Just played here yesterday and had a wonderful day. A couple things about the property.
1. It is relatively close to Trump Bedminster and when POTUS is in town, as he was this past weekend, some members play at HF as the security to play their own course is a hassle i’m told.
2. There is a closed gate with call box for entry.
3. There is a strictly NO tipping policy throughout the club, which apparently the dues are more I assume to supplement their salaries.
4. They valet every car that enters the property.
5. The property was started by Lucent Tech. And changed hands to the present private family owner.
6. There is a “mansion” where they have a dining room with coat/tie dinner on weekends. They also have 10 rooms for members/guests to stay apparently to a 5 star standard.
7. The clubhouse was renovated to move the men’s locker room/grill to be expanded and is really cool. They have a game room/lounge with 7 TV’s 5 couches and 4 tables and chairs with a food menu service with a pool table. Very cool and chill place to hang out.
8. The locker room has huge full length all wood lockers and all the typical toiletries one would expect. The attendant has a nice little shoe shine room.
9. This place exudes high end amenities as it is one of the courses where non alcoholic drinks and snacks are complimentary throughout. There were coolers with water, Gatorade, etc. every 5 holes or so. A nice touch was there was an attendant waiting just off the 9th green with a snack basket, like in domestic first class airlines to pick some chips, energy bar, or other snacks. This actually speeds up play IMO to grab something on the way to your cart and off you go to 10. Very nice touch.
Onto the courses, yes plural. The short course or Hickory course is a wonderful 18 hole par 3 course that apparently is the only USGA rated par 3 course in the entire country. A couple things stand out from this course.
-yardages vary from 130-230
-the bunkering is everywhere, wow. Oak leaf like bunkers with fingers sticking out, thus certainly not round in any way shape or form.
-I played 10 of the 18 and the only negative I can say is I regret not playing all 18 as we were approaching our big course tee time.
Big course
-very generous fairways and we played it very wet so that further expanded the landing area.
-many green side bunkers definitely stood out. They also had some steep lips which necessitates maintenance as pulling the sand up to the upper lip by hand each day takes attention.
-subtle breaks on greens which normally run around 11-12 according to our host. Very well manicured greens which was in phenomenal shape.
-16 green looks out to 17 and 18 with the clubhouse in the distance for a very pretty view.
-There is some undulation changes which would be a tough hike, 7-8 is where they leave a cart to climb to the top for members.
-I four putted the 2nd green as they had a wicked pin placement like 3 paces from the edge wow.
-We had 2 British caddies who caddie at Old Collier GC in Naples, Florida in the winter. According to our eagle eyed friends, Old Collier is the only club in the country that can offer visas for caddies. High powered attorneys are working to make it happen in house.
Overall this is a very challenging approach shot golf course with the bunkers being far and away the biggest difficulty. An interesting design aspect for Hurdzan/Fry is that our host pointed out that your view is dominated by bunkering from the tee, however from the green they are almost invisible. Cool aspect.
Really liked the course and love to play here as my daily especially with the Par 3 course.