Bayonne's design is getting RAVES from the cognoscenti.

They descibe the course as quite difficult, but looking amazingly natural considering that it is 100% man-made.

Liberty's design is getting some critisisms for being uninspiring and penal (deserved, IMO).

Both courses have been counting on Manhattan and jet-set golfers to fill the membership ranks.

But Bayonne, starting at $150K deposit filled them quickly, while Liberty, at $450K to join and unexciting design, is obviously slower to attract membership.

You can stick a fork in the Meadowlands. The developer wasted like $700 million in state funds, filed for bankruptcy, and recently Trump announced that he's taking over. But it is purely a publicity stunt IMO.

There was supposed to be a public 18-holer between JC and Kearny, but I don't know its status.

Has anyone seen the course in Bayonne? Yes, it's expensive, it's cool that it is open to Bayonne residents, 150 is steep for green fees, but besides that....

http://www.bayonnegolfclub.com/

It looks like an extremely difficult course. Definitely not for the recreational player. I find it extremely strange that people would build two VERY high end courses almost on top of each other. I know it happens in other areas, but I'm surprised to see it happen in hudson county.

I heard the course near the meadowlands stopped construction..., anyone with any more info on that?

If JC actually has plans for even a short 9 hole open course, it would be great. A little fresh grass never hurts anyone, and it could open the sport up to people that normally would never get exposed to it. It's also one more thing to gets younger kids off the couch.

I Love Golf. I agree that this land would probably just end up being more condos or high-rises. I like golf courses as they are often an oasis from city/urban life and crowding. It just plain sucks that 99.9% of Hudson County residents will never get to even walk on this course. Even St. Andrews is accessable to the public. Oh well, I am off to buy a lottery ticket or maybe I will try the PGA qualifying school. My wife is a distant cousin of Rocco Mediate. Hell! I can carry his bag!

does anyone else find the whole idea of a "green" clubhouse highly hypocritical, given the environmental impact of the golf course itself?

http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/golf042604.cfm

That building is a nothing but a huge eyesore. Nothing is being said about the marina they intend on including, which if I remember correctly will impact the public boat launch in LS Park...Money talks and the city planning board is a joke...
Wait til this course is really used as my car was almost hit by a golf ball a few weeks ago....I see many lawsuits in the future....

Yeah well, I believe the joining fee for that course is $250,000.

Oh, and they got all the water for the golf course for a $50 hydrant fee. I believe this was later rectified after the developer bragged about cheating the city out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I think in 2009 or 2010, Liberty National Golf Club will be hosting a PGA event. So, just like any football or baseball stadium, I am sure they have to have the right amenities for the players and fans.

I hope the city and the PGA work something out in terms of charities, free golf clinics for kids with some pros or cheap tickets for residents and things like that, that will provide some financial and economic boast for the city while the PGA is in town for the week.

So I was riding my bike down at the far SW end of LSP the other day, and I came across this building under construction - I thought I was looking at a three quarter-size scale model of a terminal 3 at JFK or something: it's like 40-50 feet high, all glass, with an elevated ramp leading to it and a huge parking garage next door, right on the water...

Turns out it's the clubhouse for that new golf course. Even more ostentatious given the poverty a few blocks away, but hey that's what's great about America.

Architects Golf Club gets added bling

Wednesday, June 20, 2007
BY MATTHEW FUTTERMAN
Star-Ledger Staff

They draped their 6,900-yard golf course like a quilt over the hills of Warren County, with each hole built in the spirit of one of the great course architects of the past two centuries.

Yet, in an age when golf is shrinking in popularity, it wasn't enough for Larry and Dennis Turco. To make Architects Golf Club in Lopatcong work, the developers needed something more -- the grandest clubhouse for miles around.

Three million dollars later, they have a 16,000-square foot palace with mahogany-wood lockers, an endless terrace, a private members lounge, a bridal suite, a home theater room and a cozy conference area wired to accommodate the most high-tech corporate event.

"The Tiger Woods effect is over, and golf is in the decline," said Rob Clark, the director of golf at Architects. "Hopefully this clubhouse gives people the wow factor."

For public and private course owners everywhere, the industry is evolving into an arms race that could change the golfing experience for hundreds of thousands of people in New Jersey. But this has little to do with fairways and greens. Instead, the focus is on plush furniture, personal valets who deliver drinks to players right out of the shower, and high-end restaurants that look more like urban bistros than club dining rooms.

Even publicly owned courses are getting into the act. Mountain View in West Trenton yesterday opened its $3.5 million clubhouse complete with banquet facilities that can host corporate outings and family affairs. Neshanic Valley in Branchburg opened a similar 12,000-square-foot, $3.9 million facility last year.

