First/Second at Montclair Golf Club

Montclair Golf Club, established in 1893, occupies rolling terrain in West Orange, New Jersey, with views across the Watchung Mountains and the New York metropolitan area. The club's original course was designed by Tom Bendelow, the Scottish-born architect who became one of the most prolific early course designers in America, laying out hundreds of courses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Bendelow's work at Montclair reflects the straightforward, strategic design principles common to that era, making use of the property's natural elevation changes and wooded character.

The routing moves across varied topography, with holes playing through mature tree-lined corridors and across hillside slopes. The course features the kind of compact, efficient layout typical of early American golf clubs built near urban centers, where land constraints shaped the design. Over the decades, the course has undergone modifications and updates to accommodate modern play and maintenance practices, though it retains the essential character of an early American parkland layout.

Montclair Golf Club has long been a fixture in northern New Jersey golf, serving as a private club with a membership rooted in the surrounding communities. The club has hosted regional amateur competitions and maintains a traditional clubhouse atmosphere. Its location in the Watchung ridge area places it among a cluster of historic golf clubs that helped establish the game in the New York metropolitan region during golf's first wave of American popularity.