Atlantic City NJ Golf Weekend
T&L Golf Sept 2002
The Jersey Devil's Delight
With Pine Valley as inspiration, South Jersey's new and classic courses will take you, tonight, to Atlantic City
by Eric Levin
First, understand that there are two New Jerseys. North Jersey, in pop myth, is The Sopranos. South Jersey is early Springsteen. South Jersey looks more like North Carolina than like North Jersey. The rolling parkland of Baltusrol is North Jersey. The sandy splendor of Pine Valley is pure South Jersey.
The mood is casual and unpretentious, which is not to say unambitious. The food and accommodations are first-rate, if you know where to go, and the surroundings range from highway honky-tonk to Atlantic City casino glitz, from Victorian gingerbread to Huck-like scenes of kids fishing from the causeways. There are blueberry farms and cranberry bogs. Cedar-stained creeks flow through the Pine Barrens, where, legend has it, the original fork-tailed Jersey Devil haunted the natives and ultimately got an NHL team named after him. The smell of funnel cake wafts along the boardwalk amid amusement-park lights and the twin roars of roller coasters and surf.
"Ah, the Atlantic Ocean," Burt Lancaster said to Susan Sarandon as they strolled down the boardwalk in Louis Malle's Atlantic City. "If you think it's something now, you should have seen it in the old days." There was golf in the old days, but you wouldn't write home about it unless you were fortunate enough to play one of the ultraprivate clubs nestled like diamonds among the pines: Seaview, where the house limousines were Rolls-Royces; the Atlantic City Country Club, where the term "birdie" was reportedly coined and where Walter Travis won the 1901 U.S. Amateur; and fearsome Pine Valley, target golf's ultimate roller-coaster ride. But all that's changed, as a recent building boom has led to numerous outstanding daily fee courses, which pride themselves on offering a country-club-for-a-day experience.
Southern New Jersey Golf
In the last decade top architects including Tom Fazio, Dr. Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry, and Stephen Kay have built courses here. At least 200 new holes of daily fee golf have been created, prompting the renovation of some older tracks as well as the building of several private clubs. "Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head have greater quantity," says Kay, "but I challenge any other destination to surpass the quality and architectural variety of golf in the Atlantic City area." Tee times for some (but not all) courses can be booked through the Greater Atlantic City Golf Association (800-465-3222, gacga.com).
BLUE HERON PINES GOLF CLUB, EAST COURSE
600 Odessa Avenue, Cologne; 888-478-2746, www.blueheronpines.com. Yardage: 7,221. Par: 71. Slope: 135. Architect: Steve Smyers, 2000. Greens Fees: $55-$100.
T&L Golf Rating: ****
The linksy Blue Heron Pines East is a must-play. On over 190 flat and scruffy acres, Smyers carved contours that are as strategically interesting as they are visually pleasing. Forced carries are almost nonexistent, but heroic options present themselves on several holes. Though inland, the course is often wind-strafed, but that is not the only reason to keep the ball low. Subtle slopes and collection areas guide and helpfully carom the low-running shot that properly "rides the contours," as Smyers puts it. Though it is a bear from the tips, high handicappers can be bullish: Recovery is possible from all but the most egregious goofs. [Fat Guy Note: I believe the Blue Heron Pines East course has closed.]
PINE HILL GOLF CLUB
500 West Branch Avenue, Pine Hill; 877-450-8866, www.golfpinehill.com. Yardage: 6,969. Par: 70. Slope: 140. Architect: Tom Fazio, 2000. Greens Fee: $130.
T&L Golf Rating: ****
Fazio's fairways pour as irrefutably as lava, and his routing imbues each elevation change with strategic purpose. As a result, you get exciting par fours like the sixth and twelfth, daunting doglegs like the par-four fifteenth, ticklish club selections on the par threes and inspirational ascents to a majestically enthroned green on the ninth and a plateau on the eighteenth that caps a memorable and testing journey.
SAND BARRENS GOLF CLUB
1765 Route 9 North, Swainton; 609-465-3555, www.sandbarrensgolf.com. Yardage: 3,583 (North); 3,386 (South); 3,509 (West). Par: 36 (all nines). Slope: 130 (West/South); 133 (South/North); 135 (North/West). Architects: Dr. Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry, 1997, 1999 (third nine). Greens Fees: $47-$89.
