The next four courses on my journey were all played with friends I met at work. Most of us were not serious golfers at the time, but we were all more than happy to find a course to play and socialize outside of the workplace. It’s interesting now to think about how today – outside of my family relationships – golf defines a large part of who I am. At the time I played these courses, though, it was just something I wanted to do occasionally.
Heron Glen
Date: Undated, sometime in 2010
I switched jobs in 2008, and my wife and I moved to Somerset County shortly thereafter. Having made friends with a few coworkers a couple years into the new job, we eventually began to chat golf and planned to get out for a round together. Someone suggested that we play Heron Glen after work one day.
Located in Ringoes – which features some of the “wine country” of New Jersey – Heron Glen plays over 7,000 yards from the tips (but not from the tees we played) and is typically in pristine condition in season. While I have a soft spot for High Bridge Hills, Heron Glen is touted by many as the best public course of the three in Hunterdon County, and one of the best in the state. These posts from Erik Matuszewski show why.
Cream Ridge
Date: Undated, also sometime in 2010
Moving from wine country to horse country, Cream Ridge is your average public course, situated in western Monmouth County. The final minutes of the drive to Cream Ridge will likely feature multiple plots of farmland and stables, regardless of which direction you’re coming from. My first round there was with one of said coworkers who, despite having left the company and the area, remains one of my very best friends to this day.
The course features water in a few places, a few interesting tee shots, but overall is relatively run-of-the-mill. I like the approaches into the greens at 3 (across a widened area of a creek at the bottom of this downhill par-4), 4 (really the par-3 tee shot), 8 (a well-mounded green), and 18, which is a par-5 that is reachable in two, but very dangerous as water guards the right side of the last leg of the hole.
Gambler Ridge
Date: 3/29/2013 (finally, a dated scorecard)
Three years later, a coworker was getting the word out about a Good Friday golf outing he was hosting at Gambler Ridge. Needless to say, I was excited to join.
Just down the road from Cream Ridge Golf Course – and still in the town of Cream Ridge, NJ – Gambler Ridge is your everyman’s golf course. This is not a place you play to be wowed by layout or conditions. You play Gambler Ridge to knock it around with friends, have a few beers (if that’s your thing), and get a hot dog at the turn (which a friend of mine affectionately refers to as a Gambler Dog). Noteworthy features at Gambler Ridge are three drivable par-4 holes in 5, 6, and 13 (though attempting it at 6 and 13 is treacherous as water is significantly in play) and a double green for holes 15 and 17.
That first round at the outing was one of 16 to date (May 9, 2024) making Gambler Ridge far and away the course I’ve played the most. I’ve broken 80 a handful of times there, though the course does play easier than most and the tees are rated and sloped accordingly. My best round there – a 75 from the 6,294-yard “tips” for a differential of 6.2 – featured one of the craziest things that’s happened to me.
Coming up to the tee box at 10, with the group ahead of us very visibly still in the fairway, the starter asked why we weren’t teeing off. Pointing to the very visible group of people in the fairway, I said, “I don’t want to hit them.” The starter replies, “you’re not gonna hit them,” but he said it in a tone that said, “Given where THEY are in the fairway – and [possibly] considering the caliber of players I watch here on a daily basis – I don’t think YOU are capable of hitting it far enough to hit them.”
So, I indulged the starter.
I muttered something about waiving any potential liability to him (that’s not how it works, for anyone interested), teed my ball up, addressed it, and hit my drive. It was well struck, and we all watched as it drew off the right-side of the fairway, dangerously on a path towards the cart in the fairway. The ball came down, thankfully missing the group, but landing 5-10 yards left of the cart (well within the range of possibly hitting them) and bounded off into the left rough. They looked back at us, we looked back at the starter, and he was silent. Since he was concerned about pace of play, I put my driver back in my push cart, and jogged off to my ball.
It’s probably the one of the dumber things I’ve done on the golf course. It’s also probably one of the more irresponsible things that starter has done. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
Stonybrook Golf Club
Date: 4/15/2013
Finally, the 9th course played on my journey is the now-defunct Stonybrook Golf Club. A 3,514-yard par-62 executive course with four par-4s and two par-5s, it had the interesting scorecard feature of having the same sequence of par for both the front and back nines (4,3,3,4,3,5,3,3,3).
I barely have a recollection of the course. I remember almost being able to reach the green at the “par-4” 1st hole with a 3-iron (only 226 from the back tees). I’m relatively certain that the par-5 15th finished with a hard left into the green. Other than that, I see a few moments here and there from my round with my coworkers, one of which would be with me at Hyatt Hills later that year when I discovered I would be taking on this quest to play all the publics. But I would only play Stonybrook three times, and much like the course, any other recollection is now gone.
Orson Rosas Golf 