McCullough's Emerald Golf Links (Egg Harbor, NJ; with pics)

[Joe Bausch]

I joined two other GCA.com members for a tour of Stephen Kay's McCullough's Emerald Golf Links on a hot and steamy Sunday afternoon.  This course has been discussed here before, a more recent thread being from Mayday:

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,22077.0.html

I've not seen much in the way of pictures of MEGL, so I thought I would share.  This is a Stephen Kay design that I believe opened in 2002.  It, believe it or not, is basically built on top of a landfill.  It is municipally owned and Egg Harbor Township residents receive a real nice discount.  For us, it was 50 bucks late on a Sunday morning.  For that area, the value is pretty good, IMO.  Conditioning was adequate for me, although you would not quote Gary McCord about the greens and use 'bikini wax' to describe them!  They were furry and looked generally okay.  I'll let Kyle Harris comment further on this topic if he is so inclined.

The scorecard for MEGL says is is "a unique tribute to these famed European holes", and here is the one available online:




I haven't played any of the courses in Europe, so I can't really make much of a comparison, but I'll include the name of the hole that MEGL pays tribute to:

#1:  Royal Portrush No. 1; here is the look from 100 yards out:



#2:  Biarritz #6; a view from the hill over the green:



#3:  Gleneagles (King's Course) #18; a view from the tee on this par 5:



#4:  Nairn #3; this view from maybe 50 yards short of the green perhaps shows a neat little diagonal mound running in front of the green:



#5:  Carnoustie #16; this is a 236 yard par 3 from the tips:



#6:  Southport and Aindale #2; a view from the drive landing area, with the fairway divided by a ditch/creek running at an angle:



#7:  A previous thread (http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,3337.0.html) says Brad Klein suggested Kay to do this Lido hole; here is the view from behind the green showing the double fairway (this hole is really wide!):



#8:  Turnberry #10; a view from behind the green (the tees are up on a hill almost in the exact center of this photo) of this 414 yard par 4, slight dogleg right:



#9:  Royal Dornoch #10; slightly downhill 172 yard par 3:



#10:  Royal Dornoch #14; the view from the hill behind the green on this 466 yard par 4:



#11:  Gleneagles (King's Course) #12; this is a shortish par 4 requiring a uphill blind tee shot to a green on the highest part of the property I think:



#12:  Royal County Down #3; downhill par 4 of 443 yards, this view from over the green and Kyle in deep thought:



#13:  Gleneagles (Queen's Course) #5; ~200 yard par 3:



#14:  St. Andrews #14; this is a 517 yard par 5, here the view from 100 yards out:



#15:  Royal Dornoch #5; a quirky little hole that reminds me in ways of #14 at Kay's Scotland Run, this being 283 yards in length, this view from over the green:



#16:  Royal Troon #8 (postage stamp hole, I guess?); the view from the tees:



#17:  Waterville #11; the view from the tee of this uphill tee shot on a 501 yard par 5:



#18:  Prestwick #4; view from the middle tee of the closing par 4 of 358 yards:



Overall I like MEGL and would be happy to play it again.  But based upon what I've heard about the course just up the road (Twisted Dune), I will play TD before I play MEGL again.

Overall I took over 120 pics of MEGL and my typical album spread has been prepared with higher resolution photos than above and more of my commentary.  I think it makes for a fun few minute click-a-thon!

http://darwin.chem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/McCulloughs/index.html

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Many refer to Emerald Dunes as "Twisted Dune Lite." For the price, it's a good value.

[mike_malone]

 I think it is wonderful that one can play two quite different and enjoyable courses at a reasonable price so close to each other.

[Matt_Ward]

Joe, et al:

Lots of interesting things at EGL -- but I have to say the two holes across the street (15 & 16) were a huge disappointment for me. A total disconnect from the genuine flavor you've encountered at through that point in time.

One other item -- the 18th is a dud of a hole. Long hitters will simply go for the green with impunity. It would have worked a good bit better if the pond were pulled further out into the drive zone area.

Like I said at the outset -- plenty of fun things when playing there but the closing few holes simply let the air out of the bag for me.

[Rick Sides]

McCulloughs is an interesting course with an interesting story.  It was actually built on an old landfill.  While McCulloughs has an irish name, it's more Scottish in nature.  The course up the street Twisted Dune is a cool layout that is more Irish with it's  large hills.

[Joe Bausch]

Lots of interesting things at EGL -- but I have to say the two holes across the street (15 & 16) were a huge disappointment for me. A total disconnect from the genuine flavor you've encountered at through that point in time.

One other item -- the 18th is a dud of a hole. Long hitters will simply go for the green with impunity. It would have worked a good bit better if the pond were pulled further out into the drive zone area.

15 and 16 reminded much of 14 and 15 at Scotland Run.  Yes they don't 'fit' with the rest of the layout, but they aren't a show-stopper for me. 

Kyle and I were discussing the 18th at MEGL and came to the conclusion there is nothing wrong with a real easy closing hole. 

[Bruce Leland]

A nice plug on the scorecard for the shaper, Casey Fraser!  When was the first time you saw that??

[archie_struthers]

 


Casey Fraser is a really good guy ....son of Jim and the grand son of Leo Fraser ....past PGA President and long time operators of the Atlantic Ciity Country Club ...

his company also did our shaping at Twisted Dune ....Blue Heron Pines ...and many other local venues

[Brad Tufts]

I have always thought this course would make a cool double with Twisted Dune, which I played about 5 years ago.  However, while this course doesn't look bad, I think I was expecting more (based on the pics I've seen).  The conditions seem a bit spotty in the "normal play areas," and the features appear pretty dumbed down...

Not that this would stop me from taking a look someday, but am I alone in this thought?

It looks like Steve S. and Matt W. are pointing in this direction....

[Matt_Ward]

Brad:

By all means be sure to play it when in the greater AC area but if you are forced to choose between playing McCullough's and either of the following ACCC, Galloway National or Hidden Creek be sure to go with the latter trio.

Emerald Links is an affordable Jersey Shore golf option. However, make no mistake about it, at least from my perspective, it's nothing more than Twisted Dune-lite.

[Mike Sweeney]

However, while this course doesn't look bad, I think I was expecting more (based on the pics I've seen).  The conditions seem a bit spotty in the "normal play areas," and the features appear pretty dumbed down...

Not that this would stop me from taking a look someday, but am I alone in this thought?

It looks like Steve S. and Matt W. are pointing in this direction....

I would say that it is the perfect second course of the day kind of place. I only played it once during a February heat wave. The conditions were great for the winter. It was not wet and seemed to drain very well like most of the courses at The Shore.

It would be hard to give this a 6 on The Doak scale, but it is a very fun course, especially for the price point.

[mike_malone]

 It is probably a 4 on the Doak scale which makes it better than average. Honestly, it appeals to me because it is basically a muni but has some really neat architecture. It introduces golfers at an affordable price to some of the appeal of an NGLA , for example. I find the "space "to be the thing that public courses seem to lack. They think the course is too easy if you can hit it anywhere. But the design around the green is much more interesting for the recovery shot than for the shot in the middle of the fairway.

[Craig Sweet]

Stephan Kay???  Is that the guy from the rock band Stepenwolf?