T&L Golf Rating: ****
The course was to be a parkland track until Hurdzan and Fry discovered a vast subsurface layer of sand, a geological souvenir of the aeons when present-day South Jersey lay beneath the Atlantic Ocean. Soon bulldozers were carving this hidden beach into an obbligato of free-form bunkers and lengthy waste areas bristling with wild grasses. Off the tee, landing areas are often more generous than they appear, but the course is otherwise fairly tight. Approaches to the intriguing green complexes require imagination commensurate with their design. Fry, the aesthetician of the design team, thinks about such things as how shadows will define the bunkers; play early or late in the day to fully appreciate his art.
SCOTLAND RUN GOLF CLUB
Route 322 and Fries Mill Road, Williamstown; 856-863-3737, www.scotlandrun.com. Yardage: 6,810. Par: 71. Slope: 134. Architect: Stephen Kay, 1999. Greens Fees: $58-$105.
T&L Golf Rating: ****
Kay took the most promising site of the several he's been given in New Jersey and fully realized its potential. Scotland Run, named for the stream that defines the northern edge of the property, snakes through woods before emerging into a stunning dunescape where the rusted old hulk of a steam shovel testifies to the site's former life as a sand quarry. Engaging from the get-go (and walkable), the course is contoured to keep you thinking even in the fairway. The dogleg par-four second offers a fresh take on the concept of alternate greens split by a bunker, à la the ninth at Pine Valley. And the eighteenth is a great finishing hole, downhill off the tee then narrowing, turning and climbing to a bunkered, plateaued green.
SHORE GATE GOLF CLUB
35 School House Lane, Ocean View; 609-624-8337, www.shoregategolfclub.com. Yardage: 7,227. Par: 72. Slope: 136. Architects: Ronald Fream and David Dale, 2002. Greens Fees: $39-$99.
T&L Golf Rating: ****
After you've built courses in about sixty countries, including Finland, Brunei and Nepal, what's the next logical step in exoticism? Joizy, of course. Shore Gate is the first new (as opposed to remodeled) East Coast course for the California-based Fream (who started in the sixties with Robert Trent Jones Sr.) and Dale. It immediately takes its place among the best public courses in the state. Position counts more than power on this highly strategic and beautiful layout set amidst 245 acres of forest and wetlands that are more naturally undulant than the South Jersey norm. The bunkering is as purposeful as it is artful, especially around the highly intriguing green complexes (often with tiered greens).
BLUE HERON PINES GOLF CLUB, WEST COURSE
550 West Country Club Drive, Cologne; 888-478-2746, www.blueheronpines.com. Yardage: 6,810. Par: 72. Slope: 136. Architect: Stephen Kay, 1993. Greens Fees: $55-$100.
T&L Golf Rating: *** 1/2
When it opened in 1993, BHP helped launch South Jersey's upscale daily fee boom, and through the years it has held its own. Well groomed, with large greens demanding close attention to pin placement, the West builds toward fireworks on the back nine, particularly fourteen through seventeen. Owner Roger Hansen had Kay work in a few salutes to Pine Valley, hence the ninety-yard-long cross-bunker on the par-five fourteenth (a scaled down Hell's Half Acre from Pine Valley's seventh) and the 135-yard par-three eleventh (a milder version of Pine Valley's famous tenth). The par-four fifteenth, demanding a capelike approach around a pond, requires a special type of ball, the kind made of brass.
MCCULLOUGH'S EMERALD GOLF LINKS
3016 Ocean Heights Avenue, Egg Harbor Township; 609-926-3900, www.mcculloughsgolf.com. Yardage: 6,535. Par: 71. Architect: Stephen Kay, 2002. Greens Fees: $25-$75.
T&L Golf Rating: *** 1/2
Garbage in, great golf out. Egg Harbor Township mayor James McCullough led the effort to convert a landfill into a golf course, and succeeded beyond all expectations. Each hole is inspired by a famous Irish, British or French predecessor. The eighth recalls the vertiginous tenth at Turnberry; the fifteenth, the fifth at Royal Dornoch. The par-four seventh offers two routes to the green and is based on the prize-winning entry in a 1914 contest to design a hole for C. B. Macdonald's Lido course on Long Island. The winner was a little-known Scotsman, Dr. Alister Mackenzie, soon to be famous on both sides of the Atlantic.
SEAVIEW MARRIOTT RESORT & SPA, BAY COURSE
401 South New York Road, Galloway Township; 609-748-7680, www.seaviewgolf.com. Yardage: 6,247. Par: 71. Slope: 122. Architects: Donald Ross, 1914; renovated by A. W. Tillinghast, 1927. Greens Fees: $49-$129.
