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Road Trip!!! Golf 'Down the Shore' 2019

Dave Tutelman -- Oct 25, 2019

( Click on thumbnail photos to see full-size pictures )

The weather was forecast to be much warmer than usual for late October, and it was. The forecast included rain on Tuesday, the middle day, and it didn't. At least not while we were out and about.

The cast of characters was Warren (of course), me (or you probably wouldn't be reading about it, at least not here), Bruce, and Mark Mueller. This is Mark's second year on the "Down the Shore" venture; last year he joined in when I couldn't make it. (Sciatica was prohibitive, and Honey was sufficiently ill that I couldn't have gone anyway.) This year, Rich couldn't make it -- but for a happy reason. His second grandchild was just born while we were away, and he was not about to miss it. (I know my RSG friends are going to loudly ask, "Where are his priorities?!?" Personally, I think he got it right.)

The only downside to the trip was that there was rain before and during our three days. The "during" was a heavy downpour Tuesday night, so it didn't keep us off the course. But all that rain assured that it was "cart path only" for all three rounds. There were lots of times I wished we were walking with a handcart. The walking distance would be pretty similar, and I would have the club I needed with me when I got to the ball.

Harbor Pines

It's easier to understand my description of Harbor Pines if you look at a map of the course. So...

Most of the course is a flat track through the south Jersey piney woods. This changes dramatically for a few holes on the back nine, where it is a residential course, to the extent that the golfer is aware of the change of character. But now look at where the roads have been built! There is no doubt that almost the entire course will change from piney woods to residential, once the housing market supports it. That is certainly the developer's intent. I hope it takes a while. The undeveloped part of the course is more enjoyable -- more like a walk through the woods than a surreptitious journey through backyards.

It was a pretty good place to start our trip. The fairways are fairly generous. While there are bunkers, they aren't so strategically placed that they intimidate the golfer on the drive. There is effective bunkering around the green, but I can only think of two really interesting fairway bunkers.

The one on the tenth hole is a friendly bunker. If you manage to miss or skip over it, your ball is in the lake. If you have hit hard in that direction, you are urging the ball, "Get in the bunker."
The long, cross-fairway bunker on the seventeenth hole presents a strategic challenge. Do I go for the green and risk coming up short in the sand? Or do I lay up in the right third of the fairway, where there isn't sand? Bruce hit a precision iron shot to the fairway, giving an easy shot to the green. I went for it, cleared the trap, and got a par on this #2 handicap hole.

It isn't a great course by any means, but the experience was pleasant enough. We got accustomed to playing an unfamiliar course, which we would be doing the next two days as well -- on much harder courses. We shot reasonable scores, considering we didn't know the course. I shot a 46+42=88, which included four double bogeys (all on the front nine, suggesting the warm-up round was called for) and six pars.

For me, the shots of the round were the already mentioned approach on #17, and the tee shot on #12. This was the shot I was worried about for most of the round. It's a forced carry of at least 135 yards down the right edge of the fairway, and the further left you go the longer the carry. We were playing it into a one-club wind, which didn't make it any easier. Bruce hit it solid, and failed to carry the water. Mark bailed right, way right, even right of the woods, and had what David Feherty calls a "furniture problem" for his next shot. Warren didn't worry about anything, just put a long drive into the middle of the fairway. My shot was more novel than any of these. I hit it with a lot of ball speed, but not enough height. It splashed about 10 yards short of carrying... and skipped up onto the fairway. It stopped a few yards in front of the drop zone. So I hit my second shot approximately from the drop zone, but with no penalty stroke involved. But I should probably tell you that I got my penalty stroke anyway; I dead topped the next shot for maybe ten yards, so the extra stroke showed up on the scorecard.

When we were done with golf, we stopped for lunch at Calloway's, and wound up stuffing ourselves with their luncheon specials. Mark and I had open-face Reubens, while bacon-lovers Bruce and Warren had BLT sandwiches. They had remembered from a previous trip that a Calloway's BLT has about a pound of bacon in it. By dinner time, we were still not hungry at all, and stayed home.

Shore Gate

Ah, Shore Gate! I love that course, even though it beats me up every time I play it. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

As usual for one of these trips, breakfast was at Scojo's on Long Beach Island. It has always been a favorite. But this was our first time there in a year -- two years for me. The prices have gone up, and the menu doesn't have quite the variety it used to. It was good enough; it's hard to ruin eggs. (At least that's what Warren says.) But the prices for everything were 30-50% higher than last time. It has been in the news that the place is for sale, though according to them the sale is not imminent. Maybe they're milking it now before they close it.

