Baltusrol Golf Club

The Baltusrol Golf Club is a private 36-hole golf club in Springfield, New Jersey, about 20 miles (30 km) west of New York City. It was founded 121 years ago in 1895 by Louis Keller.

In 1985, Baltusrol became the first club to have hosted both the U.S. Open and Women's U.S. Open on two different courses. Both courses were originally designed by A. W. Tillinghast in 1918. Among the many major tournaments it has hosted, the club was most recently the site of the 2005 PGA Championship and will host the upcoming 2016 PGA Championship.

In 2005, the club was listed on the National Register of Historic Places; and in 2014 it was further designated a National Historic Landmark in recognition of its importance to Tillinghast's career as a course designer.

History

Baltusrol Golf Club was named after Baltus Roll (1769–1831), who farmed the land on which the club resides today. In 1831, he was murdered at age 61 on February 22 by two thieves who believed that he had hidden a small treasure in his farmhouse on Baltusrol mountain. Two men, Peter B. Davis and Lycidias Baldwin, were suspected of the murder. Baldwin fled to a tavern in Morristown where he killed himself with an apparent overdose of narcotic. Davis was apprehended and stood trial in Newark. Despite overwhelming but circumstantial evidence, much of which the trial judge ruled as inadmissible, Davis was acquitted of murder. He was, however, convicted of forgery and sentenced to 24 years in prison and would later die in Trenton State Prison.

Tiger Woods

Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer who is among the most successful golfers of all time. He has been one of the highest-paid athletes in the world for several years.

Following an outstanding amateur and two-year college golf career, Woods turned professional at age 20 in late summer 1996. By April 1997 he had already won his first major, the 1997 Masters in a record-breaking performance, winning the tournament by 12 strokes and pocketing $486,000. He first reached the number one position in the world rankings in June 1997. Through the 2000s, Woods was the dominant force in golf, spending 264 weeks from August 1999 to September 2004 and 281 weeks from June 2005 to October 2010 as World Number One.

From December 2009 to early April 2010, Woods took leave from professional golf to focus on his marriage after he admitted infidelity, but he and his wife Elin Nordegren eventually divorced. His many extramarital indiscretions were revealed by several different women, through many worldwide media sources. This was followed by a loss of golf form, and his ranking gradually fell to a low of No. 58 in November 2011. He ended a career-high winless streak of 107 weeks when he captured the Chevron World Challenge in December 2011. After winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational on March 25, 2013, he ascended to the No.1 ranking once again, holding the top spot until May 2014. Woods had back disc surgery in April 2014, and has struggled since to regain his dominant form. By March 29, 2015, Woods had fallen to #104, outside of the top 100 for the first time since the week prior to his first Tour title win in 1996.