Glenhurst Golf Club, which billed itself as "a new semi-private facility in suburban Warren Township," first opened to the public on January 1, 1966. An article in a December 1965 issue of the Echoes-Sentinel reported that the club, located on Mountain Ave. opposite Cory’s Brook Rd. "will be open for inspection this winter to give suburbanites a preview of the Early American clubhouse and grounds. Designed for sport and relaxation, the course includes gently sloped fairways, generous tees and greens, varied short holes, and a natural brook." "Planned for pleasant golfing," continued the article, "the new course covers 6,425 yards and meets USGA Class A standards. Par for the 18-hole course is 71. Facilities include a large putting practice green and a driving practice fairway. Electric and hand cart service will be available." "Set back from Mountain Avenue, the clubhouse combines a century-old home with a new long, low wing in harmonizing Colonial style. The clubhouse features a dining room, cocktail lounge furnished in authentic Colonial décor, and rooms for private parties. The clubhouse also includes a card room, locker rooms and a sundeck balcony with a view of the course and practice greens." The developers had acquired the old Cooper farmhouse from Theodore Mundy, added a large addition for the restaurant and locker rooms and laid out the greens on a rectangular parcel that extended from Mountain Ave. to the Passaic River [see map]. Cory’s Brook flowed through the course, adding a picturesque quality. Alas, the course owners had purchased the old Cooper farm during a five-year dry spell. By the Seventies the area, always subject to flooding, took on the attributes still visible today. Annual spring floods inundated the course, washing away the sand traps and greens. Thinking they could frustrate nature’s design, Glenhurst’s owners installed coffer dams and pumps, but the flooding continued worse than before. By the mid-Seventies the course was abandoned and the land reverted to nature. In the Eighties the clubhouse was demolished and several large homes built on the site. The only evidence today of Glenhurst’s 10-year existence is a maintenance building visible from Mountain Avenue. [Echoes-Sentinel, 12/2/65; Jack Farrell & members, Warren Township Historical Society] |