Atlantic City Country Club - #1 Public Course in New Jersey
"Forget your opponents; always play against par." - Sam Snead
(Played on July 23rd, 2018)
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| The entrance of ACCC. |
Atlantic City Country Club is a public/resort golf course located right across the bay from the struggling shore town that bears its name. It is consistently ranked as the best AC Country Club was formally a private/resort course for golfers taking the train down from Philadelphia, similar to one of our favorite courses, Seaview, right up the road.
Thankfully, it is now a fully public course where any golfer can play and experience over 100 years of golfing history for a whopping fee of $99 to over $200. (Rates vary on the season or time of day.)
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| A lot of history at ACCC. |
AC Country Club has been in ours sights for a long time, but unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts, rain outs, work, and other mishaps, we had a very hard time choosing a date where we all could play. However plans got changed, so only Colman of the Sunday Golfers was able to play. Thankfully, we will all be playing again in the coming week, so be on the look out for another review coming very soon.
Colman will describe the experience first-hand. Due to a connection of his working at ACCC, Colman and his friend Tim were able to play 18 holes for $50 each, which is quite a deal considering people are willing to pay over $200 to play there.
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| AC Country Club is also known as "the birthplace of the birdie". |
I'll try to stay away from the history of the club, not that it isn't important, but rather the fact that every golfer who writes about Atlantic City Country Club talks a lot about the history of the course. If you want to read about that, there are plenty of other websites that tell about it. I will instead tell about the experience myself and my friend Tim had.
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| For the golf history guys. |
Due to the threat of rain all afternoon, which never ended up hitting us, we figured we would be the only ones playing. Other than a few singles we saw, it was mostly just us in the afternoon. We didn't have to wait on any tee, and were able to get around in less than three hours, which includes Tim taking a lot of double pars.
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| The first tee on the right side, connected to the putting green. |
Many golf websites list Atlantic City Country Club as the best public golf course in New Jersey, often switching out with Ballyowen at Crystal Springs or The Architects. Considering the price most people pay to play ACCC, one might think that it must be worth it. We won't disagree, because we didn't have to pay the hefty greens fee, but I'm not so sure it would be worth $200, especially with courses like Seaview, Twisted Dune, etc. right down the road for much cheaper rates.
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| Colman teeing off #14, with AC in the background. |
When Tim and I teed off at 3 o'clock, the wind was gusting at least at 40 miles an hour. Tee shots had to be really thought through, because if you weren't careful, the ball would travel with the wind into trouble.
Of course, this kind of wind is what you want when you play these courses on the bay. If it was humid with no wind, the flies are absolutely brutal. Thankfully, it was a stiff breeze, and the bugs stayed away.
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| The first green, with Tim far left hitting his third. |
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| Colman hitting his tee shot on the par 3 8th. |
The course itself is pretty wide open, giving you a lot of room on drives to spray the ball as you please. The approach shots are the important ones, because the greens are small and the approaches can be pretty long if you're playing into a head wind.
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| Tim teeing off on the par 4 14th. |
Although Tim is a relatively new golfer, using golf clubs he doesn't own himself, he enjoyed himself enough with the views on the course to keep himself busy as he hacked the ball around the course.
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| The wind blowing the 14th flag stick upright. |
Again, we really lucked out with the rain the forecasters were calling for all day never hitting us. The course doesn't have a lot of cart paths around the golf course, just around the greens and the tee boxes. That usually means they can't keep the course as cart path only, even if they wanted to.
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| The par 5 13th green. |
Tim and I both liked the back nine better than the front nine, because the way the course moves along the bay, through the marshes, and through the dunes. The views are also much better, especially with the sun setting in the background. It made for a great ending to a great experience at AC Country Club.
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| Colman hitting his approach into 18, with the giant ACCC clubhouse in the background. |
Here are a few more photos of our day at AC Country Club:
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| Tim hitting out of fairway bunker on 11. |
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| Colman teeing off the 10th tee. |
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| Tim teeing off on 18. |
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| Tim tapping in on 15. |
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| The "tee boxes". |
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| The Ryder Cup Room. |
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| The 13th green. |
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| The 12th tee. |
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| Panorama view of the 14th tee. |
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| A few famous lockers. |
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| ACCC made out of hedges. |
To conclude, Atlantic City Country Club has so much history to it, playing it at least once should be on every golfers bucket list. Especially since it is very public and highly accessible to every golfer. If you are in the Atlantic City area, ACCC and Seaview (Bay Course) would make for a hell of a 36 hole day. Is it a little overpriced? Maybe. Overrated? Perhaps. Is it my favorite course? Not yet. But if I play a few more rounds, maybe with the rest of the Sunday Golfers, the experience may be even better than the first.
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| The ACCC tee markers. |
We hope you enjoyed the write-up. Our next post hopefully has the Pusey Brothers laying the sod all over another nearby golf course.
- The Sunday Golfers
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