Sand Barrens
Swainton sits miles south of Atlantic City, but the drive along the
parkway is a beautiful one (save for the occasional industrial areas)
and the gold at the end of the rainbow is the Sand Barrens golf club.
Dana Fry, formerly of the Hurdzan/Fry architectural team, came to
this property in the mid 1990s and decided that this property would
be his opus. He walked the terrain ceaselessly, no matter the weather,
making mental notes as he went. Originally slated to be a parklandstyle course, Fry uncovered indigenous sand beneath the layer of soil
and developed a hybrid farm-links course instead. The Sand Barrens
course avails itself of tree-covered dunes of moderate size, speckled
with large and small ponds. Having 27 holes allows for variety in daily
play, ensuring that no visitors nor regulars tire of the layout.
Rather than log the thousands of trees on the property, the owners
of Sand Barrens allowed Dana Fry to create a target-oriented golf
course. Many fairways lack the width found on other area layouts.
This isn’t bad, as long as you opt for the proper set of tees. Driver isn’t
mandatory on all driving holes, and one feels as if Fry is along for the
ride, daring you to hit the big club but hoping you’ll play smart and
dial it back to a hybrid or fairway metal.
Sand Barrens isn’t short off the tee and it isn’t short on the funk,
either. The 4th hole of the South nine throws a tribute to the dual
greens at Pine Valley’s 9th hole. At Sand Barrens, the hole plays from
329 (forward tees) to 429 (tips) yards, and the option of left versus
right green adds no distance. Both approach shots must carry the
massive waste pit that fronts the putting surfaces. With the split
greens, though, Fry hardly showed his hand. The West course’s
4th hole and the North course’s 2nd meet at a conjoined green,
reminiscent of the double greens of the Old Course at St. Andrews.
Although a third fairway does not join the other two, it’s realistic
to imagine that this mammoth putting surface is the size of a triple
green. If it weren’t so far from the clubhouse, it would be easy to
envision 19th hole bets being settled with 300-feet long, quadruplebreak, putting contests.
McCullough’s Emerald Golf Links
For a time, the replica course made inroads into the postmodern
world of golf course architecture. Some owners felt that the finest
golf holes had already been created, so why not do something
different by assembling tribute holes in one place, on one course?
Royal Links in Las Vegas, Golden Ocala in Florida and Tour 18 in
Houston are examples of this type of course. The Emerald Golf Links
in Egg Harbor Township tips its cap to the great courses of Scotland
Volume 3 • Issue 29
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