"There are quite a few renovations going on, and in some cases they don't just do the clubhouse; they renovate the whole place," said Judy Thompson, a researcher with the National Golf Foundation, the industry's information clearinghouse.

For golf courses, the stakes have never been higher, as the game struggles to attract new players. More U.S. courses closed (146) than opened (120) last year, the first time that has happened in six decades, according to the foundation.

Golfers played about 500 million rounds in the U.S. last year. That was up from 2005 in part because of a warm fall but still down from 518 million in 2000.

Increasingly, one solution is to turn the picturesque settings of many golf courses into places that can attract corporate outings and weddings -- but to do that you need a snazzy clubhouse. Nowhere is the clubhouse arms race more evident than at Jersey City's Liberty National Golf Club, the state's most expensive course with an invitation-only, $500,000 initiation fee.

The club, built on New York Harbor by Reebok founder Paul Fireman, broke ground late last year on a 60,000-square-foot glass and steel clubhouse that bears little resemblance to older Victorian clubhouses.

"Our goal was to take the traditional game and combine it with the future," said Aurelian Anghelusiu, the club's managing director. "We wanted to feature glass in every area and design the building to provide maximum views of the Statue of Liberty, the Manhattan skyline and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge."

Joel Brenner, project director for construction of the clubhouse, said a series of fountains and pools will create a grand entrance to the three-story building, where ceilings will rise 27 feet in places. There will be a day bar and a night bar, a day grill and a night restaurant.

Locker rooms will include whirlpools, steam rooms and saunas, and the ugliest part of the clubhouse -- the storage area for the carts and other equipment -- is being built underground.

Liberty National plans to complete the clubhouse next spring, a year before the PGA Tour holds the Barclays Classic tournament at the $120 million course.

But it's not just new courses that are making changes.

New Jersey National Golf Club in Basking Ridge opened in 1997, and with its rolling greens and hilly fairways, it gave golfers as stiff a challenge as they could find nearly anywhere in the state. And yet, by 2004 the club had just 180 members. Charging nonmembers about $100 for a weekend round, the club faced stiff competition from other high-end, destination courses, such as Beaver Brook in Annandale and Ballyowen in Hamburg.

So in 2004 the club's owners, New York-based Empire Golf, scrapped its business plan. Empire relaunched New Jersey National as a private club and proceeded to gut the locker rooms, replacing Formica cabinets and industrial carpeting with dark-wood lockers with gold nameplates, granite countertops and tumbled marble on all the walls and floors.

"All this stuff is hugely expensive," said Ed Scott, the club's general manager. "But we have some pretty discriminating members."

On the top level the club restaurant, the Red Oak Grille, which is open to the public, looks like a Soho bistro, and has an expanded terrace area with a wooden ceiling that can be enclosed in colder weather.

Today the club has 363 members and is evaluating how many more it can let in.

Thirty miles west of New Jersey National is Architects, and the Turcos are seeing signs their investment is paying off. The club is largely booked for the season for corporate outings, with groups large and small, from the Kenilworth Police Department to Morgan Stanley, Merck and Dun & Bradstreet filling the calendar.

Architects got into the wedding business on Memorial Day weekend, playing host to the first of at least 12 this year. Susan Jensen, whose family has owned the farm across the road from Architects for five generations, had the honor of being the club's first bride. She and her 55 guests enjoyed cocktails on the patio and an intimate dinner in the ballroom.

"To be able to get married in my parents backyard and walk across the street to Architects really made this the perfect wedding," Jensen said. "Their attention to detail and service there was just amazing."

So far, the clubhouse has been good for the course's main business, too. From 2001, when Architects opened, until this spring, the club had attracted about 65 members. Since opening the clubhouse in April, 30 more have signed up for memberships that start at $4,900 a year.

"If you want to sell the memberships, you need the facility," Larry Turco said. "That way you're selling something more than a golf membership. You're selling a lifestyle."


Matthew Futterman may be reached at mfutterman@starledger.com.

PGA tournament coming to Jersey City in '09

By Matthew Futterman
The Star-Ledger
May 16, 2007

The PGA confirmed today that the Barclays tournament will come to Liberty National Golf Course in Jersey City in 2009.

"It is going to be part of the rotation," Laura Neal, a PGA tour spokeswoman, said.

Peter Truell, a spokesman for Barclays, also confirmed the move but declined to discuss specifics.

Getting the tournament is a coup for Liberty National, the $120 million course built by former Reebok owner Paul Fireman in the shadows of the Statue of Liberty.

The private club, with a course designed by Tom Kite, opened last year with an initiation fee of $400,000 and an exclusive membership roster that includes presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The club is beginning construction of a modern, glass and steel clubhouse this year.

The Barclays, which has also been known as the Buick Classic and the Westchester Classic, has been played at the Westchester (N.Y.) Country Club for decades.

