Echo Lake Country Club

Echo Lake Country Club is a private, member-owned country club located in Westfield, New Jersey. The club was founded in 1899, and the golf course was designed by Donald Ross in 1913.

Echo Lake Country Club
Club information
LocationWestfield, New Jersey, U.S.
Established1899
TypePrivate
Total holes18
Websitehttp://www.echolakecc.org
Designed byDonald Ross
Par71
Length7,116 yards
Course rating74.3 (Championship)
73.2 (Jones)
71.5 (Echo Lake)
69.5 (Ross)
67.4 (White)
71.7 (Faxon)
Slope rating132 (Championship)
130 (Jones)
128 (Echo Lake)
124 (Ross)
120 (White)
127 (Faxon)
Course record63

History

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The club was founded as the Cranford Golf Club in 1899, and a 9-hole golf course was designed by Willie Dunn on Lincoln Avenue in Cranford, New Jersey. Cranford business owners and trading-stamp magnates Thomas Sperry and William Miller Sperry were executives of the Cranford Golf Club on Lincoln Avenue, formerly known as Westfield Avenue and part of the Old York Road.[1] The club's 19th-century grounds off Lincoln Avenue were a former estate said to have supplied lumber to build the USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") in the 1700s.[2] The grounds also included the largest sour gum ever recorded in the Northeastern states, known as the Cranford Pepperidge Tree or "Old Peppy."

Young men from the Cranford club went on to fame --- Max Marston of Central Avenue in Cranford, New Jersey won the National Amateur Golf Association Championship, and Dean Mathey won the National Clay Court Tennis Doubles Championship twice.[3]

In 1912, the Cranford Golf Club purchased the Harper Farm in Westfield, New Jersey, and engaged Donald Ross to design the current course, which was completed in 1913. The clubhouse was built on a high bluff overlooking Echo Lake.[4]

In 1921, the Cranford Golf Club and the Westfield Golf Club merged, choosing the name Echo Lake Country Club to reflect both the site, along the upper reaches of the Rahway River Parkway, and the broad country club activities offered.[5]

Tournaments

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National Championships

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The club has hosted two national championships conducted by the United States Golf Association:

Year Championship Winner Score Runner-up Semi-Finalists Notes
1994 U.S. Junior Amateur   Terry Noe 2 up   Andy Barnes   Charles Howell III
  Mauricio Muniz
[6][7]
2002 U.S. Girls' Junior   Inbee Park 4 & 3   Jenny Tangtiphaiboontana   Allison Martin
  Hannah Jun
[8]

PGA Tour Events

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Year Event Winner Score Runners-up Notes
1934 Metropolitan Open   Paul Runyan −1   Walter Hagen
  Wiffy Cox
[9]

References

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  1. ^ Burditt Newspaper Index, Cranford Golf Club Entries. http://cranfordhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/2012_06_12_15_16_27.pdf; Burditt Newspaper Index, Sperry Family Entries. http://cranfordhistory.org/explore-cranford-history/burditt-index-main-page/
  2. ^ Historic Tree Booklet by the Cranford Historic Grove & Arboretum 1033 Springfield Ave, Cranford, NJ 07016. http://cranfordhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/HistoricTreeBooklet2011.pdf
  3. ^ Burditt Newspaper Index, Marston Family Entries, available at http://cranfordhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/2012_06_11_11_07_50[permanent dead link]; Dean Mathey by Robert C. Hall (the fascinating story of an extraordinary man and onetime Cranford resident, including Mathey's diary for all of 1918 during his military service in World War I).; http://pacf.org/dean-mathey/ Archived 2016-11-09 at the Wayback Machine (Dean Mathey was born in 1891 and raised in Cranford, N.J. and was a noted trustee of Princeton University); ;http://matheycollege.princeton.edu/about-us/history (Mathey was the namesake of Mathey College at Princeton University)
  4. ^ Hale, Lee M. (1988). Echo Lake Country Club, Ninety Years in the Forefront of New Jersey Golf. Danbury, Connecticut: Rutledge Books, Inc. ISBN 9780874690651.
  5. ^ "Glimpse of History: Several names, changes mark scorecard of Echo Lake Golf Club in Westfield". 19 June 2011.
  6. ^ "U.S. Junior Amateur Golf Championships: Fullerton's Noe Advances to Semifinal". Los Angeles Times. July 30, 1994.
  7. ^ United States Junior Amateur Championship, Past champions, accessed February 6, 2015
  8. ^ 2002 United States Girls' Junior Championship, Results, accessed February 6, 2015
  9. ^ New York Historical Museum & Library, Dictionary of New York Sports, accessed February 6, 2015
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40°40′22″N 74°20′23″W / 40.67276°N 74.33959°W / 40.67276; -74.33959

  NODES
Association 2
Note 4