T&L Golf Rating: *** 1/2
When the wind whips the marshy shore of Reeds Bay, Ross's wee links turns from shortbread to hardtack. His signature greens, small and crowned, seem to get smaller, and his bunkers bigger. Looming behind the first tee is the same giant sycamore that gazed down on Sam Snead when he won the 1942 PGA Championship by holing, in match play, a sixty-foot birdie chip on the thirty-fifth hole of the final round. The shrubs and saplings Ross planted have long since grown in, but the vistas across the water of the silvery Atlantic City skyline are still striking.
SEAVIEW MARRIOTT RESORT & SPA, PINES COURSE
401 South New York Road, Galloway Township; 609-748-7680, www.seaviewgolf.com. Yardage: 6,731. Par: 71. Slope: 128. Architects: Howard Toomey and William Flynn, 1929 (original nine); William Gordon, 1957 (second nine). Greens Fees: $49-$129.
T&L Golf Rating: *** 1/2
If the Bay is yin, the Pines is yang: parkland rather than links, each hole enclosed by phalanxes of tall trees, more muscular and pulse-quickening at first sight. When Toomey and Flynn designed the original nine, they had recently revised parts of Merion and were soon to reinvent Shinnecock Hills, and purists yelped in the eighties when three of Gordon's holes were sacrificed to build a range and golf school and another was shortened to increase the number of hotel rooms. But this radical surgery saved the patient and enabled Seaview to emerge after a multimillion-dollar renovation in the nineties as a AAA-rated four-diamond resort. The course is still stimulating and a pleasure to play.
CAPE MAY NATIONAL GOLF CLUB
Route 9 and Florence Avenue, Erma; 609-884-1563, www.cmngc.com. Yardage: 6,905. Par: 71. Slope: 136. Architects: Karl Litten and Robert Mullock, 1991. Greens Fees: $25-$85.
T&L Golf Rating: ***
There hadn't been a new public course built in South Jersey in decades when Robert Mullock, a Philadelphia insurance executive, started work on Cape May National in 1988. Mullock and Litten preserved specimen trees and wrapped the holes around what became a large bird sanctuary and wildflower preserve. Mullock's insistence on keeping the course as natural as possible has given rise to gripes that it burns out in South Jersey's oppressively humid summers. But his routing has its unique charms and challenges, and you'll remember the holes.
BEST OF THE REST
With wide fairways, short rough and large, undulating greens, Harbor Pines ($45-$95; 609-927-0006) is pretty and putts fast and true. Opened in 2000, Sea Oaks ($55-$105; 609-296-2656) is a rolling, mostly parkland course with rippling fairways, little water and a combination of sandy waste areas and traditional bunkers. And at Twisted Dune ($50-$95; 609-653-8019), owner Archie Struthers created the design on his own, wanting an Irish links feel. It may get closer to that as it grows in.
Southern New Jersey Plus
Orientation
Atlantic City has a small airport serviced by several large carriers, but you can also fly into Philadelphia, rent a car and be pulling salt-water taffy from your teeth in little over an hour, via the Atlantic City Expressway. From New York City it's a straight shot down the Garden State Parkway of roughly two hours. With a few exceptions, the choice golf courses fall into a twenty-mile radius of Atlantic City.
Beaches
By the time Atlantic City's 200 lifeguards take their posts at 10 a.m. every summer day, workers have swept the beach clean. Indeed, New Jersey's entire 100-mile-plus stretch of shore sparkles, from Sandy Hook in the north to the tip of Cape May. It wasn't always thus. In the late eighties, floating garbage and medical waste wreaked havoc on the summer economy. Now tall palms thrive in front of the boardwalk casinos, which plant the trees each spring and remove them in the fall.
The city provides free access to the public on all its beaches, but if you want more privacy and quiet, head for New Hampshire Avenue on the north end of town. There, the water turns so brightly aqua under a southeast breeze that you might think you're in Jamaica. Credit a huge sandbar, which deflects currents and makes the beach drop away fast.
A bit west of New Hampshire at Caspian Avenue, the scene is funkier, with cooking on the beach and live music. At the southern end of the city, the Chelsea/Albany/Bartram area draws seasonal renters, including many Philadelphians. Farther south, the area's widest beach, Wildwood, lives up to its name: Young women cavort in thong bikinis at the doo-wop capital of the shore, with festivals all summer.
Atlantic City
Atlantic City has seen the future, and it's Las Vegas. Just as the Rat Pack playground reinvented itself as Disneyland with slots, so Atlantic City is supersizing everything but the venerable rolling chairs. "The lessons of Las Vegas are that you need terrific buffets, upscale stores, gourmet restaurants and spectacular rooms," says Roger Gros, editor of Global Gaming Business magazine. "The gaming areas are all essentially the same. Personal services are the key."
