Westwood Golf Club
850 Kings Highway
Woodbury, NJ.
Gloucester resident Coppola takes his shot at the difficult par 3 11th hole at Westwood Golf Club.
Tee times: (856) 845-2000. Tee times are not taken during the week, but are required for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Yardage: Men (5,968), Women (5,128)
Rating, slope:Men (68.2, 120), Women (69.2, 116)
Greens fees: Weekdays walking: Monday-Thursday, $24; Friday, $25, Weekends after noon: $30 (carts required until noon). With cart:Monday-Thursday, $38; before 8 a.m., $35; Fridays, $39; weekends before 10 a.m., $44. There are also twighlight rates on weekdays and weekends and nine-hole rates. Consult Web site listed below.
Directions: Rt. 295 South to Exit 24A (Woodbury). Exit ramp puts you on Broad Street (Rt. 551). Continue on Broad Street into downtown Woodbury. Make right onto Kings Highway at traffic light (Sunoco station on far corner). Continue on Kings Highway for approximately 1 mile. Westwood is on left.
Web site: www.westwoodgolfclub.com
Enjoy a round, work on your game at the improved Gloucester County course
By TODD SHANER
Courier-Post Staff
WOODBURY
When you pull into the parking lot, get out and look at the Westwood Golf Club layout, you see green.
You see a course in really good shape. Not that any self-respecting golf course wouldn't be given the immense amount of water dumped on South Jersey this spring.
At Westwood, you can get up some morning, decide you want to play golf, get in your car, drive to course and probably be able to tee it up in a decent amount of time. Westwood only takes tee times Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so the other four days, take your chances.
When you arrive, you'll be pleasantly surprised at the playability of the course. It's not long (5,968 from the white tees) and not overly difficult (68.2 rating, 120 slope). There are some easy holes and a few with a bit of bite to them. You'll see players from other fairways in your fairway and stray shots will occasionally have you ducking.
Overall, it's a place to work on your game, enjoy a relaxing round with friends, and get some exercise. Westwood is a fine walking course.
Best hole (Candidate for the Dream 18): There's an intimidating tee shot to the 390-yard, par-4 14th. If you find the fairway, there's a long second shot to the green. Other than that . . . The tee shot here must find the fairway. Hook it, you're dead. Slice it, you may kill someone standing on the 11th tee. Pop it up or top it and you're in a creek. That negotiated, there's the matter of the second shot. Chances are it will be anywhere from 160-180 yards. A sand trap is short left of the green.
Hardest hole: The 417-yard sixth is the longest par 4 here by 27 yards. You tee off out of a low area across a creek into the side of a hill. Depending on how long you hit it, you could be facing a blind second shot toward the green, and have an awkward stance. A long tee shot may have you on top of the hill, staring down the green, which sits framed in a semicircle by trees. Par is a good thing here.
Coolest par 3: It has to be the oft-criticized, oft-maligned and thankfully-never-duplicated 190-yard 11th hole. For years this hole was arguably the most unfair one in South Jersey, because of the mountain-like slope in the green. It was also the most closed hole in South Jersey, rarely open for long stretches, again because of the problems in keeping the green. But a few years ago, the green was leveled out. It still has a little slope in it, but nothing as ridiculously unfair as what passed as a green previously. Now, you tee off through a shute of trees to the green. Don't go short right (trees), long right (down an embankment), long (not much ground over the green) or left (somebody's side yard).
Interesting hole(s): Twin par 4s in the fourth and 15th. Both are 90-degree doglegs to the right. A stand of trees makes you play the fourth straight. Tee shot to the corner, short approach to the green. Unless, of course, you choose to take it over the trees and wind up with a shot of 50 yards or less. A lone bunker in front of the green influences the second shot. On the 15th, you want to aim for the lone tree in the middle of the fairway. After that tree, the fairway falls off down to a creek, then climbs back to the green. The fairway is on the far side of the tree. Anything short of it leaves you hitting out of thicker grass and possibly out of downhill lie.
Great closing hole? Somewhat. Tee off up a hill with trees hard to the left of the fairway. Go too far right and you'll be yelling `Fore!' to the folks standing on the 15th tee. After the tee shot, the hole flattens out and is rather ordinary.
Birdie: The 442-yard, par-5 16th is a great opportunity to put a birdie on the card late in the round. It's mildly uphill to a green separated by a disturbingly large hump through the middle, creating what amounts to two greens. Hit your approach to the side of the hump where the flag is and you can make birdie.
Bogey: The prime landing area for the tee shot on the par-4 14th hole is next to the green for the 10th hole and the 11th tee. Any sort of fade or slice off the tee will send the folks on the 11th tee scrambling.
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