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Road Trip!!! Golf 'Down the Shore' 2021

Dave Tutelman -- Nov 7, 2021

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

This year, our late-October plans got postponed until November because of forecast heavy rain. The forecast came true, so it's a good thing we postponed it. The result was a Thurs-Fri-Sat trip in early November to accommodate Rich's teaching sechedule. It worked out, though Saturday at Blue Heron Pines was very crowded and a long round. The other two days, at two of our favorite courses, went very well. We pretty much kept up at Twisted Dune and almost had Shore Gate to ourselves.

Twisted Dune

We met at Warren's house with breakfast already behind us. Packed the SUV, piled in, and headed south for Twisted Dune golf course.

The weather was good, if a little cold. Bruce made much of it on the drive to the course, doing his impression of a kid's "are we there yet?" His was, "What's the temperature now, Warren?" asking about the thermometer on the dashboard. The answer was always in the mid to low 40s. But it warmed up as the day went on, and was in the low 50s by the time we finished.

We felt we were playing too slowly, but we caught the group ahead early on the back nine and stayed in touch with them all the way to the clubhouse. For most holes on the back nine, we had to wait for them It did turn out to be a four-and-a-half hour round, but didn't seem all that bad.

The course is wonderful, and a challenge -- it has always been on our list of favorites. Lots of elevation change, and lots of places you can't afford to miss. You can lose balls in the water and in the tall, thick grass beyond the rough and near the mounding and sand. Warren scored pretty well, I think in the mid-80s. I don't know what I scored, but probably in the 90s; Warren and I both forgot the scorecard when we turned in the cart. I was not playing consistently, and you have to be consistently good to score here.

I mentioned elevation changes. I think of the south Jersey shore as being flat terrain, but two of the three courses were far from flat. Twisted Dune almost requires riding, it is so hilly. Shore Gate is probably walkable (except for two long green-to-tee distances on the back nine), but still is plenty hilly. But Blue Heron Pines was probably laid out with a carpenter's level, it is that flat; really an easy walk.

Bruce had been worried all day about the 17th hole. He wasn't even sure of the number but the description of the dangers the last 100 yards from the green identified it precisely. I had been more worried about the14th hole, with a tee shot that had to be long and straight if you even wanted to find the ball. We both stayed out of trouble on both holes. I made par on #14, and we both bogeyed #17. A bogey may not sound impressive, but we both played it as a par-5 instead of the par-4 it was on the card. We laid up 100yd from the green rather than trying to carry to the green from the drive. The last hundred yards involved a very deep valley and a huge deep bunker on the wall from valley up to green; I have seen very few get the ball on the green in one shot from that bunker. Bruce and I laid up at the end of the fairway on the flat before the valley, and hit a third shot -- a short iron -- to the green. Bruce's approach shot was close enough to leave him a makeable, if longish, putt for par; neither of us had a challenge making our bogey putts. Warren and Rich were braver, and turned in big numbers on that hole.

The clubhouse at Twisted Dune.	Native grasses and some potted flowers near the clubhouse	The gang on the 16th tee. This was one of the holes that was backed up, so we took the time to pose for a picture.
Warren hits from the bunker on the par-3 third hole.	Bruce watches Rich tee off on #4, a long, uphill par-5 that curves right and goes on forever.	Bruce tees off on the tenth hole.

We had a late lunch, or maybe an early dinner, at an old, quaint restaurant/bar at the end of a dock in Little Egg Harbor. I can't find it on the map, but I'm pretty sure that's where it was. Then to Warren's house on Long Beach Island to unapck. And in Warren's house we stayed for the rest of the evening. Bruce and Warren did a grocery run for the fixin's for dessert and coffee for the rest of the week. Given our tee times, it seemed like a good idea to have breakfast on the road, an eat-out combination of lunch and dinner after golf, and a snack at home in the evening.

Shore Gate

This course is also back by popular request. I have always been a bit intimidated by it, and it has beaten me up each of the 3 times I have played there before. It has hills, not as extreme as Twisted Dune but still substantial for the south Jersey pine barrens. Lots of sand, quite a few ponds, and cart paths of sand where a free drop might not be warranted.

The course was in good shape. The fairways provided a good lie and a good strike if you hit the ball first, and the greens were fast. The greens were not only fast but seriously undulating. There were places where putts left short ran back to the golfer, chips left short did the same, and pitches with spin could spin back significantly away from the hole.

We played from the 5940-yard tees, which is about 900 yards too long for my game (at least according to the Tee It Forward tables). But I played it well. With no expectations, I just played each shot as it came, and focused enough to not miss many. Shot an 85, 13 over par, which is a good score for me at a course of that length and difficulty. And even that might have been improved on by a handful of strokes. I got victimized by several holes that were cut on top of a ridge; it was hard to get the ball to the hole, and any putt past the hole on these very fast greens ran a long way.

There are a few holes that have intimidated me in the past, and I was delighted to play most of them well today. In fact, I played #2, #6, #9, #13, and #15 (which are handicap holes 1 through 5) in a total of two over par: three pars and two bogeys. The bogey on #13 was a result of my being victimized by one of those hole positions at the top of a ridge. I was barely off the green in three. I hit a chip that Rich declared "very nice", and we both went about our business as the ball slowly nestled at the pin. Then next thing we knew, my ball was picking up speed and rolling away from the hole. By the time it stopped, I had to be rather good with my speed to make it a 2-putt from twenty feet; Bruce had a very similar putt, and it rolled all the way back to him after almost reaching the hole. (That was the finish to Bruce's "hole from hell", but he bounced back to par the next one.)

