Number 46 (The Meadows at Middlesex)

March 9, 2017March 9, 2017 omrosasgolf, golf blog, golf nj, golfing, golfing nj, meadows, meadows at middlesex, middlesex, middlesex county, new jersey, nj, nj golf, nj golfing, public golf1 Comment

Known as Princeton Meadows until 1999, The Meadows at Middlesex is a tight, tree-lined 18-hole layout in Plainsboro (Middlesex County). I made my way over to the course after finishing nine holes at Clearbrook, one of the few times I’ve played more than 18 holes in a day. Just under 6,300 yards from the back tees, I played from the Whites, which were carded at 6,027. With a bit of wind blowing about, and not being able to get much right with my game, I suffered a boringly average round.

I raced my way to the first tee, where an elderly couple was kind enough to let me play ahead of them as opposed to joining. The first is a dog-leg right par 5, and just as I had done at Clearbrook, I blocked myself off to the right, just short of the corner. Forced to just kick out to the fairway, I knocked it to 170 yards, but still took another three strokes to get on. Two putts later, I had a two-over start.

For holes 2, 3, and 4, I carded bogey, triple, triple, putting to bed any ideas of a good round. However, while +9 through four holes, I made the turn at +13. Coming in, I was able to finish the back nine in +6, for a round of +19 on the par 70. Highlights on the back included sticking it to four feet from 148 yards, and one-putting a five-hole stretch from 12 through 16, over which I also scored +3.

Overall, I enjoyed the course. Sometimes it’s tough for me to be objective because it’s difficult for me not to enjoy a day golfing. Having said that, as my journey widens the gamut of types of public courses I’ve seen, from neglected municipals to those that are top-rated, I would have to place this at just below average. As much as I’d come back and play the course again and again, I’d have to admit there were a few greens that are burnt out. The par-3 17^th seemed in particularly bad shape.

However, apart from a few bad greens, it was a challenging course on the shorter side that will truly exercise your course management skills. If you haven’t checked it out, you should. Who knows… maybe with a bit more love from golfers, they’ll be able to address the issue with the greens.

Number 44 (Skyway Golf Course at Lincoln Park West)

August 21, 2016December 25, 2018 omrosasgolf, golf blog, golf goals, golf new jersey, golf nj, golfing, golfing blog, golfing new jersey, golfing nj, jersey city, jersey city golf, new jersey, nj, nj golf, nj golf courses, nj public golf, public golf, pulaski, pulaski skyway, skyway, skyway golf4 Comments

20160818_162610

Date Played: 8/8/2016

Opened in June 2015, Skyway Golf Course in Jersey City is easily the youngest course I’ve played, and with its youth comes beauty. Having the distinction of being the only public golf course in Hudson County – a small county of almost entirely urban geography – Skyway is breathtaking.

I mentioned how East Orange Golf Course’s downtrodden reputation is juxtaposed against its affluent background, but Skyway is juxtaposition in its purest form. Newborn lush fairways and greens set against aging man-made materials: concrete, asphalt, and steel. The drive up to the diminutive parking lot is on an absolutely beaten and forgotten road, littered with potholes and lined with truck yards and industry to the right. It is the last road you’d imagine leading to a clubhouse. But once you’ve entered and walked onto the course, it is another world.

Being on the course feels like being inside a sci-fi dome. With countless dunes and rolling fairways, almost the entire nine-hole layout is elevated from the topography of the surrounding area. From the tee box on the third hole or from the 5^th green, that road to the clubhouse seems like a dried-up asphalt river at the bottom of a valley off in the distance. You have incredible views in multiple directions, with the Manhattan skyline to one side, the remaining marshlands on the inlet from the Hackensack River on the other, and the Pulaski Skyway – for which the course is named – joining the two.

20160818_161728 — The approach on the par-5 3rd, with the Freedom Tower in the background

Considering golf an 18-hole event, I was sort of resigned to the fact that I would only be playing nine holes. As I described, all of that resignation went out the window once I was on the course. I could have played three holes and been grateful to have been there.

Whether it was inspiration from the splendor of the course, or if it was just that I was “on”, I enjoyed a great round of nine holes. I carded nothing higher than bogey, and finished +5 on the day. It was hard-earned by scrambling most of the round. I only hit three of the nine greens in regulation, but my short game carried me. On the 5^th, I hit a soft-landing sand wedge from 40 yards that ran eight feet to the pin and lipped out after going 450 degrees around the cup and stopping just an inch outside. On the 7^th, I hit the pin once again and lipped 180 degrees around it, stopping at 2.5 feet. I finished with only 9.2 feet of putts made.

