There comes a time in every golfer's life when the tee shots bend, the fairway woods duff, the irons shank, the wedges fluff and the putts are either too long, too short or play ring around the cup.

Total frustration.

The way to fix that is through lessons from an area PGA professional. Or, as a search on the Internet finds, " Welcome to the Pitman Golf Course. We maintain a simple philosophy to uphold excellent playing conditions at affordable prices for the residents of Gloucester County and the general golfing public."

Opened in 1927, Pitman currently plays 6,125 yards from the back tees, 5,694 from the white and 4,942 from the red. It is a course to play to regain confidence and feel good about overall play.

Although the player can spray shots a little more than normal on the somewhat open and well-manicured fairways without getting into too much trouble, letting it rip from the tee isn't going to get it done.

The player still has to come close to hitting the wider fairways and think out approach shots to regain swing control and that feel-good attitude. Pitman's layout will allow the player to do just that. It may be a little shorter than most, but it is still challenging.

The toughest hole is the par-4, 408-yard (white tees) 11th hole (No. 2 handicap). The tee shots play into a 90- degree dogleg left, 200 yards from the tee. The tee shot must be placed from the middle to right side of fairway, not to exceed 185 yards for a clear second shot at the elevated green across a water hazard and a valley-like up- and-down fairway.

The remaining 17 holes play into a better scoring, feel- good remedy round of golf.

Playing into a better round of golf, the Pitman Golf Course has produced its share of PGA professionals. John Tyrell is the current head pro at Laurel Creek Country Club. Greg Farrow holds the same position at Deerwood Country Club. John Burrell is one of the area's respected teaching pros. Dan Rudley is a recently added assistant at Laurel Creek.

And there's the late Al Besselink, who played on tour in the '40s and '50s and competed with the then youthful Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player.

Besselink once lived at the Pitman Golf Course, as did the legendary George Low Sr. But that's another story.

In celebration of its 75th year, the Pitman Golf Course has under construction a 12,000-square-foot full-service clubhouse on part of the parking lot and grounds facing Pitman Road. It's slated for completion by early January. Enough said.