I played a round at the beautiful Emerson Golf Course in Emerson, New Jersey this weekend and have to say that I am really starting to improve my game as a whole. I continue to hit greens from distances up to 170 yards out, hit fairways, and finally have started to pitch and chip effectivly. That combination led to my career best score of 103 on a not so easy course.

The course’s site just doesn’t do the course justice. It was in superb condition and had some of the toughest rough I have seen this early in the season. They also employed a system that started some groups on the front 9 and some on the back 9 to speed up play. A brilliant move if you ask me. More than anything the course made you use your course management abilities if you were going to score well, this wasn’t a long drive competition.

I had my usual bet with my college buddy Chuck, a New Jersey local, going at $1 per stroke. After the last time we played he was up $18 and I was on a mission to cut into it. After the front, my best nine holes ever, I was up 5 strokes shooting 49. I have to say that the back nine was disappointing both from a course standpoint as well as my score. I hadn’t eaten much and also was (as ususal) running low on sleep so I just couldn’t stay focused. I should have taken my own advice on how to pack my golf bag. Nothing suffered more than my putting and iron game. The final nine holes with only a couple of exceptions seemed to be a direct copy of the first nine in almost the same order. They were still beautiful holes well laid out but it could have used some variety.

At the end of it all I lost another $2 after shooting 54 on the back. While I was playing I was sure that I had shot much worse than that so I really feel that the day was a huge success. I really wanted to get some photos of the course to share and plan on doing that in the future but I just seems hard to slow things down to take pictures while people are either trying to hit their shots or waiting for you to hit yours. I will try and find a happy medium so I can better share my experience out on the links. Hopefully the weather will hold out and I can come back with some amazing photos from Meadows Farms!

Tags: Round Reviews // Add Comment »