Old Reliable
With the desire to play golf so regularly, it is important to have a few stand-by courses when your wallet isn't quite so full (or should I say empty). While there are actually a lot of quality courses under $50, which in some areas is unimaginable, for me there are times when $30 is a little more than I want to spend. If you are playing four to six days a week it can really burden you down.
Green Tree Golf Course
As an Atlantic County resident, the best deal going is Green Tree Golf Course in Mays Landing, NJ, about 30 minutes from Atlantic City. It is truly not a bad course, and what it lacks in length, it makes up for in tightness. Most of the fairways are only about 40 yards wide and lined heavily with trees. Green Tree Golf Course is a swampy course at its best, so think twice if it has been raining for a few days prior to your round.
It is a walkers paradise, and most of the locals do walk the course, aside from the obvious reasons (health and affordability/price savings), golf was meant to be walked. In the off-season, a round for a county resident with a card is only $12. The big down side is for the non-county residents. They pay a lot more, but even at that, it is extremely reasonably priced compared to almost every other course in the vicinity.
All in all, Green Tree is a quality little course for beginners and the price conscience golfer.
Frog Rock Country Club
In the same general price range (though it is not a county course so the rates are the same for everyone) is Frog Rock Country Club in Hammonton, NJ, the Blueberry capital of the world. Roughly 35 minutes from Atlantic City, it is a real price grabber but really not the best quality. What you will hate the most are the tee boxes. They could be the worst tee boxes I have ever played anywhere, ever.
For it's faults, Frog Rock is a diverse and challenging course, for both the experienced and beginning golfer. Over the years the course has changed hands routinely and in the days of olde, was only nine holes. Once called Hammonton Country Club, a new set of owners got their hands on the course and expanded it to 18 holes, and in doing so elicited a lot of grief from the Pinelands or Wetlands commissions. Nothing by way of land development happens in the Pinelands without their approval.
Ultimately, it was sold, and sold and now it is privately held and operated by Rocky, a genuinely good natured man who works the course himself, puts seemingly every dime he makes back into the course, and has resisted the urge to raise the rates for many years.
Because of the expansion, it is almost like two separate courses. 1-3 are from the old course, and are possibly the hardest three starting holes in Southern New Jersey (mostly because there is no way to warm up and the fact that they are really hard holes to begin with). Following the first three 4-11 are the new course. A completely different style. A more links style, wide open and well designed (and in a couple of cases poorly designed which actually makes it harder in many ways). And the you are back to the old course to finish out your round.
All in all, a challenging and affordable course for one and all.
Green Tree Golf Course
As an Atlantic County resident, the best deal going is Green Tree Golf Course in Mays Landing, NJ, about 30 minutes from Atlantic City. It is truly not a bad course, and what it lacks in length, it makes up for in tightness. Most of the fairways are only about 40 yards wide and lined heavily with trees. Green Tree Golf Course is a swampy course at its best, so think twice if it has been raining for a few days prior to your round.
It is a walkers paradise, and most of the locals do walk the course, aside from the obvious reasons (health and affordability/price savings), golf was meant to be walked. In the off-season, a round for a county resident with a card is only $12. The big down side is for the non-county residents. They pay a lot more, but even at that, it is extremely reasonably priced compared to almost every other course in the vicinity.
All in all, Green Tree is a quality little course for beginners and the price conscience golfer.
Frog Rock Country Club
In the same general price range (though it is not a county course so the rates are the same for everyone) is Frog Rock Country Club in Hammonton, NJ, the Blueberry capital of the world. Roughly 35 minutes from Atlantic City, it is a real price grabber but really not the best quality. What you will hate the most are the tee boxes. They could be the worst tee boxes I have ever played anywhere, ever.
For it's faults, Frog Rock is a diverse and challenging course, for both the experienced and beginning golfer. Over the years the course has changed hands routinely and in the days of olde, was only nine holes. Once called Hammonton Country Club, a new set of owners got their hands on the course and expanded it to 18 holes, and in doing so elicited a lot of grief from the Pinelands or Wetlands commissions. Nothing by way of land development happens in the Pinelands without their approval.
Ultimately, it was sold, and sold and now it is privately held and operated by Rocky, a genuinely good natured man who works the course himself, puts seemingly every dime he makes back into the course, and has resisted the urge to raise the rates for many years.
Because of the expansion, it is almost like two separate courses. 1-3 are from the old course, and are possibly the hardest three starting holes in Southern New Jersey (mostly because there is no way to warm up and the fact that they are really hard holes to begin with). Following the first three 4-11 are the new course. A completely different style. A more links style, wide open and well designed (and in a couple of cases poorly designed which actually makes it harder in many ways). And the you are back to the old course to finish out your round.
All in all, a challenging and affordable course for one and all.
Old Reliable
posted by JB at 11:52 AM 
