Kyle:
You need to check out what your Governor mentioned about a certain mindset that exists - when they cancelled the Eagles football and he correctly derided the wussie attitude. My God -- you have not played a representative sample of Jersey courses and have simply hunkered down in your comfortable Phillie environment.
You say The Knoll is must play for its "reputation." You are right -- the reputation is well deserved because of the architecture that is present. More than happy to go toe-to-toe and go over each and every detail about the course if you care to do it.
You mention about the drive -- your premise was under 100 miles and under $100. Then you added the caveat about whether something is worthwhile for the time of the drive.
Kyle, stay on the other side of the Delaware and live in blissful ignorance.
Kyle, you have ODed on the short and fairly same-oh / same-oh type courses. There isn't any real diversity in terms of shotmaking. Your prejudice towards a certain type of course is showing -- look what Doak did with his 31 best courses in CG -- plenty of variety and presentations.
What I did say about Galen Hall and Middletown is not that they don't offer something of value but that because you have failed to play a much fuller range of courses your listing could have been much better -- unfortunately, you see a trip to Jersey akin to Marco Polo traveling to and from the Orient. Like I said take the I-95 connector by Scudder Falls and you can save the $4.
Matt:
Considering I just spent 10 weeks this fall driving from Elkins Park, PA to New Brunswick, NJ daily, I found your comment a little ironic to say the least.
I've sat in that Scudders Falls traffic way more than anyone should want to.
I haven't ADDED criteria in response to your opinions, they were there from the very beginning. That's what opportunity cost means. It's been there from the beginning and was the whole premise of this thread.
As for the lack of variety... really?
Morgan Hill
McCullough's
Inniscrone
Reading
Four very different types of golf course in very different settings. 40% of the list.
I'd say that Middletown and Galen Hall share similarities and perhaps Reading and Jeffersonville. But with all respect, my list reflects a range of yardages from under 6000 to just under 7000, a range of par values from 68 to 72 and are all located on very different types of terrain with very different shot requirements. You're also neglecting the internal variety of places like Galen Hall, which features three different eras of architecture.
The fact is, there's only room for 10 on this list and the list is primarily dedicated to value. Therefore, places like Makefield Highlands and Scotland Run are pushed to the cusp and rightfully fall just outside the top ten. Neshanic may have a horse in this race but I haven't seen the third nine there so I can't make a qualified statement, yet. Same goes for any of your suggestions.
What I'm starting to actually question is just what "doing my homework" means in terms of how to qualify a rating. I've played all these golf courses at least ten times. Am I more qualified to speak of them than someone that has played once or twice? Am I less qualified to state their value if I haven't experienced every else? I don't know. But I could counter that someone not spending enough playing time at one place is an equally unqualified opinion.