By Paul Sheffield
If you live in the Northeast and had the opportunity to golf over Mother’s day weekend, you know exactly what the title means. New Jersey experienced some of the highest winds after a cold front moved through. Beautiful skies and a moderate temperature made the day look as if it were perfect to grab the clubs and hit the links, but that was only if you were looking through a window in your cozy Cat 5 house. Once outside the day appeared as some interesting golf was about to follow. With winds gusting 50mph and over, the smile on the starters face said it all, but he added “good luck” just for effect.
Neshanic Valley Golf Course is a well maintained course with a fairly open layout. It features 27 holes of championship golf and plus another 9 holes for “academy” play. Rolling hills, ponds, and wide areas of fescue line “The Ridge,” “The Lake,” and “The Meadow” courses. The greens are defended by bunkers, but the most challenging of the courses’ attributes on this particular day was the whipping winds.
The Par-4 3rd Tee on “The Ridge” proved to be one of the most challenging holes. As a single handicapper stepped up and crushed a drive that would have carried well over 275 yards, Mother Nature opened up and seemed to bellow “not on my course.” The ball started out long and straight before being lifted vertically, blown straight backwards, and deposited softly a 100 yards from the tee box. Having a natural fade off the Tee is a serious detriment when playing with this type of cross wind. However, with the wind at your back, you might think that you could take on John Daly.
At the end of the day, each golfer was a few sleeves lighter and we ran out of coal eyes and carrot noses for the scorecard, but hey, it made for a great story.
Tags: courses, stories//
Category Courses, Stories //
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