Pros:
Based on prior reviews, I wasn't sure what to expect here, but the good news is that this course appears to slowly keep improving, and that the bugs are mostly seasonal. Here's my thoughts, starting with the positives:
- Perfect location right off of route 47 in a 'dead zone' of very few courses down by Cape May. It's literally 30 seconds off the main route down to the Cape from Philly, which makes for an easy travel round on your way to or from the Cape.
- Most of the baskets have a flag on top of them to help you see them from a distance in the woods.
- A good mix of dense woods (#1, 5, 6, 8), moderate to light woods (# 2, 3, 4, 14, 15), and open bomb holes (#16 through 18).
- A couple water hazards on #4 and #5 add more challenge, for those who are looking for that. Although I couldn't find it, it seems like from recent photos that #6 is also being lengthened to include a water carry off the tee? That would be a great addition.
- Nice, detailed tee signs with accurate maps at all holes.
- A surprising abundance of trash cans by tees, in case you need them.
- The fairways seem well mowed by the park staff, and there's plenty of parking and a practice basket.
- Good, obvious next tee signs near many (but not all) baskets), and the tee signs include an arrow of the direction to walk next too. Really appreciate that effort!
Cons:
- Far too repetitive in hole design. #1, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 are almost all the same: straight and narrow wooded tunnels, with the only differences being ~100 ft in length between some of them and a slight left or right turn at the end to the basket. Perhaps the course designers just used open paths already made by park ranger vehicles, but it doesn't make for intriguing hole designs.
- Although I managed to stay out of the worst of it, the rough here is SERIOUSLY ROUGH! If you pull it just a few feet off line you are going to pay for it -> thorns and poison ivy galore, brambles, and super-dense and muddy undergrowth leaving you no easy recovery shot either! It could be better to play here in the winter when there's probably less undergrowth.
- The tees honestly suck. They've recently been changed to gravel beds bound by three logs, and all this does is give you unsteady and sliding feet. A few have sizable divots in them too. Yes, there's rakes at a few tees, but the divots aren't the problem, the gravel is! I slipped twice during my round, and could easily see twisted ankles, falls, or worse happening here. Concrete or paver tees are DIRELY needed here.
- #6 and #8 kind of lack fairways, they need a couple more trees removed to give you a defined line through the woods. And the basket for #8 is right on the edge of some really soupy marsh (it would be better to have it positioned about 15 feet further left/in from the muck).
- It's a long walk through the woods back to the course from the practice basket, and that offers a great opportunity to incorporate a new #1 hole before the current #1. Also, it would be very easy to add in at least one left-turning open hole after #18 that could wrap around the woods and follow the dirt two track to back near the practice basket. That could eliminate some of the boring walk back to your car at the end too.
Other Thoughts:
- There are bugs, but thankfully I didn't encounter any horseflies or mosquitoes, just dragonflies and other ignorable bugs. Horsefly season in South Jersey is usually June through August, so this could be a completely different (worse) place to play most of the summer.
- The best hole here is definitively #18: it's the only hole with elevation, in which you throw off a low hill over rolling hills down to a basket ~350ft away surrounded by fair rough and without any water hazards to worry about. The low risk bomb opportunity on this hole is a really nice/refreshing way to cap off your round after a ton of tight, narrow woods shots. Really good and scenic closing hole!