Bowling Green at Bowling Green Golf Club

Bowling Green Golf Club sits in Oak Ridge, a small community in the northern New Jersey Highlands, where rolling terrain and wooded corridors define the landscape. The course was designed by Geoffrey Cornish and Bill Robinson, a partnership that produced numerous layouts across the Northeast during the mid-to-late twentieth century. Cornish, a Canadian-born architect who studied under Stanley Thompson, became known for thoughtful routings that worked with natural contours rather than imposing dramatic earthwork. Robinson, his longtime associate, shared this philosophy of restraint and playability.

The course occupies land characteristic of the region's glacially shaped topography, with elevation changes and rock outcroppings common to northern New Jersey's Precambrian highlands. Routing typically follows the natural flow of the property, with holes moving through stands of hardwood and pine. Cornish and Robinson favored strategic variety over length, designing courses that rewarded accurate placement and course management rather than pure distance. Their greens tend toward moderate size with subtle internal movement, and bunkering serves to frame approaches and define playing corridors without excessive visual intimidation.

Bowling Green functions as a private club serving the local membership and operates within the tradition of mid-century suburban golf facilities in the New York metropolitan area. The course reflects the Cornish-Robinson design ethos: unpretentious, walkable golf that emphasizes shot values and maintains playability across a range of skill levels. It remains a quiet fixture in the Oak Ridge community, representative of the period's approach to golf course architecture in the densely wooded terrain of northern New Jersey.