Review: Atlantic City Country Club (Part 2)

See Part 1 here.

Alright, we've taken a break at the turn, now, back to the golf. We start the back nine with a short par 5, and the best birdie opportunity on the course. 490 yards downwind, if you cut the dogleg it's effectively shorter than 9. Or you could pop it up into the trees right, hit a tree on your punch shot and have to get up and down for par, completely wasting the best opportunity for birdie on the entire course. What's that? I did the second thing? Of course I did. Anyway, if you've hit a good drive and cut the dogleg, the second shot isn't easy, per se, considering the pond left of the green, but chances are you've got a short iron in hand, and that makes the shot a little less intimidating.

Next up is the eleventh, a hole with lots of sand in play. This is a hole where you definitely want to hit the fairway, so I'd say that a 3 wood is probably the best option off the tee. That'll leave a longer approach, and this is a fairly long par 4, but you don't want to be in any of those fairway bunkers. This isn't a particularly inspired hole either, so we'll move on.

The twelfth, at 134 yards, is the shortest hole at Atlantic City, but this is not a hole to be underestimated. The green is not large, and it is completely surrounded with sand. It also played straight into the wind, so a couple of extra clubs off the tee are absolutely needed to reach the hole. Basically, you want to hit this green with your tee shot. Otherwise, making par is difficult.

It's at the thirteenth hole where the fun really begins. We've been teased before, but for the next four holes, the salt marsh will be very much in play. We start off the run with a 550 yard par 5 playing straight into the wind. The tee shot is the most demanding on the course, with a pond left and the salt marsh right. It was too much for me, I pushed my drive right into the marsh. Had to do it at least once. From the fairway, the best place to lay up is on the right side, along the marsh. This will give you the best angle into the green. It's interesting, out of the 3 par 5s on the course, only one of them is a real birdie opportunity. The others are long, into the wind, and actually pretty tough. If you're not on top of your game, you will bogey them. Just another thing to make this 6,600 yard course anything but a pushover.

We now find ourselves teeing off on a small peninsula jutting out into the marsh, facing a choice. The fourteenth hole is a short par 4, with the green tantalizingly close to the tee. The safe play is to aim well left and make sure you get across the water, but that's the coward's way out. So, even though the hole was playing into the wind and I'd been struggling with the driver all day, I stayed aggressive. The wind meant the green was out of range, but my driver decided to cooperate this time, and I had only a 50 yard pitch into the green. That shot rolled 18 feet past, and I rolled in the putt for the only birdie of the day. Most people would give this hole the award as the best on the course, and it is a lot of fun, especially from all the way back.

Next up is a medium length par 3. Well, it was 190 yards, but it was downwind, so an 8 iron was all that I needed. Now, I was an idiot on this and the next hole. Not in terms of golf, but in terms of the cart that I had to use. I left it right in the way, and while I was able to crop it out on this hole without effecting the picture too much, you'll have to deal with it on the next hole. Anyway, even downwind, this is still not a friendly looking hole. There's not much room to miss anywhere.

Oops

Better

The last hole along the marsh is the sixteenth, a mid length par 4 that played right into the wind. The sixteenth tee is what you saw in the little preview I showed a couple weeks ago. But hey, it makes the tee shot that much more compelling, not that it needed much help. On a course filled with excellent holes, this one might just be the best. It's close between this and the fourteenth. The risk/reward factor is much more obvious on 14, but this hole is much more of a challenge. Even a good drive left a mid-iron, a safe drive out to the left would mean a long iron and a worse angle over greenside bunkers. And I don't know, this hole just looks a little better to me.

It is a bit of a letdown to leave the coast, but the seventeenth does make it easier. Of all the holes on this course, this is the one that looks the most links-like, though arguably it would fit better on the Melbourne Sandbelt. Either way, this is a good looking hole, played to a semi-blind green nestled in a little bowl. All you can see from the tee is the flag and a lot of bunkers. It's a little longer than 4 or 12, but it's nowhere close to being as long as 15 or 8, and it played downwind as well. It's still not an easy hole, the green is really quite small, and the tee shot is intimidating.

