1st Course in South/Central NJ (between Vineland and I-195)
I'm the designer and bias, yet will post as fair a review as possible.
Front 9 baskets going in July 28th, 2012.
Back 9 baskets went in Feb 27th, 2014.
Longer pin placements will be installed in the future. For now the course plays 7,386ft (par 63, designed for a Blue level player), shorter White Tees play 6,134 ft (par 63, designed for a White level player) There are 13 White tees, and 5 shared tee boxes.
Front 9 holes are challenging for all levels of player. In the 'standard pins' the front 9 will play lefty friendly, and the back 9 will play righty friendly - in the long pins, those aspects will swap. Part of this design is to make the new players in the area learn 'all the throws', and challenge a seasoned player to execute their game. A newer player will be extremely challenged, and a solid player will enjoy the risk/reward factors on many holes. A very good player should be able to shoot under par here.
Hole 1, tight drive through wooded lane with some 'protected holly' trees making the drive very tight.
Hole 2, another wooded drive with the second shot opening up into mature trees with wider lanes to each pin location.(only short is in now)
Hole 3, short over lake shot, into a steep hill with drop off behind. Make the right decision and get rewarded for proper execution, make the wrong decision or fail to execute and scores will climb quickly. Long pin play much easier as it takes the lake and hill mostly out of play, and it the prominent location to avoid erosion. Occasionally, we will use the location on the hill for tournaments.
Hole 4, drive through lane into field, 2nd shot from field into another tree lane that opens up with a large clear 'green area'. Slightly uphill the whole way.
Hole 5, 390 foot field drive (usually into headwind), wide open grip and rip hole.
Hole 6, Field drive, downhill. Leave yourself in a position to make the 2nd shot into the lane leading to an elevated pin.
Hole 7, beautiful drive shot over pond into a slight hill on far side.
Hole 8, tight wooded lane into a left dogleg. making the drive & approach combo critical to staying out of trouble in the woods.
Hole 9, pick from very tight lanes through the trees, they are there, but difficult to hit as this hole has lots of trees.
Hole 10, nice tunnel shot, execute for a birdie, miss and get the consequences in the dense mountain laurel rough.
Hole 11, a par 5 double dogleg from the long tee, this hole can reward good play with a birdie, and bad play with a very high score...
Hole 12, uphill tunnel drive (using some rare elevation for South Jersey)
Hole 13, a nice ace run back down the hill, pin positions are slightly off to the right and will allow players to learn 'touch shot', longer pin location is planned since an ice storm crushed a fair amount of mountain laurels there.
Hoe 14, plays around the side of the hill, righty backhand hyzer shot, righty S flick shot to the long pin adds another unique flight line to the variety here.
Hole 15, tunnel drive out of the woods into the field, plays across the fild, back into a downhill approach. A very good birdie 4 on the longer par 4, into a fantastic green fabricated to prevent erosion on sand sidesloping hill.
Hole 16, straight across the field to a hanging basket . The basket is hanging a bit higher than usual, and it offers some rather challenging putts in windy conditions.
Hole 17, par 4 that appears like it should be birdied more than it actually gets birdied (scores coming in over the summer, will determine just how far back the long pin location will be located - its been some time now and the long pin location is finally determined and should go in sometime in 2019).
Hole 18, a nice righty backhand hyzer shot into a a fairly wide wooded fairway. But beware, shots missing the fairway end up in some fairly dense mountain laurel that create nice "sandtraps" early on the left, and late on the right.
Tee pads have been greatly improved over the years, from loose stone, some had carpeting to hold sand in place, then some fly pads went in, now we have 12' paver tees on all the long tees, and all 13 short tees also have paver tees now. Some of them are up to 19' long - add in the block benches that have been going in & these improvements are build to last and have greatly improved the feel of the course.
Tee signs are installed, next tee signs are all over for easy navigation, log paths also help to follow between holes. There are block and log benches on nearly every tee as well, both long and short tees!! (Tee signs for the White tees are coming soon)
A small sign was installed by township on Evesham Rd, and the TOwnship of Voorhees expanded the driveway to two cars wide in 2017, making the entrance significantly safer for coming and going cars. The parking area has expanding considerably, the county/township will also install more parking. Stone base for the parking area is also finally in the works, and we expect that to happen in summer of 2018.
Two practice baskets in back yard of the house, Jan 2013.
Message board has gone in by the parking area, March 2013, and the lost and found box is bolted to the message board. Plans to install a larger course map at the message board are in the works now, also planned for 2018.
The local club has access to the house for tournaments, and will aloow a nice tournament central area should we have inclement weather.
A port-a-pottie was delivered over the winter (2013-2014), and is cleaned fairly regularly.
Other Pros, there is a nice walking trail that separates the front 9 from the back 9. Plenty of walkers enjoy the beautiful woods and setting. A pair of owls nest near the trail in the pines near the lake, if you are lucky you might see one or both of them. There has been a red tail fox residing in the park for 4+ years now, and he can be seen often near dusk/dawn. Abundant hawks hunt the fields, seasonally we have the same pair of mallards mating in the pond also.