Casino Connection Atlantic City

Slice of Paradise

Atlantic County golf holes that make every public linkster smile

by Dave Bontempo

It’s hard to believe that golf and gaming once battled each other.

Casino officials considered golf a six-hour drain on a player’s gambling time. At best, it was a necessary nuisance for premier customers. Golf course managers, conversely, viewed casinos as competition for the dwindling dollar.

How things have changed. A support industry now augments casinos. The Convention Center, the Walk, the Quarter, the Pier at Caesars and expanded hotel rooms extend visitor stays. The Greater Atlantic City Golf Association (GACGA), an arm of the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority, fuels the pattern. It lures golfers from several states with hotel, tee-times and entertainment packages. After hitting the links, many of those players hit the tables.

The relationship works from another direction. Casino employees golf at the high-quality courses that have emerged within driving distance. Harrah’s completes the cycle by owning the fabled Atlantic City Country Club and its deep history in amateur and professional golf.

A full-circle revolution has unfolded. Golf courses, once nearly off-limits in casino thinking, have become an area of recruitment. They have swung all the way from enemy to amenity. And the timing could not be better.

Southern New Jersey has become a premier golf destination. High-end daily-fee courses, combined with stellar public outlets, have produced an award-winning array of breathtaking facilities. There is no longer an all-definitive, toughest-challenge list of tremendous area golf holes.

Elite lists now become a matter of category. For this edition, we’ll primarily view GACGA courses and a vintage selection from the author. Perhaps reader response will produce a future story of formidable challenges.

The following holes are seen through the eyes of a low-90s golfer. Adjust your perception accordingly, and enjoy the tour. Remember that many courses offer casino employee discounts on a revolving or periodic basis.

The collective reach of GACGA affects several courses. The Links at Brigantine Beach, already a haven for casino workers and area veterans, has become a tourist magnet.

“GAGCA helps us out quite a bit,” says Jason Weigand, its club pro. “They assist people in booking packages and find us golfers who did not know we exist. They will find out that we are the closest golf course to Atlantic City, just five miles from downtown. If you want a nice Scottish links course (flat, wide open), you will love coming here. No other course in New Jersey is on a barrier island. There are not a lot of trees. Mother Nature will kick the wind into you. It blows in your face one day and is at your back the next. Every day it is a different golf course.”

The course also has longevity. This is its 80th year.

Harbor Intimidator

Hole 17, Par 4

This is a long, punitive assignment, especially when choosing this hole at Harbor Pines, 461 yards from the back tees or 437 yards from the second tees. Then, throw in a bunker that is 65 yards long and wide enough to consume most of the fairway. This contraption, large enough to resemble an unwelcome growth, disrupts many shots and affects all plans.

A long drive is needed to sit comfortably in the fairway. This allows a low iron or fairway wood for the approach. The bunker is visibly intimidating, particularly if the tee-shot has been average. From the back tees, the final edge of the bunker is more than 400 yards out. Imagine being 150 yards in front of the bunker after the drive. Your approach must be more than 200 yards and clean just to clear it. An average drive, therefore, forces players to lie up in front of the monster. They must then hit a third shot to the green. It’s a safe alternative, but ends dreams of making par.

From the middle of the bunker, players can take a reasonable shot at the green. From the front and the back, however, count on a wasted shot.

“It’s a gigantic collection basket,” one member said of the fairway bunker. “And tithing is accepted. It’s so big; you can hold a meeting in there.”

After clearing the bunker, you punch into a relatively narrow green, which slopes toward the rough.

This hole is called the Intimidator. For good reason.

Barren Opportunities

Hole 7, West Course, Par 4

This collection of three nine-hole layouts at Sand Barrens is worth the drive down to Swainton. It is renowned for deep waste area, considerable length and sand traps deep enough to prevent players from seeing the green they are shooting at.

The seventh is a favorite of the pro shop because of its demand for precision. It’s an innocent dogleg left with a visually intimidating tee shot. With woods and waste area on the left, it starts out narrow and expands further out. Start the shot anywhere but straight and trouble looms.

After reaching a safe landing area, players shoot into a well-guarded green. Traps practically surround the putting surface, which also breaks downhill from back to front. Power and placement are both needed here. The traps reduce the chance of hitting a so-so shot and being rewarded with a lucky bounce.

Brigantine Challenge

Hole 3, Par 3

Pull up to a par-3 and start relaxing, right? Not this time.

Brigantine Golf Links offers a daunting assignment, either at 208 yards from the back or 198 from the middle tees. The forward tees, 134, set up a different hole.

A 208-yard par-3 already is not your friend. Wind at this hole often blows in the golfer’s face, lengthening the hole. A 3-wood, a driver or a bazooka is required to propel the tee shot to the green. Accuracy becomes a problem.

Don’t forget the water. It cuts across the entire hole, requiring 150 yards to clear from the back. That’s just long enough to intimidate the average player, causing an overswing, a thinly hit shot and a souvenir.

Water marks the entire right side of the hole. Bunkers on the left and right protect the green, but at least it’s large and friendly. It tilts toward the tee box and will slow down some shots that look to be headed through the green.

Twisted Trouble

Hole 13, Par 3

This is considered the third-easiest hole at Twisted Dune in Egg Harbor Township, because handicap designations are often based on distance. Don’t be fooled. This is essentially a tee-to-green assignment. It plays 198 yards from the back tees and the “fairway” is a large wasteland that eats up balls. Some shots that land in it will be safe for an approach to the green. Others won’t be.

Because of the waste area, players can’t land a shot a few yards in front of the green and have it roll onto the dance floor. The approach requires pinpoint accuracy. Water up the entire right side serves as a reminder not to slice the drive.

