By Greg Corbo photos by Greg Corbo
Turf Life Technologies
Historic Essex County Country Club remains on the cutting edge
The Eighteenth hole at Essex County Country Club is regarded as one of the greatest finishing holes in the state of New Jersey.
Known as the oldest golf club in New Jersey, the golf course has always been
installed throughout the course (No. 1
keep their bottles constantly replen-
tee, No.6, No.10 and 14) so caddies can
ished and ready for distribution. The general rule of thumb is for the caddie
the centerpiece of attention at Essex
to replace the divot immediately if it’s
County Country Club (West Orange,
still in one piece. If the divot shreds
NJ, 1887) where club members cherish
or splits into small pieces, the Sand-
its classic design features such as:
Kaddy mixture is then applied.
The Principal’s Nose; The Punchbowl
At first, the caddies complained
Green and reverse bank fairways on
the bottles were clunky, cumbersome
doglegs. The club has been rather
and added unnecessary weight to the
progressive when it comes to pro-
freight of an average loop. A forgetful
tecting the turf on its historic piece
accessory, caddies were often leaving
of land where Thomas Edison once
the bottles clipped on the bag after
retained a membership. A few years
the loop. Before the loop, unidenti-
ago, members and staff were noticing
fied bottles would often disappear into
too many unattended divots dotting
the fray of the caddieyard with the
the fairways of their Seth Raynor/
rebuy value of $20 for a new one. The
Charles Banks masterpiece (ranked
catch, to get a loop, you need a sand
No. 12 in NJ, Golf Digest) and decided
bottle. To combat this inconvenience
to take action through the caddie
of misplacement, the caddies began
program. For the past two seasons,
personalizing their bottles so if lost, it
all ECCC caddies have been required
would be easier to locate. Two years
to carry a SandKaddy bottle (www.
later, the sand bottles have taken on a
kaddy-lac.com) which holds a sand/ seed mixture that clips to the side of any golf bag. Four filling stations were 32
culture of their own and tend to reflect ECCC caddie Leonard Woo on his way to the caddieshack with sand bottle in tow.
the personality of its owner. Some simply wrote their names in permaGolf Central • Volume 18, Issue 4