The name sounds like an apology. Plainfield suggests flat ground, modest ambition, the sort of course a town builds because it ought to have one. Spend an afternoon on it in Edison, New Jersey, and the word starts to feel like a private joke. Little here is plain. This is an eccentric, traditional old course, full of blind drives and blind approaches that hark back to golf's yesteryear. The club dates to 1890, which places it among the oldest in America, and its original course still lies across the street. The West Nine, laid out by Tom Bendelow in 1898, is now an affordable public layout on an attractive piece of ground, a quiet reminder of where much of this began. The course that made Plainfield's name came in 1921, when Donald Ross redesigned it. Fifteen of his greens survive, and they are its treasure. Each one seems to have its own temperament. Some are pushed up and fall away into punishing run-offs. Others are nestled into hillsides, where gathering slopes collect the ball. The variety holds no formula, and that is what makes it a pleasure. In the 1930s the club acquired more land, and new holes were built, now the 13th through the 15th. The changes are still easy to read. The 12th was once a shorter hole. The original 12th was a par four playing to the right of today's fairway, followed by a one-shotter along the creek to an undulating green. That green, which once served a par three, now finishes a par five. Some felt the new holes never quite blended with Ross's work. The reconciliation began around the turn of the millennium, when Plainfield became one of the first clubs to bring in Gil Hanse for restoration. His team removed trees, repositioned fairways, restored bunkers, and recaptured and enlarged the greens. The three non-original holes were improved so that they sit more comfortably beside the rest. The course is far more open now, though some trees remain, and the bunkers hold beautiful soft, white sand. It stands among the finest surviving examples of Ross's work, on land that seems made for the game. Two holes stay with you, one on each nine. The 7th, a 460-yard par four, is the one many players love most. They relish the challenge of carrying a bunker complex cut into a ridge, beyond which sits a punchbowl green. The 12th, at 585 yards, is the signature. A drainage ditch snakes through the fairway, splitting it, then runs up the left side of the green. It is a fitting place for the hole whose green once belonged to a par three, a spot where the course's layered history comes together. Championship golf arrived long before the restoration. Plainfield hosted the 1978 U.S. Amateur and the 1987 U.S. Women's Open. After Hanse's work, top-flight golf returned. The Barclays arrived in 2011 during a strange week. On Tuesday an earthquake measuring 5.9 struck northern Virginia and was felt by players at practice. Later that week, with Hurricane Irene threatening, the event was cut from 72 holes to 54. Neither earthquake nor storm stopped Dustin Johnson, who won on Saturday, two shots ahead of Matt Kuchar. The Barclays came back in 2015. Jason Day, fresh from his U.S. PGA victory, won for the fourth time that season. Yet the talk of the week was Brian Harman, who made holes-in-one at the 3rd and the 14th in his final round. One ace came on an older stretch and one on a newer hole, which suits a course that needed many decades to feel whole again.