With the names of Tom Doak and William Flynn involved in the design of this course, which dates back to 1897, it can’t help but be good.
Not many new public courses can claim a champions’ roster that includes Walter Travis, Babe Zaharias and Don January or claim the first American to win the U.S. Open as its former head pro (John J. McDermott)….The layout dates to 1897 and, for most of its 109 years, it was strictly private. Following a Tom Doak renovation in 1999, the course served as a playground for high-rollers staying at one of the Caesars-owned casinos, but earlier this year new owner Harrah’s unlocked the club’s gates to the public.
John Reid, Willie Park Jr. and the team of William Flynn and Howard Toomey also contributed to the Atlantic City Counry Club’s design. Today’s version is a par-70, 6,577-yard routing that unfolds gracefully over flat, coastal terrain.
Flat does not mean uninteresting. The fairways are wide, but weave their way around Doak and Urbina and team’s excellent bunkering and shaping and over gently rising and falling seaside terrain and sand dunes. There’s great horizontal movement to the fairways and great vertical movement in the site’s undulating terrain. The greens are fast and true.
We’ll talk more about the course after I get more information on the reno from Doak, but until then, here are the scores:
Design: 5.5 – 6 stars (all ratings out of seven). Wide and not too long, yet nevertheless difficult to score. Many greens cant severely from right to left or left to right and have subtle yet interesting internal contours. The shorter the hole, the greater the trouble (see the pint sized par-3 12th which has bunkers larger than the entire green and an elevated target sloping dangerously away in all directions or the short par-4 14th just daring you to cut the corner over the marsh too finely so it can snatch a couple of strokes from you…)
Issues: There are several houses located on the course and that means several drive ways with cars that appear from nowhere and drive right by you just as your teeing off of one of several holes.
Natural Setting: 6 stars. Totally relaxing with the spray of the sea in your face, the course feels much like Inwood Country Club, another course from the same time period (1901) and where Doak also did a restoration.Â
The casinos on the skyline actually detract from the pastoral feeling of the course…kinda like neon in a maternity ward.
Conditioning 6.5 stars. You can drop your hot dog and be more inclined to wipe the mustard off the course than the sand off the hot dog.
Value: 4 stars. Ouch. Here’s the issue…typical of a casino, forget getting a bargain. The +$200 fee is too much for any golf course, and even with all the excellent design work here, you still have seen the things this course offers in other places. While I highly recommend you go play it and have a nice day, there are much better values and – a few exceptions aside – most of the holes here you have seen before.
Click here for Atlantic City Country Club‘s history and info.
Overall 5.5 stars. This course has a rich history that money just can’t buy, but places like Blarney Stone casino…err…Turning Stone Casino wish it could.
Many great names like Gene Sarazen and Leo Fraser and Arnold Palmer and Richard Nixon hung their hats here over the years, trading barbs, stories and drinks.  The course also has the best design of any casino course hands down. For casino and golf, I’m actually happy to say you have a one-stop shop and it is Atlantic City Country Club.
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For a real splurge, add in Twisted Dunes just a few exits away off the Garden State Parkway. McCullough’s Emerald Links, down the street from Twisted Dunes, is a great $50 pastiche of British Open holes.Â
I’ll have photos and some design analysis soon. The only other suggestion I have – and knowing the casino industry it will fall on deaf ears – but there were entirely too many people hovering about. The minute you park your car, there’s a guy in the parking lot yelling “I’ll take your clubs for you.” The second you walk in the clubhouse, there’s a greeter dehind a desk asking “may I help you.” Then, before you get to the pro shop, you must cut through the locker room and pass the attendant who ask for your attention again. I don’t mond one of the the three, but three is overkill. Give a person a chance to breath and relax like your excellent course does once you get out.
Hi,
I played ACCC the same week I played The Architects but since I “got away” with just $130 I thought it was pretty good. I still do. I have been to New Jersey twice and, in addition to the above mentioned, I have played Scotland Run, Hominy Hill, The Golf Course at Glen Mills and Neshanic Valley. They´re all very good and HH and NV are both great values.
I played ACCC the same week I played The Architects Club but since I got away with “just” $130 I thought it was pretty good. I still do. It is, at least I think so, a simple but yet intriguing, and never boring, design. I have been to New Jersey twice and on those trips I have played, in addition to the above mentioned, Scotland Run, The Golf Course at Glen Mills, Hominy Hill and Neshanic Valley. They´re all very good and the lattter two are also great values.