In addition to gaming, the new Atlantic City will offer more opportunities for Vegas-style gawking at attractions like the aquarium at Harrah's new Bayview Tower. Expansions or renovations have been completed at Caesars and are underway at the Showboat and Tropicana, which is building an entertainment complex to go with its new tower.
The new glitz magnet will be the formerly moribund Marina District on the west end of town. A new tunnel linking the Atlantic City Expressway has ended Marina's isolation. Harrah's and the Trump Marina are already there. Next summer the big enchilada opens: a nearly thirty-acre casino and hotel complex called The Borgata. A partnership between Boyd Gaming Corporation of Las Vegas and the MGM Mirage, The Borgata will be the first new casino hotel in Atlantic City in thirteen years. With more than 2,000 rooms, it will be the biggest hotel in town. Additionally, next year MGM Mirage will break ground nearby on yet another huge casino. "It will out Vegas Vegas," says Gros. "They are spending about $1.5 billion to build it. That's just about the cost of the Bellagio in Las Vegas, which is the most extravagant casino in the world."
Best Casinos
Bally's Atlantic City, Park Place and Boardwalk; 800-772-7777, www.ballys.com. The Wild Wild West Casino looks like a set from Gunsmoke on acid. Red-rock promontories rise behind the bar, a waterfall gurgles past the slots and an animated prospector greets guests. The adjacent Bally's hotel has one of the town's best spas.
Caesars Atlantic City, 2100 Pacific Avenue; 800-223-7277, www.caesars.com. A Roman fantasy under an indoor night sky of 12,000 twinkling lights. The more than 120,000 square feet of gaming area is one of the largest in town.
Claridge Casino Hotel, Indiana Avenue and Boardwalk; 800-257-8585, www.claridge.com. One of the last classic brick skyscrapers, the Claridge woos those who cringe at carnival cacophony. The casino is half the size of the megaparlors, but there's a spa and indoor pool.
Harrah's Atlantic City, 777 Harrah's Boulevard; 609-441-5000, www.harrahs.com. Oodles of glitter, a sea of slots, a friendly atmosphere, an epic buffet and, best of all, miniature golf.
Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, 1000 Boardwalk at Virginia Avenue; 609-449-1000, www.trumptaj.com. Another gargantuan temple of excess where both high and eentsy rollers congregate.
Other Attractions
For a sense of the boardwalk as an Oz of rides and games and childhood treats, spend an evening in Ocean City, where the Kohr Bros. frozen custard flows and the Johnson's world-famous caramel popcorn with peanuts puts all pretenders to shame.
Elsewhere, Cape May is made for strolling. The ground is level, with big slate sidewalks. Every house seems to have a front porch, far enough from the sidewalk to encourage tended lawns, yet close enough that conversation floats down to the curb along with the creak of rocking chairs. Horses pull wagons full of sightseers through the streets, sprinkling the ocean air with the patter of tour guides: "This house was built in 1869. The stained glass is colored with ruby dust. . . ."
Cape May's revival began on Jackson Street, where historic preservation took hold among rooming houses. The tradition of good eating goes back at least a quarter century. The Mad Batter (609-884-5970) opened in 1975 at 19 Jackson Street. It's still popular, whipping up pancakes at breakfast, but it has been eclipsed as a dinner spot by the upscale Ebbitt Room (609-884-5700) at the Virginia Hotel next door. Other notable spots include Union Park in the Hotel Macomber (727 Beach Drive; 609-884-8811) and the Washington Inn (801 Washington Street; 609-884-5697), with its heavyweight wine list.
In Margate, just south of Atlantic City, a young crowd animates a bustling restaurant scene on the waterfront. At Steve & Cookie's by the Bay (9700 Amherst Avenue; 609-823-1163), the fresh Jersey peach pie is so good people order it when they first sit down, because it sells out. At Tomatoe's (9300 Amherst Avenue; 609-822-7535), sip a designer martini and order from the sushi bar.
Southern New Jersey Dining
CHEESESTEAKS
Philadelphia's signature soul food extends its dominion all the way to the Atlantic. One noted outpost is Luigi's Steaks & Hoagies in Wildwood (4500 Pacific Avenue; 609-522-7644). In Atlantic City, the White House Sub Shop (2301 Arctic Avenue; 609-345-1564) has served cheesesteaks since 1946. The Beatles ordered from there. For a high-end interpretation—tastier cheese, gutsier bread—duck into the Highlander Pub & Grill at Scotland Run Golf Club.
CHEF VOLA'S
(Italian/American) 111 South Albion Place, off Pacific, Atlantic City; 609-345-2022. $$
Legendary for being legendary. At one time the address and phone number were secret, and there is still only a small sign in front. Good home-style Italian cooking, plus an epic banana cream pie. BYOB.