IMG_20181225_123312 — My 3rd shot on the par-4 5th. How does that not go in?!

Having been in Jersey City for work for the day, there was definitely the excitement of playing a round of golf after a day at the office. But being on the first tee at Skyway was something beyond that. I experienced a deep appreciation for everything they accomplished in designing and building the course, and I felt like I was truly somewhere special, which is what golf courses should feel like.

The word “infant” comes from the Latin for “unable to speak” or “speechless”. If you are a golfer within 30 miles of Jersey City on the New Jersey side, you must play this infant course. Unable to speak for itself, it may just leave you speechless.

Number 43 (Rancocas Golf Club)

August 21, 2016March 6, 2017 omrosasburlington, burlington county, golf, golf blog, golf goals, golfing, nj, nj golf courses, public golf, rancocas, rancocas golfLeave a comment

Named for a Native American Reservation (now Rancocas State Park) that was not far from the course, Rancocas Golf Club was my first Burlington County course. Skeptical about how much light would be available to start play, I booked a 5:00 am tee time nonetheless. I arrived at the course in almost pitch black, and while I was the first to get out, it certainly wasn’t at 5:00.

Although there were no blow-up holes, I struggled to make par on the front nine, and didn’t do so until the par 3 seventh. After putting my tee shot out of bounds on the 9^th, I recovered to card bogey and make the turn at +8.

I thought being first out onto the course would mean I could get in a fast round, but returning to the clubhouse and the 10^th tee, I noticed groups had been sent out onto the back nine. Thankfully, after taking a quick look to the left, I noticed no one seemed to be on the rest of the course, so I was able to play through on the 12^th. With the exception of a par on 15, I played 12 through 17 in all bogeys. The 17^th was an awful tee shot into a short par 3 green. I struck it fat from 136 yards, and was still left with about 70 yards. The maintenance crew was on the green and allowed us to play the hole while they broke from work.

They gave us interesting information in that they hadn’t cut the greens for two days, due to heavy rains. Up to that point – and even on the practice green – I was wondering why they were rolling so slowly. However, the crew let us know that they just mowed the 18^th green, and that we should see the difference.

The 18^th is a dog-leg left with the second shot into an uphill green. The fairway just before the green is still guarded on the left side by a few trees, and I had drawn my tee shot far enough left that I was blocked. With 138 yards left, I had to decide to go around right, or cut a shot to the left. I decided the draw would be too difficult from that distance, and played the shot to the left.

Incredibly lucky, I intended to fly it between two trees, but actually cut around the left-most tree. The shot landed in the rough, just shy on the left side of the green. Sure enough, I thought I hit the chip too fat to reach the pin, but it was just as the grounds crew said; it rolled three times as fast as any other green I played that day and stopped two feet beyond the hole. I would make par, and then make my way back to see if I could play 10 and 11.

As busy as it was getting, I was fortunate to run into a group that was gracious enough to let me join. My drive found the fairway, so I waited to allow others to find their tee shots. In waiting, I noticed the 150-yard stake and was attempting to give an estimated yardage to my new playing partners. Walking around, I then spotted a sprinkler head marked “149”… about six yards in front of the 150 stake. It’s not the worst mislabeled yardage I’ve seen, but it’s always a shame when you’re not getting numbers you can trust.

Hitting the 10^th green in regulation, I two-putt for par. A really poor tee shot on the par 3 eleventh meant I got the chance to hit a pitch back onto the green, only to nearly miss entirely and barely move it. I got on with my 3^rd, missed a short putt, and finished up with a double bogey. A shame to finish that way, but that concluded my out-of-order back nine at +7, for a total of +15.

Overall, Rancocas is a lovely course. However, the only notable blemish would be the power lines on the 8^th hole. After seeing my first golf course power lines at East Orange GC, I would say these are actually worse, as they are high-tension power lines – 13 of them that I can count from a picture – that run across the fairway. That means the flight of your drive has a pretty good chance of clipping one of them (and mine did).

Apart from that, again, Rancocas GC is a course definitely worth playing.

