Date played: 12/3/2020

Having wrapped up at 12:25 at Westwood, I raced over to Wedgwood Country Club to make my 1:00 tee time. I rushed to get my clubs and pushcart out of the trunk, ran into the pro shop to pay for the round, and was able to get onto the course right away. The sun was projected to set at roughly 4:30 that afternoon. While no one else was visible from the first tee, I wanted to make sure I kept good pace, not knowing if I would have enough daylight to finish.

The front nine at Wedgwood plays with a great deal of width. Most tee shots have generous landing areas and there are plenty of places where you can miss wildly and still be in play with a shot at the green. The highlight of the front nine to me is the 3rd hole. Unless you’re playing from the back tees, driver is not necessary on this par 4 and could even be a dangerous choice as water lies 50 yards short of the green all the way up to the front edge.

The graffiti on the arch of the tunnel on the way to the 7th hole says “Abandon all hope”, but this would’ve been a more appropriate warning at the entrance to the back nine. Where the front plays relatively open, the back nine plays far more tightly with a number of tree-lined holes. There is OB left on 10, 11, 17 and 18, and not much room to miss in that direction.

The only semblance of reprieve on the back, apart from the par-3s, are 13 and 14 which do have some width. But even 13 is a beast of its own, a long par 4 with a forced long approach. Playing at 435 yards from the back with water in play from the tee, coming up short to avoid the water altogether will leave an approach shot of about 180 yards. If they could stretch the tee boxes back 75-100 yards, it would be a fun par 5. As it stood, it was another deeply black number on the scorecard.

Being a weekday, there were certainly fewer golfers than normal, even for a winter round. Nevertheless, I only caught up to groups ahead of me a few times, and they quickly kept moving. After being battered by the closing half of Wedgwood, I walked up 18 with enough light to finish. Thirty-six holes of golf completed, and two Gloucester County courses checked off the list.