Top Rated New Jersey Public Golf Courses
Top Rated New Jersey Public Golf Courses
Neshanic Valley and Charleston Springs
This weekend we booked tee times at two of the higher rated public courses in the state of New Jersey, Neshanic Valley on Saturday and Charleston Springs on Sunday. Considerably more expensive than our typical golfing weekend, but it was a nice treat.
Neshanic Valley
Neshanic Valley is a relatively new course in the Somerset County park system. The weekend rate for in county residents is $55, or $75 for out of county players. This price is pretty high for a county course, but it did include a cart, so that makes it somewhat more reasonable. To put this in context, the other Somerset County courses cost $23 to play on the weekend for a county resident.
The course is in a beautiful location, carved out of 420 acres of rolling Branchburg, New Jersey farmland. The parkland style course has a mix of typical lush, rolling fairways, fairly thick rough and quite a number of large bunkers protecting the fast greens. We have had little rain the past few weeks, but the course still seemed to be in amazing shape. I had to play out of the rough on a few occasions, and it was not a pleasant experience! Past the rough in many locations are both environmentally protected areas (hit a ball in there and it's an automatic lost ball, no going in to hit) and plenty of fescue.
The course has 27 holes, broken into the Meadow, Lake and Ridge courses. We played the Lake and Ridge course. Now, I've never played the Meadow, but the Lake and Ridge were quite beautiful. There are several elevated tees on the Lake course where you get a panoramic view of the Ridge and Meadow courses which was pretty amazing.
For a municipal course, Neshanic Valley had more of a private country club feel to it. The staff was exceptionally helpful, taking your clubs from the bag drop to your cart, even cleaning off my irons for me after the round. Certainly not something I expect at a municipal course!
The facility also houses an enormous practice facility, with full grass driving range, several practice bunkers, a few practice greens, 3 practice holes, and a 9 hole par 32 course.
All in all, I would definitely recommend the course to anyone. Yes, it's slightly pricey, but if you are a Somerset County resident, it's reasonable. The twilight and mid week rates are more affordable.
Charleston Springs
Charleston Springs is the Neshanic Valley equivalent in the Monmouth County park system. Built in 1999, this is the self proclaimed jewel of the county system (though, some would argue that Hominy Hill is a nicer course).
This is a 36 hole facility with two distinct courses. The South Course is a parkland style course which apparently isn't in the best shape and is quite a typical course, or so I hear. The North Course (where we played Sunday) is a Links style course with plenty of character. Links…perfect for my conservative strategy I thought.
This course is very price for out of county residents. A Monmouth County resident can play for $36 on the weekend (without cart), out of county residents are struck with a $75 greens fee (not including cart). We prefer to walk, so we were able to save a few bucks there, but it turned out to be quite the expensive day.
This course also has a grass driving range, though lacks the practice facility Neshanic Valley boasts. The staff was nice, but was more typical of a municipal course. No carrying my bags to the cart here, or washing of my clubs. But that certainly was not expected, nor necessarily desired.
Now, onto the course itself. It was a very pleasant walk. The tees and greens are relatively close together for the most part, save four holes. On those four holes we had a rather lengthy walk between green and tee. This is due to some high tension power lines that run through a part of the course. Not a huge deal, though if walking under these lines bothers you, you may want to stay away from here.
Aside from the power lines on a couple holes, the course was quite beautiful. The local area is much flatter than Neshanic Valley, so you do not have the panoramic views of a valley. Nonetheless there are numerous environmentally protected areas on this course as well, with many interesting flowers, ponds, lakes, trees...it was quite pretty. The fairways were in great shape, the greens were rock hard, and lightning fast, and the rough...my god, it was not fun trying to get out of the rough at this course! This course also has a LOT of fescue. Unfortunately my ball found this stuff on three occasions, which resulted in three lost balls on the day...this did not do wonders for my golf score.
We had a great time on the course though. It was a beautiful day, and the course (aside from putting balls in the fescue) was a pleasure to play. It certainly looked like quite the challenge if you played from the championship tees. In fact, I do believe they host some regional tournaments at this course.
The Verdict
I would recommend playing both of these courses for sure. But, given the pricing, amenities available, and the great staff, I would definitely recommend playing at Neshanic Valley quite often!
Editors Note: I had my first hole in one at Neshanic Valley - so it still holds a special place in my heart! There have also been several amateur and professional events held there at this point! I stand by my verdict circa 2006!