December 2013
| Business World Magazine | 65
T
he tale of Echo Lake Country
Club reads like a who’s who of
New Jersey’s early golf royalty.
The timeline to the existing Westfield
facility actually stretches back to 1899,
when a Cranford-based group founded
a nine-hole course at the intersection of
Lincoln and South Union avenues – the
Cranford Golf Club – that was laid out by
famed Shinnecock Hills designer Willie
Dunn.
The club’s owners purchased West-
field’s Harper Farm in 1912 and utilized
the design services of Donald Ross, who’d
served an apprenticeship at St. Andrews
and was later responsible for courses at
Pinehurst, Aronomink, Oak Hill and In-
verness, to complete a 6,247-yard, par-72
layout that opened in 1913.
Architect Bob White designed six
holes in 1919 and the club absorbed the
rival Westfield Golf Club two years later,
leading to its official rechristening as Echo
Lake Country Club on April 5, 1921.
“There’s a tremendous sense of that his-
tory, from the golf course designers to the
