Stone Harbor’s Excellence is a Sure Bet

Stone Harbor, N.J. (Aug. 2005)-I stood on the elevated tee box of the magnificent 419-yard second hole of Stone Harbor Golf Club’s course, preparing to hit my tee shot, an imposing proposition requiring a tee shot that must be positioned between a fairly large lake on the right and a bunker straight out on the left side of this right-curving hole. I was mesmerized by the sight, not only because of its strategic brilliance but its visual opulence.
The Stone Harbor golf course is like that: one unique and truly fine hole after another, many beginning with sharply elevated tees that give this essentially flat track of southern New Jersey pinelands ground the feel of a course located on hilly geography. It also has a remote quality. Just off the Garden State Parkway, you feel as if you are in the wilderness, miles from civilization.

The course features an abundance of lakes (11 on 18 holes), majestic Jersey pines that line many holes, ridges and valleys, and a set of par 3’s that can stand up to any other golf test. This magnificent course is the feature amenity of a very high-end world class private golf club that the most sophisticated golf and club enthusiasts already know is one of the best kept secrets on the south Jersey shore.

Located on Route 9 in Cape May Court House just west of upscale Stone Harbor, Stone Harbor Golf Club lies on terrain that looks as if it were out in the wilderness. Its native tall grasses and elegant pines and hardwoods grace a piece of land on which is arguably one of the most interesting and certainly one of the best and fairest tests of golf in the entire state. Renovated in recent years, the golf course has drawn raves from golf aficionados.

It wasn’t always so. Critics panned the original design, done by Desmond Muirhead in the late 1980s for its quirky features, like island bunkers and steep green contours that didn’t accept good approach shots. Now deceased, Muirhead, who did the routing of Muirfield Village, home of The Memorial tournament, and was a renowned community masterplanner, applied a vivid imagination to his design to produce a difficult golf course at best and an unplayable one at worst. His design featured a diamond-shaped green, small bunkers around the top of another green made to look like a tiara, and two island greens. Many of its greens had impossible ridges and swales.

Today, the course has been softened dramatically without touching some of Muirhead’s more unique and attractive elements such as elevated tee boxes, high banks that line many fairways and push slightly off-line drives back into play, and stunning lakes. These features give the course an aura of a remote mountainside layout.

Playing Stone Harbor with Director of Golf Marc Kimminau in August 2005, I encountered an eminently playable golf course with a personality and characteristics that make it one of those tracks that I would want to play over and over. Kimminau contends that the course offers 18 unique and memorable holes, each with its own distinguishing features, and I would agree. It is a real but fair test with bounteous lakes (11) in a majestically scenic pinelands setting.

Stone Harbor was built in the 1950’s by the JJ Nugent family as a public golf course. The family, which made their money in construction, hired Muirhead whose design eccentricities appealed to their desire for a course that would stand out and above the crowd. The public facility continued under the ownership of the Nugent children who inherited it after their father died.

In 1988, Stone Harbor opened as a private golf club under the direction of a business venture, headed by prominent New Jerseyan Gordon Shaffner, with the Nugents continuing to provide the lion’s share of the capital. Shaffner dramatically softened the course, eliminating many of Muirhead’s eccentric features that included diamond shaped greens, island bunkers, and a number of other bunkers that made the course overly penal. Bunkers that surrounded one green and were designed by Muirhead to appear like a tiara were also taken out. The more pronounced ridges and valleys in a few greens were also taken out.

By 1993, membership began to plateau, as a boom in new golf courses in the area began to erode the club’s membership base. In 1999, the Nugents sold the club to Chicago-based Crown Golf Properties, a division of a conglomerate that owns prominent real-estate, including Rockefeller Center in New York, Ojai Inn in California and the part of Chicago Bulls Basketball Team and the White Sox baseball team.

According to Kimminau, Crown made a major commitment to top quality service and hospitality and turf conditions. In addition to its golf course, which is sensational and has hosted major regional golf tournaments, the small, elegant clubhouse overlooking the spectacular 18th hole with its large lake, offer world class fare which diners can enjoy either in the elegant indoor dining room or the patio.

“We have been able to retain the finest in staff and membership,” says Kimminau. Full time membership which includes unlimited golf is $4000 for the initial year and $3370 for subsequent renewals. Associate members pay $435 for the first year and $380 for subsequent years plus greens fees. Corporate members initially pay about $5300 with a slightly smaller assessment in subsequent years. For the fees it charges for world class amenities, Stone Harbor may be the best value in the country. “Our market base is upscale Stone Harbor, NJ,” according to Kimminau. “Our members are second or third home owners who spend 30-60 days here.”
The Stone Harbor/Avalon area of the Jersey shore is a high-end housing market and many of the club’s members own second homes in this area. Furthermore, says Kimminau, “Our members typically are members of all the finest private golf clubs on the East Coast including Merion, Pine Valley, Baltusrol, Wilmington CC and Baltimore CC.

The pinelands course is walker friendly and many members enjoy carrying their own clubs and the club offers a caddie program in season. We are a family environment. It has a very personal atmosphere because it is small enough for members to know each other. Hosting an average of only 20,000 rounds a year, the course is never crowded.” 

Stone Harbor Golf Club
905 Route 9 North
Cape May Court House, NJ 08210-1627
(609) 465-9270 phone
(609) 465-1659 fax

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Alan B. Nichols is a professional golf-travel writer residing in Bethesda, MD.
He is the featured golf-travel writer for GolfLink. Alan appreciates your
comments on his features and the courses he has written about. 
E-MAIL ALAN NICHOLS

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