Best golf courses near Toms River, NJ

Set in the northern portion of New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, the course weaves through pine trees on gently sloping ground. Opening and closing holes on each nine play down and then back up the hill, which is the dominant landform that adds interest to the routing. Robert Trent Jones, Sr., and Roger Rulewich routed all 27 holes through the pines and local marsh, creating a course that challenges a player’s ability to navigate uneven lies and elevation changes. Missing the fairway here will leave a golfer amid the pines often with a difficult recovery. A recent bunker renovation opened up views on some holes while widening the landing area on others. Originally opened in 1987, Metedeconk National has occupied a spot in Golf Digest’s Best in State almost every year since, coming in at No. 15 in New Jersey in the most recent ranking.

Perhaps the only site where George C. Thomas and A.W. Tillinghast worked on the same design (not in tandem) occurred at Spring Lake Golf Club on the Jersey Shore. Thomas routed a new course for the club in 1910, and Tillinghast was hired by the club to rework some bunkers and greens a few years after. Though built on a compact site, Spring Lake boasts some bold and interesting landforms—particularly found on the par-5 third hole, where players are asked to hit a heroic carry for their approach to a large green. And joint bunker complexes on the third and ninth holes are particularly cool. Architect Tripp Davis and his team performed a renovation nearly a decade ago—to help these Thomas and Tillinghast qualities shine.

The locals refer to it as “Spring Ghetto,” but not because it’s in the ghetto or anything like that. It’s, quite literally, a ghetto-a** course, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. When you pull in, the snob in you will start thinking all the snob things, and that feeling will carry over to the first hole, which has a gigantic net situated about 230 yards out in the right rough in order to block balls from killing anyone on the 17th green. It’s also a par 5 that, depending on how straight you can hit your driver, could leave you with less than 150 yards in. Things get super wacky at the eighth, a dog-leg left par 5 that forces you to hit one only about 180 yards off the tee or you could take driver over the internal out-of-bounds and trees and end up with a flip wedge onto the green (true story, I've done it. You could also possibly kill someone on 10 tee or 9 green, however). The eighth is also where you first reach the halfway house, which is also there for you on the 12th green, 13th tee and 14th green if you need it. Unless you are ordering transfusions, in which case you should stop at 1 because they are STRONG at Spring Ghetto. The first time you play here you’ll tell yourself you’re never coming back. Then, when you can’t get a tee time anywhere else, you’ll have Spring Meadow to fall back on and eventually you will fall in love with it like I have. If you want to have fun, make some birdies and not take everything so seriously, Spring Meadow is the place for you. Snobs need not apply. --Christopher Powers, senior writer

Eagle Ridge Golf Club is a little hidden gem down the Jersey Shore. It's been a long rumor that the 27-hole facility would sell off nine of its holes, but we've been hearing about that for upwards of 20 years, and that development haven't come to fruition. And the result is a go-to spot for everyone who knows it exists. The Ridge, Pines and Links nines are all good—maybe save for the extreme-uphill, ultra-difficult and cart-path-only sixth hole on the Links nine. We'll allow one of the 27 holes to be frustrating. Aside from that, it's got a decent practice facility, nice amenities plus a halfway house with a great selection and a nice bar looking over the golf course. Enjoy Eagle Ridge while we still have it—in an area dominated by county-owned golf, this is the rare semi-private layout that delivers.