JERSEY CITY — Two months after Tom Kite won the 1992 United States Open, the crowning achievement of his Hall of Fame golf career, he was playing in a law firm’s company outing near Baltimore. A lawyer at the event asked Kite if he had ever designed a golf course. Kite just so happened to have a fledgling course design firm, partnering with the veteran architect Bob Cupp on several projects.
The lawyer’s face brightened, and after the round, he returned with an aerial photograph.
“He rolled it out and said, ‘Here is the Lower Manhattan skyline and here’s the old immigration clearinghouse on Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty off to the left, and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge reaching over the New York Bay behind it that connects the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn, and here’s our site,’ ” Kite said.