By PAUL GIORDANO
Courier-Post Staff
PITTSGROVE
Ed Carman is a gentleman's gentleman, a golfer's golfer. He's that rare and much missed breed, who believes in what he does and does what he believes.
Ed Carman is in love with the game of golf. He's a PGA professional, golf course designer/developer and innovator.
Recently, along with his sons J.R. and Ted, Carman designed, developed and opened the Running Deer Country Club in Pittsgrove. Running Deer is a private club, with the essence of the Pine Valley Golf Club, a blend of nature and a uniqueness of its own.
Or, as Carman likes to point out, ``A few affable people, sharing a common philosophy of how the game should be played, gather near the end of the road at a place called Running Deer.''
Ed Carman was first bitten by the golf bug at age 11 when he started caddying at the Cohanzick Country Club in 1938.
``I liked the game immediately,'' Carman said. ``I didn't have any clubs so I took a laurel branch and formed it like a golf club. My father shaved off the edge so it had a little bit of a loft to it like a little wooden club. we used to beat the ball around in our yard.
``I continued to caddy and someone gave me an 8-
iron. And I thought that was the greatest gift I ever had. This was all over a period of a couple of years. Then, my father was in a swap shop in Philadelphia and brought home a whole bag of clubs in an old cloth bag and they were all wooden shaft clubs. There must have been 15-20 clubs in that bag. By now I'm 12 or 13 years old and I could use those clubs if I shanked down on them. And I used those clubs for a couple of years.
"I got my first set of golf clubs in 1946. The irons that I'm now using, I started using in 1953. And my kids say to me `why don't you get a set of new irons?' And I say I would if they would improve my game. I've had a few good rounds in my life. I won some little tournaments, pro-ams. I won the Calucutta in 1960 at the Linwood Country Club. I was low pro, low two ball, low three ball, low four ball.''
Carman was a member of the PGA ``in 1953 or 1954.'' He signed on with Buena Vista Country Club as its head pro in 1956. ``Before they sowed the grass,'' Carman said. ``I opened it May 30th, 1957 and I was there six years.''
However, Ed Carman had a dream, a golf course of his own.
``At that time Cohanzick was private, Buena was private, Pitman was the only public golf course,'' Carman said. ``And I had the idea that a decent public golf course would succeed in the area. And I felt Centerton has to be my area. I was lucky to find that site. It was a farm when I bought it in 1960.''
On his day off from Buena, Carman would work on the golf course. He bought an old bulldozer and started clearing land.
``I was doing quite well at Buena because they gave me the cart concession,'' Carman said. ``It was quite lucrative. I knew that someday they were going to take that cart concession away from me. They came to me in the fall of 1962 and said that they were taking over the cart concession. This was when it was owned by stockholders and the original group of founders.''
Carman decided to go to the Small Business Administration to apply for a loan to finish Centerton. ``And if I get the SBA loan I would resign my job,'' Carman said. ``So I made my application with the SBA and in March of '63 they OK'd it for 9 holes.''
Carman put an ad in the Vineland Times Journal and the response was so great he went back for another loan to add another 9 holes.
On May 30, 1964, Ed Carman opened the Centerton Golf Club.
He sold it to the Matteo family in 1991.
In the 80s, Carman started to rethink about building a private golf club, a plan he said, ``I started to think about in 1977.'' It would become Running Deer.
Why?
``Over the years something has been lost,'' Carman said. ``People don't have the patience or the consideration. They are not ladies and gentlemen. They lose the essence of it. It's like, `I have to get out there, get out of my way.' It's all part of our lifestyle. Everything's going like hell.
``Here it's to slow down, to come out here and forget it. Forget everything, change your gears. You come down here to play golf, you're going on holiday. You're only going to be here a few hours and you don't have to be aggravated by a bunch of people in front of you or a bunch of people pushing in back of you. What we are trying to do is make golf comfortable and enjoyable. That's what we have to sell and that's what we constantly work on.
So precise was Carman in his dedication to make Running Deer the best it could be, he built plastic models of each hole. ``To get it right,'' he said. ``to get it right.
``My sons helped me with everything,'' Carman said. ``Teddy is 29 and he takes care of the golf course. J.R. is 37 and he's a PGA pro. He takes care of the golf.
``I don't want this to get like the other places. Keep it quiet. Keep it nice. Keep it in good shape. Have those kind of people come here who can afford it and who appreciate it.''
Ladies and gentlemen. Patience. Consideration. Slow down and forget everything else. Golf the way it should be.
``Drop the ball in front of you,'' Carman said. ``On the grass. Have the club in your hand. And what do you anticipate doing? You anticipate making a swing and you hope to get a certain trajectory and a certain feel of that hit. That is what captures people, the feel of that hit. Even if you don't hit it as far a Tiger Woods, if you hit it good and it goes your distance and it does what you want .‚.‚. that's the essence of golf.
``Being on this golf course, or any golf course, you've never seen an ugly golf course if you think about it,'' Carman said.
``There's always something interesting and good about every golf course you play.
``The way you play the game is your problem, whether you hit it or don't hit it, or how many three putts you have ... that really isn't important. You're still on a golf course. Expose yourself to the whole atmosphere of what it is here, peace and quite. I know I sound like a commercial, but what I am trying to do is just do it. Just do it and then you feel it.
"I want them to feel that Running Deer is a special place and they are on holiday and get special treatment when they come here. That's all we're trying to do. This is just a throwback to the way it was and what most people never had the opportunity to experience.''
Running Deer plays to six sets of tees: From the tips it plays 7,225 yards. For the Long it plays 6,945. From the Middle it plays 6,650.
From the Mulligan it plays 6,270. From the Forward it plays 5,965. From the front it plays 5,520.
``The grass and golf course doesn't have to be perfect,'' Carman said.
``It has to be fair. We're at that point now where we're striving to get our place fair. And it's going to take a couple of years to grow it in, so we don't have so many places that are typically out of play that are playable.''
And played by ladies and gentlemen, with patience and consideration. Slow down and forget everything else. Golf the way it should be.
