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The 2025 Red Hoffman Cup Matches: Baltusrol Brilliance!

(July 13)   At the 2025 Hoffman Cup Finals, Baltusrol Golf Club put together a string of brilliance in holding on to the Hoffman Cup for the second year in a row at equally brilliant host club, Hollywood Golf Club.

Baltusrol's eight team members fashioned an impressive 267 led by Ryan Fountaine and Gregg Angelillo, but still had their hands full against a determined Arcola Country Club. The Paramus club, stung by last year's loss to Baltusrol at Bayonne, responded with an excellent 269. Arcola's balanced 67-67-67-68 would have captured the day in any other Hoffman Cup Finals, but the shear strength of Baltusrol's roster was not going to be overcome.

Baltusrol's dominance was no surprise. It steamrolled through preliminary play with 31.5 out of 36 possible points, and its finals lineup featured two nationally-ranked amateurs, Mark Costanza and the newly crowned New Jersey State Amateur Champion, Barnes Blake. But it was Gregg Angelillo and Ryan Fountaine who led Baltusrol’s victory charge with a sparkling 65. 

It should be noted that – between Baltusrol and Arcola – all eight sides broke 70. This impressive display of skill and depth from both clubs foreshadows more close finals to come. (Detailed finals scoring can be found at 2025 Competition, above).

Montclair Golf Club finished third at 275, extending an impressive semifinals showing. Deal Golf and Country Club, in the running much of the day, followed at 276. Manasquan River Golf Club rounded out the field at 279.

While Baltusrol took the Cup, Hollywood GC, with its heaving greens, memorable bunkering, and pristine conditioning – was a star in its own right. One finalist summed it up best: “Playing Hollywood is like playing golf in a really great museum.”

The Red Hoffman Cup Matches were created in 2005 to foster interaction and friendly competition among northern New Jersey golf clubs. Annually, 500 leading New Jersey amateurs and professionals from 36 clubs play in a no-handicap, four-ball competition designed to effectively identify the strongest cohort of players in one club in northern New Jersey.

Groups Announced	Intragroup Matches	Semifinals	Finals
When: March 1, 2025	When: Ideally, Sat, Apr 26; Sun, Apr 27; Sat, May 3 (all matches must be completed by Sun, Jun 15)	When: To be played between Sat, Jun 21 to Sun, July 6.	When: Sat, July 12, PM
Who: Your club and three others will form a single Group. Captains should start setting up matches.	Who: Your club vs. one of the other three clubs in your group.	Who: All group winners, minus the bye club, which will have a bye directly to the Finals.	Who: The four Semifinal match winners, plus the bye team; that is five teams (40 players).
	Where: Each day, two four ball matches at home, two away.	Where: Two matches home, two away (same as Intragroup Matches).	Where: Hollywood Golf Club
	Format: Two man, four ball, match play, Nassau point system. Team with the overall highest point total (a.k.a., the bye club) advances directly to Finals.	Format: Adjusting for the bye team, seeding will be determined by points earned in the intragroup play, a sudden-death tie breaker would be in effect.	Format: For each club, four x two-man teams; four ball, medal play; all four scores count; sudden death tie breaker in effect.

This year will mark the 21st anniversary of the Hoffman Cup Matches, the first Finals were held in 2005. That year, in a field of four clubs, Fairmount came out on top with an 8-4 win led by Allen Small and Craig Smith, two top amateurs who had just returned from Ireland as members of the MGA's Cary Cup squad. A year later, Montclair extracted revenge by winning the Cup, then winning four more Hoffman Cup seasons in a row.  

While the first Hoffman Cup involved four clubs and a total of ~36 golfers, this year's event features 36 clubs and more than 500 golfers. Seen through the Hoffman Cup prism, twenty-one years has gone by quickly.

View the results of each Hoffman Cup season, 2005-2024, in "Cup Archives" in the navigation, above.

As always, thank you to the captains and professionals who make this competition hum!