My two other around-the-green nightmares were on #16 and #17. On sixteen, my full-swing sand wedge approach landed near the hole with enough spin to stop right there; that would have given me a short birdie putt. But I didn't know about that slope a few feet from the hole; when I got to the green, the ball was 25 feet away, and it took me three putts to put the ball in the cup. Something similar happened on #17, where all of us three-putted due to the Machiavellian pin placement.

Rich putts out on the second green.	Bruce tees off on the third hole. The fairway curves inexorably left with water and trees on the inside of the curve and sand and mounds on the outside.	Bruce watches Warren hit his tee shot on the par-3 fifth hole. I think we were collectively even par on the hole -- one over at worst.
The seventh hole curves right around a huge waste area up the whole right side. The fairway is generous, but you have to keep it left of the sand and short of the woods/mounds/bunkers.	Still on the seventh hole. Having negotiated that first shot and put it in the fairway, you then have to hit a long, accurate approach. It is probably 150yd or more, with a narrowing fairway to a narrow green, a challenging target. BTW, the green is two tiers, and a difficult 2-putt if you are on the wrong tier.	The short but intimidating 14th hole. Again victimized by an undulating green, my good looking chip was captured by gravity and deflected dead right; instead of 3 feet from the hole, it was 30 feet hard uphill.
The 15th hole curves right to get around this lake. Warren's approach shot has to clear the water on the right and avoid the bunkers on the left. to get to a narrow green.	A bird sunning itself at the south end of the course.. Warren and I think it is a cormorant.	Between the 15th and 16th hole, the cart path goes through the woods, over a bridge, and around a pond. This snowy egret was fishing in the pond.

We left the golf course and went to Calloway's for lunch-dinner. It was happy hour there, and the bar was crowded. But at our request they put us into an unoccupied dining room. It stayed unoccupied for a while, but by the time we were through every table was taken. Just about that point, I had a hypotension incident (too-low blood pressure) and passed out in my seat. The EMTs were called, and I wound up in an ambulance to the ER in Manahawkin (Southern Ocean County Hospital). I was OK by the time I got there, but -- as is usual for a non-critical ER patient -- it was hours before I was fully examined and discharged. Warren believes it was probably dehydration. I agree, with the proviso that rushing dinner was a contributing factor. I'm a very slow eater; everybody else was finished, and I didn't want to hold them up more than necessary. See how well that worked out? Anyway, more excitement than we really wanted after golf. Suffice it to say that I was up to playing golf on Saturday.

Blue Heron Pines

This is my second trip to Blue Heron Pines. All of us were there in 2015, but Warren was the only one who remembered that fact. The rest of us argued that we had never seen the place -- until I looked it up in this series of articles. Why did we not remember? Sorry, but Blue Heron Pines is an eminently forgettable golf course. My reaction from 2015 is still valid: "Blue Heron Pines is a nice enough course, but nothing special. Most of the courses we play in Monmouth County compare to it. Some are not as good, and others are even better. I wouldn't make a trip to South Jersey for another shot at Blue Heron Pines."

That said, we had good weather, if a bit chilly and windy, and a good time playing golf. Not especially good golf, except for Warren. Warren scored in the 80s, I shot a 96, and that was our second-best score. After Twisted Dune and Shore Gate, it was hard to get into challenging the course. Blue Heron Pines does not have much "character" to set it apart. The course is flat, the holes have a sameness about them, and its only defense is occasional water (which is only once a forced carry) and strategically placed fairway bunkers.

Here's an example of my not being able to motivate a challenge. On the par-5 seventeenth hole, I hit a great drive (focus was dictated by a raised bunker that compelled a certain shot shape) and a great second shot. With just a 6-iron left, I couldn't muster up the determination and feel to make a good swing. I just swung with no concentration at all and almost missed the ball, advancing it about 10 yards forward and 15 yards right. I then melted down for a snowman -- and it didn't even bother me. Oh well!

Most of the holes looked a lot like this one. Straight, flat, with light woods left and right.	This hole, probably a signature hole for the course, broke the pattern with a wall-to-wall, 100-yard long waste area.
The only forced carry over water on the course is a par-3. There is plenty of water, but it is all lateral. You have to miss right or left of target to have it penalize you.	Here's a bird near some of that water. The tree is clearly a pine, but I don't think the bird is a heron and even the water isn't blue.

We were there on a Saturday, and that meant everybody in the world wanted to go to the golf course. The groups ahead of us were painfully slow. On many holes, the threesome ahead of us was still on the tee when we arrived there. Not their fault; they were waiting for the group ahead of them. The round lasted forever. At the five-hour point, we were just arriving at the eighteenth tee, to find the group ahead waiting to tee off. So our round must have been something like 5:20 or so.

Still, it didn't keep us from having fun -- if not staying very serious about the golf. We departed later than anticipated, but got home before it was actually dark.

Thanks again, Warren! Hope we get to do this next year.

Last modified 11/8/2021