Hamilton Farm Golf Club (NJ)
June 2022 – Played Hamilton Farm as part of a one-day member guest. This is a posh, private club just north of Trump Bedminster in rural NJ that features a beautiful Hurdzan-Fry regulation course and a spectacular (and the only USGA rated) par three course. The member guest format included both courses which made for a tiring day but was a real treat. I didn’t take any photos of the par three but will discuss it a little below.
First let’s talk member guests. Generally, there are two kinds of member guest tournaments: The serious two-day affair and the less formal one-day. There are some with one guest per member and others where the member can bring up to three. I’ve played both kinds and both formats vary from course to course. Here’s an idea that maybe BoxGroove or other site should take advantage of: Create a match.com for member guests. The “guest” pays the two-man freight and a vig to BoxGroove. Member gets to play for free, network with another golfer, and and show off his club. This would be a great way to play different private courses in a fun format.
The Hamilton Farm’s one day was great. First let’s talk tee gifts: I’ve gotten shorts, shirts, vests, jackets, bags, coolers, etc. but I never gotten a belt. Here we started by getting fitted for a custom belt. Nice! Booze was included (I think) and they pulled up three food trucks for lunch. They had tomahawk steaks for dinner but had to bail since I had a one-and-a-half hour drive home and didn’t want to drink. Our host Ed and his son were like family (as in my happy boozing family) and can’t wait to play again when I can enjoy cocktails with them – even though they are Giants fans. Ed said he wasn’t gonna drink much, had a wine between 18’s then decided to bring the bottle out on the course, then another and then a third. Love it!
They played a 36 hole format and we played on the regulation course in the morning and the par-three course in the afternoon. Ed is close with the GM and we got to start on one for both 18’s which is great as I hate playing shotguns where you start who knows where and don’t get the right vibe for how the course plays.
Finally, and this is pretty odd, but we played the blues. They usually try to make the member-guests easier on the guests and play the whites from most courses but here they pushed us back to over 6,500 yards and boy did this play tough. It’s not that the whites were sub-6,000 or anything but I guess they wanted to play this tough.
To the course. Regardless of distance, I played like shit. Finished with a 99. Yuck. Conditioning was awesome. Design was great, with a nice variety of short and longer holes. Doglegs left and right. Long par threes. I read one or two negative reviews but I liked this course (despite of or because of its challenge). Honestly the one negative review I read came from https://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/hamilton-farm-the-highlands and a reviewer M. James Ward. He reviews a lot of courses there. But man what a grump. I don’t think the guy would give his own kid a positive review, but I digress. I like the course; it’s similar to The Ridge, which is a little further south, but similar topography. I don’t rank it quite as high but probably only because of the variety of the par threes and maybe the conditioning by a hair.
The first is a gentle opener – just 324 from the blues. Aim for the bunker and you’ll have a clear gap wedge in. I faded my drive but could have gotten over the tree that protects the right-hand side of the hole but shanked my second into the trap on what was about to be a theme for the day – double bogey.
The second is the #1 handicap – a 530-yard par five with trouble left and right. Perfect drive. Decent second shot and shanked my way up to the green for a seven. My issues on par threes crept back and got a four on the third but struggled all day and worse on the par three course. I had only two pars all day (the 4th and the 17th par three) and only seven bogeys. The rest were doubles (and lost balls). The best hole was nine – a down hill par five where you need to land on an island on your approach then back up to a well-protected green. Hit a great third shot but ended up just long and couldn’t chip out of some rough rough. Eighteen was another memorable hole but all in all this is just a beautiful course with a variety of holes and settings – water, trees, meadows et al.
The Hickory course is a TOUGH par three course. I didn’t save the card nor take any photos but there are great holes here and at least three holes where I pulled out a driver to get on the green. Getting to play both courses was a treat and don’t sell the par three short here if you ever get up – Tiger visits when he is in town to specifically play the par three course.
Golf Scrapbook 