Sunday, June 27, 2010

Forsgate Country Club, which opened in 1931, was the product of a penniless Scottish immigrant, John Forster who became extremely wealthy as the founder of the Crum and Forster Insurance Company.  The name Forsgate, which he originally gave to his horse-breeding, dairy, and chicken farm, was derived from “For”, for Forester, and “Gate” in honor of his wife’s family name Gatelin. 

 

In spite of the crash of 1929 Forster set out to build a magnificent country club selecting famed Charles “Steamshovel” Banks, a pioneer in the use of automated equipment to create exaggerated features in his courses, to build the golf course based on a design patterned after many of the European golf holes handpicked by Forster from his European golfing tours.  Each of the holes on the course is marked by a stone monument noting the uniqueness of the hole.

Since its creation Forsgate Country Club has received many honors including number 2 among the Top 20 Private Courses in the state of New Jersey by New Jersey Monthly Magazine, “Best Overall Course” by Best of Northeast Golf in 2007, number 40^th ranking of the Met Area Top 50 Courses by The Met Golfer Magazine in 2007 and the “2008 Club of the Year” by the NJ Chapter of the National Golf Course Owners Association.