Updated May 2025: The Atlantic City – Southern Jersey beach resorts area (what we in Philly call “Down The Shore”) is a WAY under-rated golf destination. Do not confuse this with Jersey Shore which is the NY Snooki and JWoww crap up north of here. The cream of the crop of private courses “down the shore” is Galloway.
Real estate is far too valuable here to build any courses on the barrier islands (with the exception of Brigantine which is a huge disappointment considering its location). So the courses take up locations on the back bay, tidal marshes. This provides great views of the shore towns and is the ideal environment for greenheads (more on them in a bit).
Here you’ll find Galloway. I love that the guys who founded Galloway founded it on one principal – they hated slow play. So they bring in Fazio, give him a huge budget and a huger piece of property and let him go nuts. They limit membership and play and the result: a top 100 gem if you can get on it. I know it dropped off Golf Digest’s Top 100 but you get my drift.
The course gives you everything a Top 100 course should; it’s got a great variety of holes, each hole is isolated from the others so you get that great feeling of aloneness with the course, great conditioning, great clubhouse and bar, and it’s tough without being over the top. A great first hole, it doglegs right and after turning the corner, you get the great view of AC across the bay. I really like how the course opens up right from the first approach. The second par three is a short carry on the edge of the marsh – a shorter version of its mirror image hole the 5th which comes back in the opposite direction.
The back nine is appreciably longer than the front and plays more inland – reminding me very much of Pine Valley (which I later discovered was part of Fazio’s thinking, well that and Pinehurst #2). Twelve is one of those turn signal doglegs, you need to make such a hard left that you better use your turn signal.
Okay the greenheads. If you’ve never experienced a greenhead you’re lucky. These little fuckers will attack you and they laugh at bug spray, I actually think they love the taste of it. They love the tidal marshes and the fat golfers walking along them look like Ring Dings ready to be unwrapped. They bite instead of sting and it’s like getting gnawed on by a tiny piranha and they are relentless. You get a hot, steamy, windless day and you will not even want to complete your round. Luckily, when we played Galloway it was a cool Fall day and they weren’t out but I’ve had times at AC Country Club, where we wouldn’t even go to the tees that were set into the salt marshes for fear the little sons of bitches would pick us up and drop us into the marsh to feed the family. Don’t think I’m being a p*ssy either, they are so annoying we will plan golf around avoiding them. Be warned!
Okay so AC and area has some great courses to plan a golf trip around. If you got the connections, Galloway, Hidden Creek and now the Union League course down by Sea Isle (used to be a public track called Sand Barrens) are the best private tracks. I’m also partial to my club down the shore which is Stone Harbor – it’s a tough track, always in great condition and fun to play. However there are also some great public tracks down here too. Atlantic City Country Club is Top 100 in my book. I’ll write it up in a little bit. Twisted Dune, Ballamor, and Seaview’s Bay course up by Atlantic City are all really good, further south I like Shoregate and I think Cape May National doesn’t get enough credit. For eats, Chef Vola’s (Italian) used to be such a private place that you couldn’t even call for a reservation, you had to know someone who would make it for you. They opened it up – just a little bit – but you better plan way in advance. Steve and Cookies in Margate is a favorite and I like the vibe of the Surfing Pig in Wildwood.
Update: Finally tried Cafe 2825 that for years my AC buddies in the know say is even better than Chef Vola. OK the veal chop at Vola is simply undefeatable but I give 2825 high, high marks. Tough reservation to get but my buddy (the member at Galloway) is good friend’s with the owner and had the pork chop which I put above Bascom’s in Clearwater as the #1 pork chop in Jacko’s world.
Also, as I have two buddies who are now members of Galloway, I have played this a few times since the original post. My buddy Brian sent some drone pix which I added below and just played in 2025 and my horrible play – aided by massive wine consumption at 2825 – made for a near 100 round. Ah, my golf game is absolute shit right now
Golf Scrapbook 