What are the options? Straight and short is no good, a slice gets wet and a hook goes out of bounds. The safest place other than the green are the sand traps which sit on its left. They resemble the “Luxury Tax” space nestled between Boardwalk and Park Place in the Monopoly game—the lesser of two evils.

This one has a lot of complication for an “easy” hole.

For those who love this course, here’s a value tip: You can purchase 10 rounds for $599. That’s an excellent bang for the buck.

A Public Nuisance

Hole 9, Par 4

This hole at Harrah’s Atlantic City Country Club is the testosterone meter. At 452 yards from the back and 436 from the middle, this layout taxes the player’s ability to reach the green in two shots. The demanding dogleg left invites players to cut yardage by driving over the large bunker protecting the left side of the fairway. This would shorten the approach. But a drive landing left brings in the trees that block the view to the green and essentially end par hopes.

The safe play is a tee-shot right, followed by a long iron or low fairway wood to the green.

This fabled course fluctuates heavily with winds. Newly constructed holes added to the difficulty. Casino Connection Editor Roger Gros and I needed second jobs to replace the balls we lost here, but marvel at the history, innovation and prestige of the area’s most recognized course. And now that Harrah’s Atlantic City Country Club is open to the public for the first time, any average-Joe can play—if he can afford the greens fee, of course.

For the Birds

Hole 15, Par 4

This is the most difficult par-4 on the entire Blue Heron Pines course. A tee shot must travel 230 yards or more to carry an intimidating waste bunker that juts out from right to left. Even playing a safe shot to the left brings the waste area into focus.

The next challenge is to carry the water and bunker, protecting the large, two-tiered green that slopes severely toward the water. If you have played the first shot out to the left, you have more water to clear for a shot at the green. The hole tempts long hitters to clear obstacles and rewards them with a shorter journey to the hole. This is a fair tradeoff. Putts are tricky on the undulating greens. Being below the hole and observing uphill putts is a good way to go here.

Blue Heron was the area’s original high-end, daily-fee course. Its 1992 opening began the revolution that carved this area’s prestigious reputation.

Long Landing

Hole 6, Par 4

This hole at Mays Landing Country Club offers two alternatives. Long hitters who want a championship challenge from a public course can select the back tees for a 424-yard hole. Those seeking yardage relief can hit from the white tees, still a considerable task at 405 yards.

From the back tees, players need a driver and either a fairway wood or low iron to reach the putting surface. The terrain is deceiving. It looks wide and forgiving, but only after one clears the early trouble area. Trees on the right will devour a short, sliced drive.

The fairway fans out after a couple hundred yards, but woods continue to mark the right side. Approach shots are interesting, because the accuracy of fairway woods is hard to control. Go for some extra pop and risk pushing the ball into trouble on the right or overshooting the green and finding more trouble. Hit a low iron and you need carry, because the entrance to the green is an up-slope that slows shots down.

Mays Landing, still one of the area’s lowest-priced courses, offers this fine assignment as its signature hole.

Gates of Hell

Hole 13, Par 5

The picturesque landscape at Tuckerton’s Shore Gate forms a course Golf Digest ranked as the second-best public course in all of New Jersey last year. It is sheer beauty, and the par-5 13th is a sweet-looking killer. The hole runs 556, 536 and 512 yards from the three furthest tees. This hole has more than 30 traps, and those are just the small ones. Large strips of sand run all the way up the right side, wherever there isn’t water. Waste areas guard the left side.

Trouble is everywhere, even when you hit it straight. Place your tee shot far and down the middle, but not too far. A 45-yard patch of rough runs across and splits the fairway section in two. A booming, straight drive can actually land in rough!

The second shot needs to go right, but stay clear of a bunker 100 yards from the hole. Accuracy remains important for the approach, because missing the green right can produce a bad lie in waste areas up to 14 feet deep.

The traps are pristine, elegant roadblocks to a good score. Golfers will enjoy the journey this hole provides, and maybe even the result.

Farther Afield

Hole 6, Par 5

Pinelands Golf Course remains a favorite of mine. The course sits about 50 minutes away from Atlantic City in Winslow, Camden County, in an area that does not get much golf publicity. But what would a golf compilation be without a hidden treasure?

The hole, which could be named Fuh-Get-About-It, is 581 yards long. It requires power, precision, placement and putting. Major decisions arrive after the first two shots because a 50-yard ravine begins 430 yards into the hole. Hit a nice drive of 250 yards and only feel satisfied for about two seconds. In order to carry the ravine, another 230 yards will be needed for the second shot. And what’s the reward? You don’t reach the green anyway. Many players will lay up before the ravine, and then try to pop over it and onto the green for their third shot. Good, safe strategy, but the trick is to get near the edge of the ravine without dropping into it. Play too safe, lay up too far from the edge and you are playing for bogey at best.

The layout is intimidating and players may flub their drive. If the tee shot gets blown, start praying for a double bogey.

Once the ravine is cleared, players contend with traps on the right and a green with sharp breaks. Bogey is a fine score on this hole. Par is excellent. When a player walks off the green, it seems like the tee is in another zip code.

Pinelands is a fine, unheralded public course. Others in this geographic area include Buena Vista, Cohanzick and Centerton. More courses for consideration include Stone Harbor, Avalon, Seaview, Vineyards Golf at Renault Winery, Sea Oaks and others. They may form a future story list.

So there you have it, one player’s view of a dream nine. We all have one. How about playing all nine holes and seeing how you made out? In any case, your comments on the courses will be welcome.

Have a great time. Keep your head down, spirits up, and the cell phone off. You are, after all, enjoying a slice of paradise.