EGG HARBOR TWP.

Bill Coore has a different approach to golf course design.

``I like to let the land dictate the course,'' Coore said. ``I don't like to move a lot of earth. For me, to build a course, I need a good piece of ground.''

So good that he can get lost on it.

That's what happened two years ago. Coore came to Egg Harbor Township at the request of Roger Hansen. Hansen had tried on two other occasions to hook up with Coore and his partner Ben Crenshaw … yes, the same one that has a position in the Golf Hall of Fame and was the captain of the last Ryder Cup squad … to build a course. Hansen, who also built the two Blue Heron Pines Courses, hadn't found the right piece of land.

That is until now.

Later this summer the newest gem along the Jersey Shore, Hidden Creek Country Club, will open. The private course will be the home of about 300 golfers and will give the shore community its second private course to open in the last two seasons. The other is Ballamor Golf Club just up the road in Egg Harbor Township.

``This is my dream,'' said Hansen, who also built the two Blue Heron courses in Cologne. Both were projects he wanted Coore & Crenshaw to undertake, but several hurdles remained.

``It's the one course I always wanted to build. That goes back 15 years, when I first talked to Ben. But we couldn't get together, because of schedules and land and permits.

``We finally got it done. It's perfect. It really is. And it's not only the golf course. It is just the whole experience of being here. You walk out here, and it is so peaceful, your blood pressure goes down about 100 points.''

The question is, is the right piece of ground enough to bring in the golfers?

``You have to run a very good business,'' said Hansen, who still believes there are enough golfers for the number of courses that have sprung up all along the Jersey Shore. ``You cannot be lax in your business practices. To be successful, you have to be competitive. It's like any comparable business that is just across the street from one another. Somebody is going to win, and somebody is going to lose. The guy who is running the best business is going to win. We hope we will be running the best business.''

That said, Hansen needed a course and facility to operate. A project that could succeed in a market that is nearly saturated.

Of course, a layout that has the name Crenshaw attached to it is an immediate plus. Crenshaw has long been a historian of golf and has the reputation of developing courses with an older feel. A more traditional style that harkens back to the days of Donald Ross, who was behind the Bay Course at the Seaview Marriott resort, the type of course that present-day players want and almost demand.

More importantly, Crenshaw's success on tour, which includes two Masters victories, is an automatic attraction.

But the two have taken that background and evolved.

Since 1987, they have limited the amount of endeavors they've taken on, but oh what courses they have completed.

``We like to have two or three projects at any one time,'' Coore said. ``Any more than that and its too much. You can't spend the right amount of time or devote enough attention to a course with many more than that. We take pride in our courses, not that other developers don't. It's just how we like to do things.''

The two have formed an almost perfect union and in the Golf Digest 2002 rankings had five designs: The Sandhills (No.‚1), Cuscowilla (No.‚10), Chechessee Creek (No.‚59), The Plantation Course at Kapalua (No.‚71) and Talking Stick Golf Club, North Course (No.‚82) place in the top 100.

``When we build a golf course, the nicest compliment we get is when someone says that it looks like it has been there a long time even though it is in its incubation stages,'' said Crenshaw, via telephone in October. Coore was on site at the time giving the layout one final look before the course would go dormant for the winter.

``We hear that, it pleases us. Quite frankly, we like a course to look a little old in its appearance, and quite natural. What every golf course architect strives to do is have their golf course grow out of the ground. I really think we have accomplished it at Hidden Creek.''

For Coore, its all about the land. At Hidden Creek, he spent time just walking about the trees that made up the property long before the first bulldozer arrived. On one occasion he got his bearings confused and had to call back and find a ride. But in that time, including his time lost in the woods, Coore found a golf course.

``When I walked through here the first time, it was quite different than what I expected,'' said Coore, who eschews using technical drawings as much as possible. ``It is beautifully rolling. You can lay holes on the ground quietly. The holes were in effect already there. We just had to let them evolve out of the land. We did little or almost no alternation to the land forms through the fairway. All the effort was concentrated on the detail work.''

Hidden Creek is projected as a par-71, 7,028-yard tract from the back tees. The sandy terrain and proximity to the ocean allowed the two to build a traditional heathland style course. In essence, one built on shot-making and accuracy. One that will be made more difficult by sea breezes and tall native grasses. While the ocean will not be in view, and the tree-lined fairways won't immediately remind anyone of say, St. Andrews, the course itself will have that feel.

And that's the way Coore & Crenshaw like it. It wasn't an uncommon site to see the two squatting low to the ground and drawing designs in the dirt. Not unlike childhood football games in which ``Kevin'' would go to the Toyota, cut left and head for the fire hydrant. Only for these two it was a natural sand bunker on the left, leave the tall wispy grass on the right and develop a green on the natural elevation next to the sycamore.

``We take what the land gives us,'' Coore said. ``We want the player to say, this hole looks like it belongs here. As if all we did was seed and cut the fairway.''