New Jersey National Golf Club

This was my first time playing New Jersey National and it was a tremendous experience from bag drop to the final putt(s) on 18. So I 3-putted #18, so what, it's a big green. The course was in great shape and the staff were very friendly from the start. I thought I had an Ace on #11 but the mounds blocking the view of the pin revealed as we approached that I was 2 feet short. Overall I found the layout diverse and challenging. Greens were on point! I'd highly recommend NJN to anyone looking for an enjoyable challenge on the golf course.

We played here in the NJSGA father/Son tournament.
Conditions were excellent throughout. This course requires long tee shots as most hole finish uphill and there is no running up on the greens. You must hit high lofting shots to score well.

The course is terrific in its variety, with holes playing in all different directions, off-angle fairways, elevations, doglegs, and strategic bunkering. Most holes give you risk-reward options and safe routes (except for one par-4 with a very long forced carry off the tee and no bail-out option). The fairway corridors are wide to allow driver off the tee on most holes. The rough is thick enough to affect your shot but not too deep that you can't play it. The greens are nicely sloped with good but fair contours that give challenging reads. The course is pretty, with great vistas of treetops as far as you can see and good use of fescue mounds. The one drawback that cuts the rating down for me is that the course is practically un-walkable due to long distances from greens to tees.

New Jersey National is a private course but I had the pleasure of playing the course on a beautiful fall day. The leaves were turning and the course was in great shape. Normally as a higher handicap female player I tend to play the forward tees but the gold tees gave a total yardage of 5227 so that was reasonable (and close to the other courses I normally play). The forward tees (red) were 4814 which seemed a big short.

Playing from the gold tees on the front 9 was very fair and fun to play. The back 9 was extremely challenging and playing from the gold tees was not a lot of fun. The issue, the carry off the tee on a few holes was just too far for the average women's drive and the rough was thick (which you would end up in if you could not make the fairway). Even my playing partner, who as a female drives the ball far, had a hard time. At the end of the round we mentioned to the bag attendant that we played great until the back 9 and he confirmed the back nine is "extremely challenging."

So if you get invited to play the course, I would definitely accept the invitation. If you are not long off the tee, play it forward (even the guys we played with had a hard time with some of the carries on the back nine).

The staff was very nice. The only issue I had was that after cleaning our clubs they forgot to put the cover back on my putter. I did not notice until three days later; but lucky for me the cover was still at the bag drop-off when I went back to ask about it.

The pub/restaurant is public so if you can't play golf, drop by and eat at The Red Oak Grill -- you will enjoy the food.