Liberty National Turns Out a Treasure

Here's something you don't hear every day from a golf course architect: "A lot of water has gone under the bridge. A lot of contamination has been buried."

That was Tom Kite, the former U.S. Open champ, speaking Tuesday afternoon at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, N.J., where the FedEx Cup playoff series begins play Thursday with The Barclays.

But if the Champions Tour player and aspiring course architect's words sound nothing like typical golfspeak, just listen to Bob Cupp, who teamed with Kite for the 7,346-yard course design.

"The first time we showed up here, it was a nightmare. We were pretty sure any travesty known to man was on this property.''

Holy Tony Soprano's dump site. The PGA Tour has come to a landfill -- albeit, the world's only previous garbage dump with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft among its membership.

The project that began in 1992, and was completed in July of 2006, is being introduced to the golf world this week as host site of the opening event in the PGA Tour's four-playoff series.

There's a lot to show off. The club cost more than $150 million to build, making it one of the most costly golf projects in history. Among the amenities are an on-site heliport and private ferry service from a Wall Street mega-yacht center.

Standing on tee boxes, players look across the harbor to the Manhattan skyline. The Statue of Liberty looms in all her glory barely 1,000 yards from the 18th green.

Other distinguishing features include $1 million worth of Belgian-stone cart paths and a massive ultra-modern-design clubhouse that features glass in a ship-like form that takes full advantage of the New York Harbor and downtown Manhattan views.

Membership initiation fees are reportedly $500,000.

Now that's a going-green initiative.

"Hopefully, that will be a good example, because unfortunately, there are many pieces of property like that all across the United States,'' Kite said. "And I think as golf course architects and superintendents continue to work with the environmental institute to reclaim some of these properties, it will hopefully be a shining example of what can be done.''

Just stay away from the contamination.

Not to belabor the point, but there are few things in the world that scream "bothersome rash'' more than a visit to a New Jersey landfill. At some point, doesn't it start to sound like a new mother sharing details of poopie diapers, and that's just too much information?

"They wouldn't let us touch that contamination,'' Kite said. "You can't do anything with it. If you disturb it, it creates more problems than what's already there.

"So, the short version is, basically you have to cover it all up. You have to cover it up with enough material and with enough plastic to basically cover up the whole property and varying levels and varying depths.'

Some of those varying depths were determined by the need for artificial elevation changes to the flat land. Others were determined by the amount of contamination. Then came another plastic liner, and finally four feet of sand and clay on which the golf course now sits.

"In essence, we have built an umbrella over the old tanks that are here,'' Cupp said.

Future plans include the building of some 900 adjacent homes, slated to be priced between $1.5 and $5 million.

When Liberty National opened, the sky appeared to be the limit. Founder Paul Fireman, a former Reebok CEO and chairman, projected his new club to become another Augusta National. He told the Wall Street Journal, "I want to produce another Rembrandt.''

One man's trash is another man's vision.