The eighteenth is a 430 yard par 4, playing straight downwind. That was a good thing, I think this hole would be a lot less enjoyable into the wind. The back nine up to this point has been generally short and quirky, and to close with a long par 4 playing into the wind would be inappropriate, I think. We had our tough par 4 back at 16. But downwind, this hole becomes a lot more fun, and a challenge as to how much of that dogleg you're willing to bite off. The difference between how I played this hole and how I played 16 nicely illustrate the benefits of wind in golf. On 16, a 400 yard hole, a good drive and a good 8 iron wasn't quite enough to get to the green. On this hole, 30 yards longer, a good drive and a sand wedge airmailed the green. The hole was all the way back, and there was no way I was going to get up and down from that position. So it was a bogey to end the round.

The back nine is actually not very long, not even topping 3,200 yards, but I would not go so far as to call it easy. The front was definitely harder, but the wind was even more of a factor on the back, and that kept it from being a pushover. I can't vouch for the day in and day out, but I'm going to guess the wind I experienced was a normal occurrence, and that provides as much defense as a few hundred extra yards would do on an inland course.

And now for the big question: How is the golf course? Well, I'm happy to say that it is fantastic, and easily the best golf course I've ever played. Everything came together beautifully to make this probably the best round of golf I've ever played. The weather was great, the views were great, I didn't have to do too much waiting around, and the golf was very good. I've gone lower than 78, and since this was a par 70, I've definitely had several rounds where I was better off in relation to par, but this was real golf, and a real golf course. It was tough, and I had to earn that 78. I'm not usually very good around the greens, to put it mildly, but I was all over it out there. I didn't miss a single chip. Is it expensive? Yes, it really is. It was $99 after 3:10 PM, and if you start in the morning, you would pay almost double that. I won't say the course is worth that much, because I don't think it is. But I felt like I got my money's worth, and that really is saying something. I probably wouldn't go back in the summer months, but I would definitely play here again if I'm ever in the area.

Review: Atlantic City Country Club (Part 1)

This is it. This is the big one. When I drew up a list of golf courses in the Cape May area that I wanted to play, this was the only non-negotiable. I had to play Atlantic City Country Club, no matter how expensive it would be. It's an old course, dating back to the 19th century, and unlike other old courses I've played, it has real history. This is the birthplace of the birdie we're talking about, a golf course that's hosted national championships, including a U.S. Amateur and three U.S. Women's Opens. Until 2014, this was a very private place, but now, it's public, and I have played there.

As you can see, this course is right on the water. Well, more of a salt marsh on a bay, but there's water out there, and across the bay is the Atlantic City skyline. The front nine is mostly inland, but the back nine plays much closer to the bay, and the salt marsh comes into play on several holes. There was a stiff ocean breeze, and it made a big difference. On a hole playing downwind, it was a struggle to hit a drive 250 yards, but downwind, drives sailed over 300 yards, which is how golf was meant to played. Their website uses the words "seaside links" which is a stretch at best, since I'm not convinced the soil there was sand, and the course certainly wasn't playing firm and fast. But it felt linksy, and at several points, it even looked linksy.

The course is only 6,600 yards from the back tees (which I played), but because of the wind and the par of 70, it often played much longer, and it gave an added challenge that made the 78 I shot probably the best round I've ever played. Something about the course inspired me to play my best golf. I was certainly helped by the fact that I got to play by myself. Sometimes, playing with someone is a good thing. Sometimes, extra people would spoil the mood. This was one of those latter cases.

The round starts off on a fairly stern note, with a 450 yard par 4. This was mitigated somewhat by the fact that the hole was playing downwind. For instance, I hit a very conservative drive well left (I wanted nothing to do with that OB on the right), but I was able to use a pitching wedge on my second from 165 yards. The green is pretty clearly better approached from the right side of the fairway, but with a wedge in hand and the greens soft, tee shot placement was less important, and I had about 25 feet for birdie. The greens here are generally more undulating than most golf courses, but not usually in an extreme way. The greens at P.B. Dye were definitely more severe.