Number 42 (The Architects Golf Club)

August 21, 2016March 6, 2017 omrosasarchitects, architects golf, golf, golf architects, golf blog, golf goals, golfing, new jersey, nj, public golf, warren, warren county, warren county golfLeave a comment

Consistently rated one of the top public courses in New Jersey, The Architects is named for the fact that its layout pays tribute to holes designed by famous golf course architects. Each tee box sign shows the architect’s name and the courses designed by that architect that inspired the particular hole. Even without considering the excellent execution, the idea alone makes for a wonderful experience.

My round started with the ghost of Old Tom Morris bleeding me for every stroke he could possibly take. A well struck drive left me in position to reach the green in two on the par 5 first, but a perfectly placed pot bunker swallowed my well struck second shot. Overnight rain left the sand compacted, but it was simply a bad decision that prevented me from getting out towards the pin. The front wall of the bunker is probably about 2.5 feet tall, and although I almost cleared it, the ball sat right back down where it started. I turned to the right, hit out, bladed my 4^th shot over the green, hit my 5^th short in the rough, and after finally making it on in 6, I three-putted from 45 feet.

That made 9 for the 1^st. Wonderful.

I played well after that, with a series of pars and a bogey on the 6^th, but made 9 again after placing my tee shot out of bounds and taking an unplayable on my 4^th shot. Thankfully, that was the end of the implosion holes. I finished the remaining 11 holes in +7 for a +17 round (+12, +5).

There’s nothing more I can say about the course that I’m sure hasn’t been said already. When you play a nice public course, you get level tee boxes, beautiful fairways, and well-manicured greens that roll true. The Architects is no exception. In terms of my journey, it is the third course I’ve played in Warren County, and it also has an interesting place in my chronicles thus far as the westernmost public course I’ve played in New Jersey to date (albeit probably by a fraction of a minute of longitude).

Number 40 (Black Bear)

August 21, 2016March 6, 2017 omrosasblack bear, black bear golf, golf, golf blog, golf nj, golfing, golfing nj, new jersey, nj, nj golf, public golf, sussex, sussex county, sussex county golfLeave a comment

Another course on the expensive side, but well worth it, is Black Bear in Franklin (Sussex County). What my 39^th course (River Vale CC) might have previewed in elevation changes and blind shots, Black Bear offers in spades. Set essentially into the side of the mountain, Black Bear is as challenging as it is attractive.

I spent most of the summers of my teen years in Sussex County, so I vaguely remember when the course was built. I was not yet playing golf at the time, but I remember thinking that it was one of the few courses I had even seen (or given notice to) and it had magically just appeared on a familiar route, seemingly out of nowhere. Route 23 was long stretches of nothingness for parts, and small bastions of civilization at others. When anything was being developed, it was easy to notice. The course is tucked away but when it was finished, the sign at the road announced its existence and you could just about see it in the background.

My round at Black Bear started the way no other round in my life had. Bogey on 3 and birdie on 6 meant I was even through six holes. I bogeyed the 7^th but parred 8 and 9 to make the turn at +1. I hit 6 fairways and 6 GIR. To put that in perspective, to date for the year, I am averaging 5.17 FIR and 5.56 GIR per round. I didn’t know what I was doing right, and I desperately wanted it to continue coming home.

Alas, I let it get inside my head.

I started the back nine bogey-bogey, and then it unraveled (relatively, of course). I hit the 12^th green in regulation from a difficult lie, but I was 36 feet out. I then proceeded to 4-putt. A birdie opportunity turned into double bogey. Something of a running theme for me, my lag putt left much to be desired, as well as another 9 feet before I could hole out. I got careless with a 2-footer coming back, and that is the story of my 4-putt.

I made it through the closing 6 holes in +6, with one highlight and one lowlight. I took triple bogey on 17 after putting my approach into the woods behind the green. That’s the lowlight. My highlight, however, was driving the green on 15. I not only drove the green; I hit what must have been the top of the pin. I initially thought it hit the flag and dropped straight down. However, after taking the carts up to the green, I noticed the ball actually ended up about 3 feet over the green on an awkward downslope. Luckily, I chipped to one foot and carded my second birdie of the round.

And so it was a tale of two nines. After going out in +1, I came back in at +10 to tie my best first-time-on-a-new-course score of +11, set a month earlier at River Vale CC. In a two-round fight, I got the best of the bear at first, but then The Bear got the best of me.