THE CLAM BAR
(Seafood) 910 Bay Avenue, Somers Point; 609-927-8783. $
There is no better binge than the fried oysters here (close second, the fried flounder), preferably eaten at the wraparound outdoor counter and washed down with a BYO beer. The scene alone is worth the trip.
410 BANK STREET
(Eclectic) 410 Bank Street, Cape May; 609-884-2127. $$
A perennial on any list of best in the state. Inside an unprepossessing Victorian bedecked in ivy and hydrangea, chef Henry Sing Cheng pulls off an intensely flavorful French/Asian/Cajun/Caribbean juggling act. The oyster stew is crunchy, creamy and delicate all at the same time.
JOSEPH'S
(Mediterranean/American) 2111 North Bremen Avenue (at the Tuscany House Hotel), Egg Harbor City; 609-965-2111. $$
Blueberry champagne? Made here at the Renault Winery, it's a refreshing aperitif, nicely balanced between champagne crispness and subtle blueberry flavor. Move on to fresh meat and fish entrees.
THE RAM'S HEAD INN
(American/Contemporary) 9 West White Horse Pike, Galloway Township; 609-652-1700. $$
Despite the chicken potpie with dumplings, the Ram's Head menu isn't entirely traditional—although at this late date in culinary history, perhaps marinated Saku tuna with wasabi, pickled ginger and mint cilantro olive oil is traditional. Jackets required at dinner.
SEAVIEW MARRIOTT RESORT & SPA
(American/Contemporary) 401 South New York Road, Galloway Township; 609-952-1800. $$
The crab cake in the Grill Room would pass muster in Maryland. And if you are one of the few, the proud, who confess to a fondness for creamed chipped beef, the extensive breakfast buffet is your Shangri-la.
Southern New Jersey Accommodations
THE MAINSTAY INN
635 Columbia Avenue, Cape May; 609-884-8690, www.mainstayinn.com. Rooms: $115-$295. Suites: $165-$395.
In a town devoted to its Victorian homes and inns, Tom and Sue Carroll's Mainstay is the undisputed grande dame. Pleasures include Sue's delicious breakfasts, Tom's disquisitions on local history and the exquisite craftsmanship of the period decor. Television and phone available only in the Officers' Quarters across the street.
SEAVIEW MARRIOTT RESORT & SPA
401 South New York Road, Galloway Township; 800-205-6518, www.seaviewgolf.com. Rooms: $114-$279.
On the first tee of Atlantic City Country Club nearly a century ago, Philadelphia magnate Clarence Geist complained so bitterly about having to wait that his playing partner said, "If I had as much money as you, I'd build my own course." So Geist built one of the most luxurious clubs of his or any other time. In addition to golf, members could (and hotel guests still can) enjoy tennis, squash, trap shooting, horseback riding or a dip in the Byzantine-tiled indoor pool. Rooms are almost too comfortable to leave, but cocktails on the patio will coax you out, as will the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa and the on-site Faldo Institute.
SHERATON ATLANTIC CITY CONVENTION CENTER HOTEL
Two Miss America Way, Atlantic City; 800-325-3535, www.sheraton.com. Rooms: $150-$250. Suites: $250-$1,000.
If you must stay in town but want to avoid the zombies who roam the the casino lobbies at all hours, this is the place. It's huge and ultramodern but not sterile. Check out the collection of Miss America memorabilia.
TUSCANY HOUSE HOTEL & RESTAURANT
2111 North Bremen Avenue, Egg Harbor City; 609-965-2111, www.renaultwinery.com. Rooms: $89-$240.
With its red-tile roof, stucco archways and tile-floor lobby, the hotel sets a Mediterranean mood. Amenities include two outdoor swimming pools, an indoor gym and—in 2004—an eighteen-hole golf course.
THE VIRGINIA HOTEL
25 Jackson Street, Cape May; 800-732-4236, www.virginiahotel.com. Rooms: $80-$365.
With twenty-four rooms, the Virginia is big by Cape May standards. By any standards, it's a first-rate full-service hotel that just happens to be a thoroughly restored 1879 Victorian showplace. And its Ebbitt Room is one of the better restaurants in a town known for fine food.
THE YACHT CLUB RESTAURANT & INN
800 Bay Avenue, Somers Point; 609-927-3100. Rooms: $165-$195.
A bit of Victorian Cape May perched on the lip of the marina in funkier Somers Point, this restored 1884 mansion has eight plush rooms appointed with floral wallpaper, armchairs and four-poster beds.