Mike Nuzzo,
The name of the course is McCullough's Emerald Golf Links in Egg Harbor Twp., NJ. It's about 15 minutes from Atlantic City, and is owned and built by the township, which is quite the source of contention among the owners of semi-private upscale courses in the area because of cheaper pricing.
Bye,
While I agree that designing on a landfill doesn't necessarily dictate lots of earthmoving, trying to replicate original holes from the British Isles on a landfill pretty cleary does. Sorry for the confusion.
All,
It's difficult to believe that a golf course that attempts to be as authentic to the originals as this one was actually built as a municipally-owned public course. I went there looking for the places where Kay would compromise and soften his replica holes from the originals, and found a few, but for the most part, this is a daringly different (and difficult) golf course.
First, a word of warning. Let's not forget that this course was built on a landfill, and the tell-tale signs are everpresent and detracting. Numerous vents, both large and small, are located throughout the property, including one particularly odorous one near the 13th tee. In one particular case, a handsome looking pot from a distance caused me to laugh out loud when I saw that instead of sand on the bottom, a metal vent lid was there! Still, Kay did about as good a job as one could considering that he was designing in a literal minefield of man-made environental controls.
That being said, the property contains considerable elevation change for South Jersey, and in many cases, steep rises and falls add to the challenge.
So, what's surprising? Well, for instance, the bunkers DO fit into the category of gnarly and nasty, many of them with wild grasses flowing from their surrounds. They do justice to the types of bunkers one finds in the old country, and are not just little round pits that are shallow and manicured. They are most assuredly NOT user-friendly.
Also, the fairways generally heave to and fro, with lots of movement throughout. After the first cut of rough, the course transcends into DEEP, thick grasses which are both beautifully authentic and deadly. I can imagine that inevitably the club may opt to cut some of this stuff back, because I can imagine a lot of lost balls and long rounds, but I was glad to get to see it in this state.
The greens were also a heck of a lot of fun. They contained numerous slopes, dips, and swells, and only a few, like the "Biarritz" second, seemed toned down a bit in the interest of providing a "fair" challenge.
But, golf is about good golf holes, and there are plenty of them at Emerald Links. Starting with the first, where a long second must negotiate a coffin-like grassy bunker dead smack center of the green, I had the feeling that this might be better than I'd anticipated.
Adding to the authenticity were completely blind tee shots over steep rises on holes like the 11th and 17th, or approaches that were either full or partially blind on others like the 4th or the brutally difficult copy of Dornoch's "Foxy" on the 10th.
The course particularly made you think from the tee, as there were often nests of bunkers, sometimes center fairway, to negotiate.
However, not all was rosy. Some hole copies were clearly compromised by the site, such as the 14th (Long hole at St. Andrews) where a row of thick trees blocked the out of bounds fence on the right and where there was really not a "leftside" option.
Worse yet were the two holes where you cross the street into a wooded bowl, where Kay tried to create the 5th at Dornoch and 8th postage stamp at Troon. Instead, it looked ghastly and amphitheatre-like, and the green on the Postage Stamp was probably twice the size of the original with none of the allure.
Still and all, standing on the tee of copy holes like the 3rd (18 Gleneages), 5th (16 Carnoustie), 7th (Mackenzie's Lido hole), 11th (12 Gleneages), 12!! (3rd Royal County Down), and particularly 17!!! (Waterville 11) with the nearly ocean wind and bleakness of the site is worth a visit for the architectural afficianado. Kay didn't compromise much and some of the holes are outstanding, whether they are doppelgangers or not.
I'm less sure that the average paying public will understand or appreciate the course. Conditions off fairway are a little appropriately rough and sometimes ragged. I found that little bit of natural ground to be consistent with what I'd hoped for, however.
Also, in an effort to hide the cart paths, and not affect playing areas on a pretty small piece of property, it might be the worst cart routing I've ever seen. I'm not sure if carts are mandatory or not, but probably is on weekends, at least. My partner and I were ushered to one, and although I walked the course with her driving, on many holes, you can literally not see the hole you are playing from the cart routes. They were almost humorous, such as the one on the St. Andrews holes where the "ride" took one between a fence and woods the length of the hole.
Oh...the Lido hole?
I'll start a new thread on that one.
