Exciting Developments at Preakness Hills

WAYNE, N.J. - A series of changes have taken place at Preakness Hills Country Club, a family-friendly club in northern New Jersey that was established in 1926. 

Over the years, Preakness Hills has implemented various changes, but they recently took a bold step by undertaking major renovations to the clubhouse and golf course. 

Preakness Hills and its membership quickly set forth on this monumental project. Led by current club president Eric Gould, this venture has been at the top of his list for nearly a decade. Previously serving as the Greens Chair, Gould has poured his heart and soul into this project. From interviewing architects and coordinating master plans to overseeing its completion, he has been involved in every step of the process.

Gould was tasked with redesigning the golf course to ensure it catered to players of all skill levels. 

“The renovations were done in consideration across all levels and for both men and women and to really elevate and transform the golf course,” Gould outlined. “We're pretty proud of where we've gotten to. It's been a ton of fun to see this come to life and I look forward to it being completely done because we've been in transition for a number of years now.” 

Clubs have become an escape for their members. The 19th hole, innovative locker rooms, upgraded dining areas, aquatics, pickleball – you name it, have become the norm at many private clubs. To keep pace with modern times, Preakness Hills revamped their clubhouse in a number of areas.  

“We've done updates in the past, but nothing significant enough that brought us up to date to where we should be so everything could be in sync,” said Rod Donnelly, Preakness Hills member and owner of Donnelly Industries. “We decided that we really needed to give the club an overhaul from the windows to new carpets, new paint, new wall panels, new chandeliers, new art, new bars, new furniture throughout.”

With their renovations, they added a brand-new dining space, the Preakness Room, a hub for casual dining highlighted by a brick oven pizza, booth and table seating, and a full bar with beers on tap.  

With the renovation of other main dining areas, family events have been dialed up, more intriguing and a record-high participation rate at events.  

“The response to this project was enormous. I don't think we received really any complaints whatsoever,” Donnelly mentioned. “Our clubhouse came out really tasteful. It hit all of the topics and all the points that we wanted it to. I can't see us needing to do anything to these spaces for quite some time.” 

When it comes to the golf course, Preakness Hills is working with Nagle Design Works and Ken Urbano from Urbano Earth. Now in the second phase of the project, the golf course renovations are ramping up. One of the most important aspects of the project was to preserve its historic features, while adding a modern twist. Originally designed by William H. Tucker, Sr., one of golf architectures greats.  

"Like many golf courses, there’s history in the original architecture, but a lot of things have changed - the equipment in particular,” Gould mentioned. “It's a modern reflection on the original architecture to deal with the fact that play has evolved, but staying true to many of the features. There are many unique features to Preakness and it’s a phenomenal walking course that you never get tired of playing.” 

Preakness Hills has taken pride in the evolution of the course. From better drainage, to tree removal to aesthetic landscaping, the course has undergone it all. 

“We did a lot of work to maximize the ability for the course to present challenges across all levels of play,” added Gould.  

Bunker work at golf courses help elevate a course from challenging to a very tough test. On top of that, a slew of trees have been removed and new tee locations have added some length to the course. Combine the three, and that has required a new outlook on course management for golfers. 

"All of our greens are fully bunkered,” Gould added. “We've also moved and expanded tee boxes in an effort to give more playing angles. We created one of the largest tee boxes in New Jersey on our 18th tee. It’s now connected to the 3rd hole tee box and it’s just enormous. From front to back it ranges from at least 40 yards. Now players have the ability to play the finishing hole from a variety of yardages, where we didn't have this flexibility before. Agronomically, when you expand tee boxes, it gives you so many different teeing locations that the course can endure the wear of play better because there's so many alternatives and you're not seeing it in the same location or even close to the same location day-to-day. It also gives interesting finishing ways to set the hole up for tournaments and for championship play. They’re places on the course where we've done things like this, but the 18th hole is the most dramatic.” 

By the end of May, the work on the golf course at Preakness Hills should be complete and the atmosphere at the club has already improved significantly. Membership has flourished, participation at events, both golf and social has skyrocketed.

“It really is going to feel like a whole new place when we’re all done,” Steve Botwinick, Vice President of Preakness Hills said. “We like having this atmosphere where everybody knows each other and it's not 500 members and you might never shake the hand of 300 of them. We all sort of know each other somehow. We have generational members, which is really nice to see and we like to keep it small also because it gives us a great golf experience.”

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