The next hole is a shortish par 4, running along the same OB line as the 1st. It's definitely a birdie opportunity, as a good drive down the left side of the hole, over the fairway bunkers, leaves you with a fairly simple pitch. That's not what I did, but still, the strategy is there. I only have this one picture because a foursome let me play through, and I like to move things along when that happens.

The third hole is where things start to get interesting. It's about as long as the second hole, but it plays much differently. The second is more of a "use driver to get as close to the green as possible" hole. This hole has a much higher premium on accuracy. There's OB and trees right, and a lot of bunkers left. And these are real hazards too, go in one, and there's no guarantee you'll be able to reach the green. It's also one of the two holes that I really noticed played with a crosswind, rather than straight into or with the wind. Best strategy? Use a 3 wood or long iron to get onto the fairway, you won't have more than a wedge into the green.

The fourth hole is a short par 3 playing along the water. You've seen it already, in the lead picture. It's not a tremendously thought-provoking hole, and it's probably the easiest hole on the course, but when you've got that view of the Atlantic City skyline, sometimes it's best for the golf to sort of step out of the way.

The fifth hole is a long par 4 heading back inland. I really like how the golfer gets a taste of the ocean on the front nine, rather than reserving everything for the back. It serves as a nice tease, and it ties the two nines together. The course feels fluid rather than disjointed. Anyway, this is the other hole that plays across the prevailing wind, which comes from the right here. It's another tough drive, as you have to avoid the same bunkers we saw on the third, but the second shot is easier. It's too long to call a birdie hole, but it isn't easy, and it helps brace you for the very difficult sixth.

The sixth hole is a backbreaker of a par 5. Nearly 600 yards, and it played straight into the wind. One poor shot, and there's a very real chance you won't be able to get to the green in 3. I speak from experience on this one. The one shot you don't want to hit into a strong breeze is a high slice, but that's exactly what I did off the tee, and my drive ended up behind the one tree on that side of the hole, because of course it would. My punch shot was good, but I still had more than 250 yards left on the third, and that was just too much. If you do hit a good drive, the left side of the fairway is clearly preferable for the layup, as the green is open on that side. If you do it right, you won't even have to hit over the greenside bunkers at all, as the green will funnel shots down if it gets over a central ridge. That's depending on the hole location of course, which for me was shoved in the front right corner, just over a bunker. You definitely didn't want to go in that, so I played safe, and I accepted bogey as a decent option. Could have been worse.

As a side note, this was the first hole where I really noticed how wide the fairways are, and how nice it was to play a golf course with actual fairways, rather than thin little strips of short grass. I mean, I can miss any fairway, but in general, there was a lot of width to play with on this golf course, and I appreciate that.

The seventh hole is another long par 4 (there's 4 on the front nine over 440 yards), but it's a fairly undistinguished hole otherwise. This is probably the weakest hole on the course, but the green is pretty tough, and if you're looking for places to miss, don't go right.

The eighth hole is a par 3, and at nearly 200 yards into the wind, the longest of the five par 3s on the course, and all things considered, probably the toughest. There's a lot of sand around that green, and hitting the clearly preferable fade into the wind requires using one or two extra clubs. Definitely not a birdie hole here.

The ninth hole is probably the most difficult hole on the course, and caps off what has been a tough five hole stretch. It's a long par 4, but unlike 1, 5, and 7, which either play downwind or across the wind, 9 plays into the wind. And that makes a huge difference. Remember how on 1 I only needed a pitching wedge even after a relatively middling drive? Well, I hit a better drive on this hole, which is almost exactly the same length as the first hole, but I still had just over 200 yards to go. I needed a 4 iron just to get into the left-hand greenside bunker. Any amount of dogleg you can cut off goes a long way towards making this hole easier, but clearly, don't miss if you try that. This is one of those holes where a bogey is alright.

For my review of the back nine, click here.