PGA Tour Courses > 314 Paramus Road - Ridgewood Country Club
The fairways and tees are seed with Poa annua, bentgrass and ryegrass. It was certified as an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary in 1996. The course includes three challenging and scenic nines known as Center, West, and East, referring to their location relative to the clubhouse.
The Ridgewood golf course today is considered one of the best in the country. Golf Digest in 1989 ranked it seventy-sixth nationally – one of the hundred top courses in America for the first time. In 1985 the American Society of Golf Course Architects included the course among the top 1 percent of all courses built in this country before 1962. In 2007 Golf Magazine ranked the course No. 87 in the United States and Golfweek has it eighty-first on its list of the Best Classical Courses in the country.
The current course was designed by noted architect A.W. Tillinghast in 1929. Tillinghast gave Ridgewood three outstanding nine-hole courses, any two of which can be (and have been) combined for tournament play. Although not exceptionally large, averaging 5,000 to 6,000 square feet, many of the greens bear the Tillinghast signature – severely sloping, typically from back to front, and protected by deep bunkers at the front corners. These features are overshadowed by the century-old trees that line the fairways, making position off the tee such a key ingredient for scoring well, often forcing the better players to club down for accuracy. The trees also serve to isolate each hole from those nearby, creating a scene of splendid tranquility. And there are no letup holes at Ridgewood, each in the true Tillinghast tradition able to stand on its own two feet. The Center Nine rises to a small hill that dominates the layout, with the East and West Nines falling away into separate natural drainage areas.
Like most other great Tillinghast courses, Ridgewood’s has undergone very little substantive change over the years. The tilt of the 3 East green was eased in 1932, and the right bunker was extended out across the front of the 8 East green in 1935, making that hole more challenging.
Recent photos of Ridgewood Country Club:
