Date played: 7/12/2020

A month after playing the South course at Charleston Springs, I met up with Walt again at Shark River. Located out in Neptune, the course is a couple miles from the ocean on the eastern edge of Monmouth County. Walt set us up with an early tee time, so I knew the drive would mean an early alarm, but I didn’t think anything of it.

Some people shy away from early morning tee times, but I have no trouble setting an alarm for 4:00 am and making a 2+ hour drive to make the first tee time of the day (like I did at Cape May National). I’ve played 5:30 am and 6:00 am rounds before a day at work. While it’s gotten difficult as I’ve gotten older, I enjoy being out with the dew-sweepers and still having the day ahead of me after a round of golf. So, when it comes to being on time for a round, I’m pretty reliably at the course before I need to be.

At Shark River, I was anything but on time for our 6:18 am. I would arrive at the course pretty much right at our tee time. I rushed to get the clubs and push cart out of the trunk as fast as I could. I threw on my shoes, and basically ran to the first tee. By the time I got there, everyone else in the group had teed off. I quickly got my driver, ball, and tee out of the bag.

This was as cold as you could be for the opening tee shot of a round. Nevertheless, not wanting to hold everyone up, I teed the ball up and swung. Somehow, the golf gods spared me embarrassment, and sent a low-flighted ball off the face of my driver and onto the fairway. Most of the round went generally smoothly as well.

Shark River would be my 12th public course played in Monmouth County, which has the most of any county with 19 total. The course is another example of quality golf in the area. I’ve often thought about which county should be deemed to have the best public golf courses, and while I have yet to submit a vote, I can tell you that Monmouth is definitely in the running.

Here are a few shots from our early morning round.