Number 38 (Pinch Brook) (… and numbers 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, and 44)

August 21, 2016February 5, 2023 omrosasgolf, golf blog, golf nj, golfing, golfing nj, morris, morris county, new jersey, nj, nj golf, nj golfing, nj public golf, pinch brook, public golf2 Comments

I told you that you’d be joining me in the middle of my story, and it has progressed without my updating you. So, I figured I’d at least catch you up to the present. Since my last post, I’ve played six new NJ public courses (new to me, that is). Those courses are:

River Vale Country Club (Rivervale, Bergen County)
Black Bear Golf Course (Franklin, Sussex County)
East Orange Golf Course (Short Hills, Essex County)
The Architects Golf Club (Phillipsburg, Warren County)
Rancocas Golf Club (Willingboro, Burlington County)
Skyway Golf Course at Lincoln Park West (Jersey City, Hudson County)

Pinch Brook

The 38^th course mentioned in my last post was Pinch Brook Golf Club (Florham Park, Morris County). The signature hole at Pinch Brook is the 16^th, which is a medium-length par 3 from a slightly elevated tee. The hole plays over water and is a tough shot if you don’t hit your wedge or iron squarely. I hit six greens in regulation that day, and luckily this was one of them.

While the 16^th may be the signature hole, I’d say the signature feature is actually the body of water between the 5^th and 6^th holes. The starter was kind enough to give us a quick overview of the course at the start of our round, and he mentioned that the water is actually in the shape of the state of New Jersey! Personally, it reminded me of my mission and I almost treated it as kismet for the day.

Unfortunately, kismet only took me so far, and I wasn’t able to really get anything going. I was grateful to be grouped with a couple who play the course often, but I failed to take advantage of their local knowledge. I fared poorly throughout the round, and finished up at +19. I’m finding that to be just about average for when I play a course for the first time, but with nine par 3s and par being 65, I left a bit disappointed in myself. Averaging 1.1 holes at triple bogey (or worse) per round for the year, I carded three this round.

Pinch Brook was the fifth course I’ve played in Morris County. Overall, the course is beautiful. It’s incredibly well maintained for an executive course, but the greens fees reflect that, costing as much as most regulation public courses in New Jersey. Price aside, it’s absolutely worth a look if you haven’t played it.

Golf: How far have you driven?

May 3, 2016May 3, 2016 omrosasaugusta, chambers bay, drive, golf, golf blog, golf drive, golf mission, golf new jersey, golf nj, golf pilgrimage, golf quest, golf timeline, golfing, golfing blog, golfing drive, golfing mission, golfing new jersey, golfing nj, golfing pilgrimage, golfing quest, golfing timeline, mission, new jersey, nj, nj golf courses, nj public golf, pebble beach, pilgrimage, public golf, quest, tpc sawgrass, whistling straits1 Comment

A number of things have happened since my last post:

I have played four more courses for the first time, bringing my total to 38 (20.5%).
The weather in New Jersey has gotten significantly warmer.
I have moved home base for my golfing operations… which is to say I’ve moved altogether.

Looking back on this quest and reflecting on my recent move, I realized this is the fourth location from which I’ve ventured to new golf courses. Raised in Bergen County, I moved to Middlesex County with my wife-to-be in 2006, then to Somerset County in 2009, and we now call Mercer County home. With all of the moves and different home bases in mind, and knowing that I still had a long way to go in terms of New Jersey courses left to play, I wanted to get a sense of how far I’ve already gone. How far have I actually driven to play these courses?

Gathering the data told me some noteworthy things about my golf timeline.

While I first picked up a set of golf clubs sometime in the late 1990s, I didn’t play a regulation-length course in New Jersey until 8/13/2005.
Between 2005 and 2010, I only played seven different NJ courses. That’s an average of about 259 days between each new course.
After a hiatus from 2010 to 2013, I’ve played 31 additional courses. That’s an average of about 36 days between each new course.
I found out about my golf quest on 10/15/2015. Since then, I have played 11 new courses, an average of about 18 days between each new course.
To date, the furthest I’ve driven to a golf course (one-way) is 63.3 miles.

Taking a look at each course already checked off my list and factoring in when I first played them and where I had lived at the time, I was able to calculate that I have driven a total of 1,942.4 miles (round trip). To put that in context, here are the distances to different golf landmarks across the country from my current location in NJ:

Augusta National, Augusta, GA: 735 miles
TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL: 914 miles
Whistling Straits, Sheboygan, WI: 949 miles
Chambers Bay, University Place, WA: 2,881 miles
Pebble Beach, CA: 2,990 miles

How far have you driven?

