New Jersey National Golf Club — Local services in Bernards Township

Member for 15 years, and this course has a great track. It's challenging and never boring even while playing 55 rounds per year. A couple of tweaks, moving blue tee box on the par 5, 2nd hole to the black tee box and same for tee box on the par 4, 9th hole. Very difficult course for guests that play a few rounds per year and tend to spray the ball. Every hole has out of bounds, environmental areas on one or both sides of each fairway. The front 9, as the former starter and PGA Pro, would inform your guests is difficult, but a warm-up for the back 9, which is a real challenge of golf. Front 9 provides several elevated greens and a couple of greens with golf abilities or lack thereof that I possess that are difficult to hold an approach shot. Not a complaint, just a fact. Back 9 is longer with several narrow greens. The majority of the narrow greens leave an extremely difficult shot coming back if you hit over them. When the course is in peak condition, you will find none better in the area. Now, the issues related to the course and course conditions. NJN is owned by Empire Golf and must be absolutely one of the cheapest golf management companies in business. Bunkers are an issue. There is a 50/50 chance of hitting the bottom of the bunker and skulling the ball across the green. Bunkers are hardly ever raked unless there is an outside tournament being played. They have no idea how to maintain a bunker, but have proven that they are experienced in filling them in with dirt. There was a huge bunker about half of the way to the par 3, 10th green. There were five people working on this bunker, then two weeks later the bunker is filled with dirt. Very seldom know when greens will be punched. Even the county courses provide the dates at the beginning of the year. You may show up ready to play with a guest and find out the greens are punched, no discount for guest and greens fees are one of the most expensive in NJ. Drinking water on the golf course is a cooler sitting on a bench, such class. Walking one morning from the number 7 par three green to the number 8 par five tee box. Along the way we approached two coolers, one has mold on the cooler nozzle, I asked playing partner how does the other cooler look. Responded, fine except for the grass floating in the water. • The steps are a hazard • Railings are falling down • Painting is needed and just a fuc*ing eyesore • Non-working tv’s still hang on the wall after = 8 years • Small tv’s next to the bar are covered by puppet show curtains • Cart paths are hazardous to your back • Conditions deteriorate 5 to 10% yearly • Only clubhouse where you can change shoes and shower while seated at your locker • Most discussions following the round end up as gripe sessions related to course conditions or paying $11.50 for a High Noon or $16.00 for a transfusion • Cart girl for external outings only • No divot repair mixes on par 3’s. Grounds crew will handle, waiting 8 years • No first cut but seems to be a trend at many courses • Weekend mornings, no one knows if greens are being cut, rolled or both • Weekend tee times beginning at 9am may take 4.5 hours • Response to any suggested improvements, this is how we’ve always done it • You become a random person once your money is paid, focus is where to get more

As long as Empire continues to own and manage, there will be no positive changes and only continue to deteriorate. Empire had also attempted to cash by refusing to refund initiation fees for those former members that had resigned. A lawsuit ensued and the judge approved a $1.7M class action settlement. Prior to this ruling, there was little hope for improvements, but any hope died following the $1.7M settlement. This has to impact the employees. The GM has his PGA Card, but no one else even attempts.

Now that good members have and are resigning, course conditions continue to deteriorate, no reason to be a member.

Restaurant's trifecta for disaster; 1) overpriced, 2) medium quality, and 3) small portions

"Expect very little and you will never be...

I was a member there for a few years. The course layout is a good test of golf. You can play a mellow course from the whites, a testy course from the blues and an absolute beast from the blacks The front nine is fairly gentle while the back nine is much more difficult. One thing I didn't like about the front nine is that the two par 3's are essentially the same hole....120-160 yard steep downhill shot. The facilities are adequate and the food is excellent, especially their signature burgers. Now for the bad news. There were some incidents there that were simply intolerable: My locker was broken into and shoes stolen. The pro shop would not sell me a pair of shoes at their cost. I took a prominent exec out for a round of golf on a Tuesday morning at 8:00 AM as he wasn't a good golfer and we wanted to avoid holding other groups up. Despite the course being nearly vacant, after finishing up the front nine, the starter admonished me for being behind on pace, and this was within audible range of the exec. That surely made him feel good. The starter could have pulled me aside and asked us to speed things up. The course condition was deteriorating. On a hot August day, the grounds crew had a massive sprinkler hose arching a huge stream of water straight into a greenside bunker. A torrent of water and sand was pouring out of the bunker across the cart path and we had to drive to the opposite side of the fairway and go behind the green to avoid the flood. What was the point of that? Their green aeration was terrible. When a green is aerated, most courses top dress with a generous layer of sand to fill the plug holes. Nope, NJN simply aerated the greens, didn't apply sand and the putting surfaces took forever to heal.

Reports from folks that are still members indicate that things are much improved in recent years. If that is truly the case, I would consider re-joining as it is a very enjoyable golf course that is convenient to major highways. The negatives I referred to are things that could be fixed at the...

Subject: Jeff Marx - Club Pro - Golf Lessons

I came into this $495 set of lessons with the objective to undo everything I learned from my fellow hackers and to finally learn how to play golf from a pro! During these lessons, my game has improved drastically and my knowledge has improved 100%. Jeff's attitude and helpful suggestions really helped me to relax and hit better shots without providing TOO many instructions that would cramp my brain 😊 His approach and philosophy to the game is right on the mark – i.e., get the fundamentals down, apply them to most clubs and practice and practice till you become a good ball striker.

I highly recommend Jeff to anyone at any level that is looking for golf lessons.

NJ National should be proud to have...