Getting back to the golf course, I guess I like a challenge, unless it's too overwhelming. Shore Gate is a difficult course; slope is 131 from the gold/senior tees we played, and those tees play at 5940 yards. There is sand everywhere and even water on at least one side of every hole. But there is plenty enough fairway to hit on most holes; you don't need pinpoint accuracy except perhaps for the approach to the green. The bad stuff doesn't matter unless you hit a bad shot. Here, let me give you an idea of what we were facing.

In my opinion, the two "signature holes" on Shore Gate are #7 and #13.

The seventh hole traces a circular arc of more than 90° around an enormous waste area down the entire right side. It asks you, "How much of the waste area are you willing to cut off to shorten your second shot?" If you choose to keep it over fairway and not cut across any badlands, you will probably be in the left rough with a 170+ yard approach to a narrow and well-protected green. When I played it, I not only played safe, but subconsciously wanted to be safer and pulled it into the trees on the left. I had to pitch out to 150yd, then hit a nice 5-iron onto the green. Two putts later, I had a bogey, which I am happy with on this hole.
The thirteenth is a muscular par five with a line of sandy potholes left and a whole desert on the right. The approach shot is long and uphill with deep bunkers left and an impossible waste area on the right. (It is impossible because it is way below the surface of the green, with really ugly rough between it and the green.) I hit three really good shots, and was hole-high but in the left bunker. Unfortunately I had a stance with the ball well below my feet. I wound up getting not enough sand and flew the green. Now I was coming back from that terrible waste area. I handled it well, but a double-bogey was about the best I could have done from there.

I wound up shooting a 94, and fairly happy with it. If I play here enough, I'm sure I can get into the eighties. As I said, I love this course and hope to have more opportunities.

We decided to eat something lighter than we did yesterday, so we would have an appetite to go out for dinner. Google found us the Seaville Tavern only two miles away. They served us good chili and soup, plenty enough to hold us for the drive back and into the early evening. We just hung out until about 7pm, then went to Kubel's Restaurant for dinner. Afterwards, watched a few innings of the World Series and we all turned in.

Twisted Dune

Scojo's ain't what it used to be; I already mentioned that. We have for a few years been eating the first-morning breakfast at the Stafford Diner in Manahawkin, just off the Parkway. We decided it was no more out of our way than Scojo's, and chose to have breakfast there today as well. It was as good as Scojo's, and probably less expensive. I'm guessing we'll have more breakfasts there in the future. Every course we play, we go from LBI to the Parkway, and Stafford's is right where we would get onto the Parkway.

Our final round was Twisted Dune. We have played there almost every year, so there isn't much you haven't already heard about it. We had a beautiful day -- but we had really nice days for all our rounds this year. I planned on shorts and short sleeves every day, and the weather did not disappoint. We had a little more wind today, but not enough to be intimidating.

Warren and I both managed to break 90, Warren with an 86 and I with an 87. Yes, I suffered 4 doubles, but countered with 7 pars. In fact, I began and ended the round with pars, which means I ended our trip with a par. Of course, the first and last hole on Twisted Dune are the [only? probably] cream puff holes on the course. Short, with a wide fairway, and less intimidating "features" than most of the holes.

On the drive to the course, Warren was relating nightmares about a par-5 that "went on forever, was steeply uphill the whole way, and had big bunkers in the middle of the fairway." That was a pretty accurate description of the fourth hole. Warren parred it. Nothing heroic either: just fairway, fairway, green, almost make the birdie putt, and tap in for par. Worth mentioning: Warren was burning the edges all day, and couldn't make anything. He would have gone really low if a few putts dropped for him.

We finished pretty late; it was almost a five-hour round. (The front nine was our fault. But we waited some for the group ahead on the back nine.) So we skipped lunch and headed directly home. Back at Warren's house in Colts Neck by 5pm, as we usually are.

One different thing about this trip, at least for me and I think for the others as well. I think I only lost one ball the entire trip. I came prepared to lose lots of balls. In addition to a fairly heavy golf bag (because of perhaps 20 golf balls), I brought a plastic bag with spares -- another couple of dozen. No need to dig very deep, though. I parked a ball in the tall stuff on Twisted Dune's 14th hole, the very challenging tee shot. But that was it! I almost lost a couple of balls in the water the first day at Harbor Pines. But one skipped on the water's surface and found the fairway; the other I never saw leave the clubhead and feared it had rolled left into the lake, but found it in the middle of the fairway.

Thanks again for a great down the shore golf trip, Warren.

Last modified 10/29/2019