In Medias Res

January 11, 2016July 2, 2017 omrosasgolf, golf blog, golf mission, golf new jersey, golf nj, golf quest, golfing, golfing blog, golfing mission, golfing new jersey, golfing nj, golfing quest, in medias res, new jersey, nj, nj golf courses, nj public golf, public golf3 Comments

The Latin phrase in medias res means “in/into the middle/midst of things”. That is how my story begins for you. When used as a literary technique, it’s sometimes meant to be in the middle of some critical plot action, like a battle in war. While I can’t say my story promises such action, you join it in the middle nonetheless.

In my first entry, I mentioned that I was excited about the idea of playing over 100 different golf courses in New Jersey. What I didn’t mention is that it’s also exciting because it means I will travel to areas of the state that I may not have otherwise visited, or even planned to visit. As a lifelong New Jersey resident, this was an endearing prospect. Prior to taking on this journey, the only time I got to new areas of the state in the last four years was on “nap drives”, trying to get my reluctant-to-nap daughters to fall asleep in the car. I used a lot of these drives to find new golf courses and wondered if I’d ever play them. Now I had a reason to.

One of the interesting things about this goal of playing all public courses in a state is that, by pure chance, I happened to be born in a state where this is actually probable, or at least achievable in a lifetime (while raising a family and working a full-time job). When I first considered it, I thought that – apart from other geographically small states like Rhode Island, Connecticut, or Delaware – there must not be many states where someone could take this on. States like California and Texas make the task unlikely with their geographic size and abundance of golf courses, but what about Alaska? It turns out Alaska only has eight regulation-length, 18-hole courses. That makes the 49^th state possible, so what about the 50^th state? Hawaii is probably likely as well, seeing as it’s only a few small islands. And if Alaska only has a few courses because of the cold climate, what about states that are mostly desert, like Nevada, Arizona, or New Mexico? I suppose as long as you’re willing to make the drives all over those larger states, they would make for accomplishable goals as well.

With the knowledge that “The Goldilocks Zone” for entirely playable states was larger than I initially thought, I focused again on my home state. New Jersey has 21 counties and – by my count – 350 golf courses, 185 of which are public. Coming by these numbers was more difficult than I thought it would be, and I’ve learned that between some courses closing and others being difficult to find, the number is definitely subject to change.

So, how far “in the middle of things” are we exactly? As of the time of writing, I have played 34 of the 185 public courses in New Jersey. That means we’re roughly 18% of the way through my journey. It also means that Kermit was off by a few courses (37, to be precise).

A man named Kermit

January 3, 2016December 30, 2021 omrosasgolf, golf blog, golf goal, golf goals, golf mission, golf new jersey, golf nj, golf pilgrimage, golf quest, golf timeline, golfing, golfing blog, golfing goal, golfing goals, golfing mission, golfing new jersey, golfing nj, golfing pilgrimage, golfing quest, golfing timeline, hyatt hills, hyatt hills golf, hyatt hills golf complex, hyatt hills golf course, kermit, mission, new jersey, nj, nj golf, nj golf courses, nj public golf, pilgrimage, public golf, quest28 Comments

On October 15, 2015, I was enjoying a round of golf at Hyatt Hills Golf Complex (Clark, NJ) with a friend from work. As we walked to our second shots on the par-4 15th – which is the 6th on this 9-hole course – the pair behind us hit their tee shots. Typically, you’d expect players to wait until we’ve hit our second and we’re on our way to the green, but they were apparently in a hurry. They walked up and asked if they could join. We obliged.

The pair introduced themselves as Andrew and Kermit. Over the course of the closing four holes, we would learn that they work in Manhattan, and they were actually getting a round in before heading to work later that afternoon. I was immediately jealous. In addition to normal golf pleasantries, Kermit shared something that would set me on a journey.

“My wife and I figured out that there are 148 public courses in New Jersey,” he said, “and our goal is to play them all. No timeline.” Right then, I knew I too had a new goal in life. I had always enjoyed playing courses for the first time, but the prospect of playing over 100 of them was overwhelmingly exciting. Where should I start? How would I find all these courses?

This blog will chronicle my journey to play all public courses in New Jersey. It will also serve as a log of how I develop as a golfer. I can tell you that there will be plenty of statistics, the occasional strong opinion, and hopefully, some engaging stories.

I may even run into a man named Kermit again.

Orson Rosas Golf

Golf from New Jersey and beyond

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