By Sean Fawcett
Golfing a round at Union League National Golf Club is, to put it mildly, pure bliss.
The newest in the pantheon of great, private South Jersey golf clubs, Union League National, is a hybrid of New Jersey’s very own Pine Valley, perennially America’s top-rated golf course, and The Masters’ Augusta National And it’s almost too incredible to be believed. Almost.
Located near Avalon in Cape May Court House, and built upon the bones of the old Sand Barrens Golf Course by its original architect, Dana Fry, with design partner Jason Straka, Union League National is both awe-inspiringly amazing and a total thrill to play.
Smooth, rolling Augusta-like fairways surrounded by a forest of pines and oaks transport golfers to a nearly otherworldly golfer’s paradise.
“The course is totally unrecognizable from when it was Sand Barrens,” said Union League National Golf Club General Manager Jacob Hoffer. “Lakes, ponds and creeks, plus vast waste areas and creative vertical elevation all create so much more drama than there was here before.”
Architecture is art. Golf course architects are artists. Each hole is like a single and specific painting in a gallery.
At Union League National, Fry, like his mentor, the late and great Mike Strantz, thought by some to be the Pablo Picasso of golf course design, filled his very own gallery with 27 completely unique and utterly unforgettable masterpieces to play and behold.
Three nines, each named for Civil War generals Grant, Meade and Sherman, make up Union League National. The newest nine, Meade, which opened last year in the final year of a four-year re-imagining, along with Grant and Sherman, feature breathtaking elevations with desert-like waste areas, with some holes highlighted by as many as a dozen or more sandtraps.
One of the very best examples of this is the brilliantly designed and somewhat intimidating par-4 eighth on Sherman.
Teeing over water to a rising fairway guarded by two fairway bunkers, eight plays upward to a plateau putting surface protected by eight traps – true risk/reward par 4. Longer hitters will want to go for the green to possibly putt for eagle or, more likely, chip or play from the greenside bunkers to get up-and-down for a birdie.
One of my other favorite holes to play is Grant’s third: a petite, pretty and puzzling little par 3 modeled after one of Pine Valley’s most renowned holes, the 10th.
Only about a wedge to maybe an 8 iron, Grant’s third plays over a sea of sand to a postage-stamp, table-top, two-tiered green complex requiring accuracy and a high, lofted tee ball. A penal pit bunker, taller than an NBA center, stands guard over the short left portion of the green, making a player’s backswing even extra nervy.
I can go on and on about each and every one of Union League’s other incredible 25 holes, but believe me they are all just as much fun to play and just look at.
“We are very proud of our work at Union League National,” said Fry. “Union League National will take its place as one of the premier clubs not only on the Jersey Shore, but on the entire East Coast.”
