11/10/2025
📍Rock Spring (West Orange, New Jersey)
Rock Spring is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and is a special place in public golf. As one of the few Raynor courses open to daily play, players can experience the classic template holes: Redan, Double Plateau and a Punchbowl in the first eight holes.
My favorite part of the course though is holes 10-12. The Leven at the 10th is a short uphill par four with large, volcano-like bunkers leaving the right of the green blind from the fairway; those bunkers are a rite of passage to the New Jersey public golfer.
The 11th hole is a road hole template: three deep bunkers take the place of the railway shed and sharp falloff behind the green substitutes for the road, but this hole demands two well-excused shots.
The Bottle template is at the 12th. A short par four bending slightly to the right, it may seem intuitive to power a drive directly at the green, but that route has a narrow landing area and leaves an exacting approach. The ideal line of play is over the fairway bunker, to a larger, flatter landing area and an easier angle for the approach.
The course has gone through different owners, first being a fully independent private club, then being part of the Montclair Golf Club, and now owned by the Township of West Orange and open for public play since 2019. There were talks to convert the course to a 9- or 12-hole layout and use the rest for a public park or to sell to a developer for real estate. However, the popularity of the course, with its unique architecture and NYC skyline views, has solidified Rock Spring’s future as an 18-hole golf course.
