Atlantic City Country Club
There is nothing subtle about Atlantic City – and that’s part of the appeal.
With a stirring combination of beach, boardwalk, gaming and golf and the continued nod to the Roaring ‘20s era of Prohibition in the United States, travelers to the Jersey Shore’s most famous destination can find plenty to do at any hour of the day.
Atlantic City revolves around tourism, especially in the spring, summer and early fall. There are nine huge casino properties in the city – six sit on the boardwalk itself – and most are as glitzy as anything you will find anywhere. And with casinos comes the usual lineup of star-studded entertainment, comedy clubs and some of the finest dining options on the Jersey Shore.
The town (which has a permanent population of just 39,000) also has eclectic dive bars, pubs and out-of-the way places to explore. Drive around the city and you’ll see the names of the properties from the Monopoly board game, whose game-board spaces are named after Atlantic City streets.
For our purposes, there are 20 courses within a 45-minute drive of the boardwalk, and the offerings here run the gamut from classic courses to replica tracks to more man-made, modern routings.
Here’s four courses that we enjoyed during our recent trip to Atlantic City – Atlantic City Country Club in Northfield, the Bay Course at the Seaview Resort in Galloway and Twisted Dune Golf Club and the Vineyard Course at the Renault Winery Resort, both in Egg Harbor Township.
We love golf on the Jersey Shore and Atlantic City, and we think you will as well.
Atlantic City CC is historic and wonderful in every way
Any list of the best courses on the Jersey Shore must begin with Atlantic City Country Club, set just across the bay from Atlantic City and the boardwalk. Opened as a nine-holer in 1897, Atlantic City Country Club has undergone numerous renovations including an expansion to 27 holes and then a reduction to 18 during a restoration of the site by noted architect Tom Doak in 1999.
Doak’s work returned the course to the original design laid out decades earlier by the famed team of Willie Park and William Flynn while upgrading and improving the course throughout.
Atlantic City Country Club’s course is carded at 6,577 windswept yards from the back tees and plays to a par of 70. Its lengthy carries over natural ponds and salt water marshes join with the constant breeze to keep golfers focused and create the need to course management and make it a test for any level of golfer.
Views of the Atlantic City skyline and fescue-lied fairways only add to the total experience.
Atlantic City Country Club is a wonderful example of classic golf course architecture. You can see the problem areas and are given an option to play away from it. While the course is good throughout, it’s the six holes on the water that produced the “wow” factor here.
The best way to enjoy Atlantic City Country Club is to spend as much time as you can there, soaking up the history of the place both before and after your round. The club makes that easy with its award-winning golf course and boasts a magnificent clubhouse & historic locker room, The Taproom Bar & Grille.
Atlantic City Country Club is a true gem and is a part of any list of America’s great seaside courses. It’s considered a private club but welcomes play from outside its membership.
Atlantic City Country Club
Bay Course at Seaview continues area tour of Golden Age classics
Set on 670 acres of marshy coast and thick woodlands in Galloway, the Seaview Resort, part of the Dulce family of hotels, is home to two world-class golf courses, both born in the Golden Age of the game.
The Bay Course was designed by Hugh Wilson (who also laid out Marion’s East course) and Donald Ross and opened in 1914. It presents a links-feel, with its seaside views, its small undulating putting surfaces and its deep pot bunkers.
The 6,366-yard, par-71 layout is less a test of length and more a challenge of imagination, accuracy and short game prowess. The fairways on the Bay Course are lined with reeds, tall grasses and thick rough, and the routing here, which is mostly flat, is battered by the winds off the bay.
The back nine of the Bay Course is a little better than the front, with the 230-yard par-3 11th requiring all the golf skill one can muster. While there are plenty of tests on the Bay Course, it’s really fun to play because it’s not overly long or difficult, and it offers the views and a design that’s ideal for a round of resort golf.
The Bay Course has a rich golfing history and has earned a long list of kudos through the years. Since 1986, the Bay Course has hosted the LPGA Tour in what is currently known as the Shoprite Classic.
Numerous Presidents have stayed at the Seaview Resort. It was here, on a hybrid course that used the front nine of the Bay Course and Nos. 1, 2 and 12-18 of the Pines Course across the street, that Sam Snead produced a miraculous 60-foot chip-in to win the 1942 PGA Championship, his first Major victory.
Bay Course at Seaview
Plenty of earth moving was employed at Twisted Dune Golf Club
Unlike the two above courses, Twisted Dune Golf Club was more manufactured that found. Golf course architect Archie Struthers oversaw the movement of more than two million cubic yards of earth to convert an old horse farm into a links-style golf course, in the process creating a true taste of the Scottish Coast to the Jersey Shore.
True to its name, Twisted Dune Golf Club is a links style course with twisting landscapes, tumbling and dramatic elevations and rolling and dune-filled fairways, all combining to produce a challenging, yet supremely playable, 18-hole design.
There are more than 100 deep traps and bunkers here. Twisted Dune’s par-72, 7,200-yard routing features four par 5s that play as more than 540 yards as well as three par-3s cards at 195 yards or more and a pair of long par-4s, including the 495-yard closing hole.
The green complexes at Twisted Dunes are varied and challenging, sometimes hidden from the fairway with some set down in a sort of bowl surrounded by dunes or sand.
Twisted Dunes is a fun course to play as there is ample width in many of the fairways and there was a clear attempt to provide a “look” completely different from the other courses in the greater Atlantic City area.
It is the type of course that serious golfers love to play multiple times because of its tests. Yet, with its many tee box options, Twisted Dune is also friendly to golfers of every skill level.
Twisted Dune Golf Club is recognized as one of New Jersey’s best public golf courses.
Twisted Dune
Tip your glass to the Vineyards Couse at Renault
On the way into Atlantic City from Philadelphia we stopped off for a night at the lush and uber-cool Renault Winery Resort and to tee it up at the Vineyards course on site. Designed by Ed Shearon, the Vineyards Course is the centerpiece of the resort and covers 225 acres of land, many of which carry golfers through the property’s vineyards and orchards.
Opened for play in 2004, the par-72, 7,213-yard layout of the Vineyards Course has a range of holes that are quite good, even while it was routed on terrain that is fairly benign. Shearon’s work here does not attempt to manhandle the site as there is enough movement to make players think and adjust during the round.
There are 72 sand and waste bunkers of various sizes and shapes scattered about the course, and water comes into play on seven holes. The desire to have a few of the holes intersect with the working winery is a quality inclusion at the Vineyard Course, especially on the par-4 seventh, which begins with a tee shot into a fairway straddled by rows of grape vines.
The theme of the design is angles, with golfers offered choices off the tee and on approach shots. Risk/reward opportunities abound as options present skilled players with exciting scoring opportunities, while novices can choose a safer, longer route with less hazards in the way.
But be warned — If you choose the wrong club on certain holes, you’ll need something stronger than the house blend by the time you’re done here.
Renault Winery Resort is acclaimed as one of the premier full-service resorts in the Garden State, with a variety of accommodations at the sublime Tuscany House. There is also a swimming pool, fine and casual dining, banquet facilities, a winery with tours and wine tasting offered onsite, which is the home of the oldest continuous operating vineyards in the United States.
Vineyard at Renault