USGA and New Jersey are perfect together

FAR HILLS, -- The United States Golf Association may be this country's most powerful governing body of the sport, but it did the exact same thing most New York City residents do when they need more space. It moved to the suburbs. And in this case, that meant New Jersey.

After forming in 1895, the USGA rented office space in Manhattan for its headquarters until just after World War II ended. The group then bought a five-story brownstone at 40 East 38th Street in midtown (the first floor there now is home to the Garden Café, where the soup of the day will run you $6).

By 1972 the USGA was had outgrown that space. Equipment testing was being done at various sites and universities in the metropolitan New York area, and some thought the USGA should move to a more rural setting where a large piece of real estate was available. There was also talk that the organization should build and operate its own golf course.

Up to the tee stepped two members of New Jersey's Montclair Golf Club: Ken Gordon, who served on the USGA's Executive Committee from 1968 to 1975, and legendary course designer Robert Trent Jones Sr. The latter knew about land for sale in the affluent suburb of Far Hills, almost 50 miles west of Manhattan.

Set among sprawling estates and farms in New Jersey's horse country (headquarters for the U.S. Equestrian Team is in nearby Gladstone), the 70-acre site had been a private residence for many years. Local officials wanted a buyer who would maintain the property within the rural environment rather than subdividing it for multiple houses.

The USGA, through the work of Gordon and others on the Executive Committee, purchased the property.

"He's really the man who was responsible for bringing Golf House to New Jersey," said Janet Seagle, the late USGA Museum Curator, in her oral history. "He was also the man to finally get some funds for the Museum."

The USGA left the Big Apple for the rural New Jersey farmland in the summer of 1972. In what was the private residence (now referred to as Golf House), the first floor was used to house the museum while administrative offices filled the second and third floors. The impressive building was designed by John Russell Pope, a prominent early 20th century architect also responsible for the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the National Archives Building and the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.

The huge lawn in front of the building was used to test equipment. Long-term needs resulted in the opening of a new building in 1986, and the museum was expanded to two full floors in the original building. An adjacent Test Center Building was eventually opened, and an indoor testing facility was added most recently. But the golf course proposed for the site has never been built, despite the purported existence of a rudimentary course routing completed by Trent Jones Sr.

These days approximately 175 people currently work on site. Functions handled there include the Museum, the Research and Test Center, the Rules & Competition Area, Communications, Archives, Members Program, Handicap Department, National Headquarters of Green Section, and Regional Affairs, among others. Lectures and various programs, including Rules of Golf seminars are held in an auditorium. The GHIN (Golf Handicap Index Network) operation, which used to be based at Golf House, is now handled at an office in nearby Branchburg.

Popular merchandise sales are held a few times year, with items available year round in a store on the Museum's first floor. A moving exhibit of golf-related items found in the rubble of the World Trade Center is located directly behind the front desk, while an entire room is devoted to an exhibit on Ben Hogan. The famous moon club used by Alan Shepherd in 1971 is on the second floor.

The public was previously allowed to view public displays in the Test Center, but now only prearranged tours are available. And the extensive Archives are accessible by appointment only.

"We try to make those as accessible as we can to everybody, and I can't think of a time when we've turned a researcher away," said Marty Parkes, Director of Communications. "But we do screen the requests so that we can provide assistance."

According to Parkes, the USGA's biggest challenge with the facility is the museum. The current exhibits need modernizing and more space is required to handle the growing collection of golf history.

"The building itself, because of its age, and because it was really designed as a home, does limit what we can do right now. Is there a way we can make the exhibits more interactive? Probably, and we can make them more up to date."

"I don't know what we're going to do, but we're going to study that issue over the next few years," said Parkes. "I don't think we would be looking to relocate the museum after what we went through with the Tea Room project. I think we've come to the conclusion that we would probably do something here."

Parkes was referring to the USGA's ill-fated purchase of the famous Russian Tea Room restaurant in Manhattan, which the group had hoped to turn into a new museum site. Renovation costs and other issues exceeded the group's desires however, and the property is now back on the market.

While that move to the New Jersey suburbs definitely served the USGA's purposes for a new home, it's not exactly on the beaten path for golfers and tourists. Located three miles off Route 78, with just a handful of rather inconspicuous brown signs pointing the way on local roads, it takes a little effort to find. Yet Golf House draws approximately 25,000 visitors annually and it's definitely worth at least one trip.

"I think when most people get here they're amazed at what we do have, particularly in the archives," said Parkes. "We have the best book collection in the world. Everyone readily admits that. And certainly as far as old golf photos and what we have in films, I think our archives stack up very favorably against anyone's. And also on the memorabilia side, we have a lot of neat things like the moon club. Most people really like it when they get here."

Fast Fact

Long before Annika Sorenstam and Michelle Wie grabbed all the headlines in women's golf, there was Babe Didrikson Zaharias. A special exhibit on her life and golf career, including her comeback from cancer to win the 1954 U.S. Women's Open, opens on May 22 at Golf House and will run at least through year-end.

If you go

Golf House is open to the public Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. For directions and more information about events, exhibits, or access to the USGA archives, call (908) 234-2400, or visit usga.org.

April 7, 2004