The Ridge
First played The Ridge in 2013. The course is located on a huge and stunning property in central NJ. Unlike Shadow Creek where Fazio had to create a golfing oasis, here he was given the oasis and didn’t have to create it, he merely had to lay his design on top of it.
We played it first and a couple of times since as part of an open member-guests day which is a shotgun start. I usually prefer to play a course with the routing as it was intended. Here too but since I have played a few times now, I don’t mind anymore. This is really a gem that flies under the radar.
The first three holes are on the least interesting portion of the property so Fazio added a water feature to all. Smart design. The third is a great cape-like hole over said water feature. Then he used the elevation changes and rock outcroppings and created a natural and naturally tough golf course. Trying to get my brother to join so I can play more but this would be a challenging home course as it is so tough – it’s angry Tom Fazio tough.
Besides the third, my favorite holes include the par-5 seventh – it’s a beast – and the par-3 eighth with a rock wall serving as a backdrop. Eighteen is another great par-five finishing hole. Honestly there is not a bad or indifferent hole on the course. It has a great clubhouse, variety of holes, really high resistance to scoring, conditioning that will blow you away, and there are no homes to be seen anywhere on the property. It’s listed on the second 100 for Golf Digest but hasn’t been a top 100 course on any of the magazines/sites that I’ve seen. That’s a shame.
On the access to booze factor the course is also top notch. They have a great “snack bar” window right out on the back deck. So you can grab your bloody on one, after three you swing by again and can grab sixer of Miller Lites. After five, you’re back again for six more, Guess where you are after nine? That’s right and this time load up on the Miller Lites cause it’s bye-bye until 18. The bar in the men’s locker is also awesome for pre-and post-game drinks. An A++ on booze access.
Here is an amusing story I heard here. It is horrible and I don’t condone it but not sure if it’s true so I can laugh at it. Which means you can laugh at it. So a friend of a friend who belongs here is a world traveler and golfs in pretty exotic places. So he plays in South Africa and they ask him if they would like a jam boy for the round. Of course he asks, “what is that?”. Well, what they do is pay a kid to smear jam all over himself and walk the course with you so he attracts all of the mosquitoes and keeps them off of you. Of course we called our one buddy a jam boy all day after hearing this story. I do want to golf in South Africa some day but I’ll pass on the jam boy so don’t hate!
UPDATE 2024: My buddy Brian took some awesome Drone shots and have included them below.
Golf Scrapbook 