Neal said it will move to Liberty National in 2009 and might rotate among several different clubs in the New York-New Jersey area in the coming years.

"That is something that is under discussion," said Neal, who declined to name other potential sites for the event.

The View Will Be Fine From This ?Green' Building
Architecture

By JILL CULORA
Special to the Sun
March 9, 2007


Lindsay Newman Architecture and Design

Just across the Hudson River, in Jersey City, N.J., construction is under way on a golf clubhouse that may be more green than the fairways outside. Liberty National Golf Course clubhouse, which will be a soaring glass addition to the New York Harbor skyline, is designed to meet the standards of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System. The aggressive requirements ? set by the U.S. Green Building Council ? are aimed at improving the overall energy performance of new buildings.

Designed by Lindsay Newman Architecture and Design, a Lower Manhattan firm, the $30 million clubhouse is part of a project conceived by Willowbend Development LLC that will include three nearby residential towers to be completed in 2009. The Liberty National golf course ? operated by Liberty National Golf Club ? is located on nearly a mile of New Jersey waterfront on the western shores of the Hudson River. The $129 million golf course opened in June 2006 and is expected to vie for major championships such as the US Open, Ryder Cup, and President's Cup.

The look of the course's ultramodern clubhouse was inspired by the vistas that will make it an unrivaled attraction: "The views were the overall form giver," partner Cat Lindsay said.

In their design, Ms. Lindsay and partner John Newman strove to create a structure that not only maximizes the expansive views, but uses them to enhance the functional needs of the club. With three different vistas, the sailshaped building will offer space for distinct uses: the area that has a view of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty will house a bar and restaurant that will be open to the public; the ocean-view space will be reserved for private functions, and the golf course view will house the pro shop, library, and deck.

The clubhouse, Ms. Lindsay said, was designed to be the "jewel at the end of a path," referring to the half mile driveway and seemingly demure stature ? from the driveway it looks about the size of a large house, 75 feet wide and 35 feet tall. But from the water the building is 250 feet long and 73 feet tall.

"You don't want to give it all away at the beginning. The entryway purposely appears small," Ms Lindsay said. "But after being greeted by the concierge, members and guests enter rooms with 30-foot-high ceilings with panoramic views of Lower Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, the Verrazano Bridge, and the 18th fairway of the Liberty National Golf Course."

Part of the entryway has led to tension between design and execution: Two curved glass panels each measuring 16 feet tall have pushed the limits for shaping glass with curves about 90 degrees each. "The size is the constraint we are wrestling," Mr. Newman said. "Anyone can heat up a piece of glass and bend it. It is more challenging to heat and manipulate this size of glass and get it to the site and installed with both the manufacturer and installer warrantying it."

The panels will be formed by Barcelona-based Cricursa, an architectural glass producer that specializes in curved glass. Cricursa marketing director Joan Tarrus said these panels would be especially complex to make because they involved laminating layers of glass as well as forming the dramatic curves. In the production process, the company uses annealing and tempering equipment and techniques to ensure the glass is strong enough to withstand building and environmental stresses. "There is a nice reference where such a panel can be seen in New York City," Mr. Tarrus said. "It's in a high-end residential building at 497 Greenwich St. where the fa?ade folds several times, inboard and outboard."

According to Mr. Newman, the interior of the four-story building will be elegant, but not extravagant, in an effort to lead the eye to the grand views.

In a second phase of the Willowbend development, located at former Caven Point Army Terminal adjacent to Liberty State Park, three residential towers with a total of 1,000 units will be built with construction beginning on the first tower early next year. When complete the towers will contain 3 million square feet of luxurious living space. And the fact that the towers will overlook the clubhouse introduced design challenges.

"The roof material had to be pristine ? without any visible penetration ? because it's a prominent feature from the towers," he said.

Mr. Newman said the tall glass plates of the clubhouse windows would withstand hurricane winds because of the heavy steel holding the glass in place and the roof tiedowns. Protection from solar exposure included sloped walls, glass coatings, and cantilevered eaves.

But it's not only the effect of the environment on the building that was considered. The LEED standards are concerned with how the building impacts the environment: LEED is based on an approach sustainability that recognizing performance in five areas: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. The Cond? Nast building at 4 Times Square became the first LEED-certified high-rise building in America in 1999. Many government and corporate entities are adopting LEED standards, but few buildings have met the requirements. If it works here, it may be proof that while golf courses might not be environmentally friendly, the clubhouses can be.

Browsing JC magazine I see the Liberty National Golf Club will open on July 4th. It costs $400,000 to join. So who's in? Looking at the photos in the article, I see they don't even have the clown mouth hole or the windmill hole so I'm not gonna sign up. They do have the Statue of Liberty hole though.