By Paul Giordano
Courier-Post Staff
PINE HILL
On a clear day, from atop the highest point in South Jersey, you can see forever.‚.‚.‚ with the Philadelphia skyline in the foreground.
On a clear day, sometime during the spring of 2001, you can still see forever‚.‚.‚.‚this time from inside of the Pine Hill Golf Club dining room.
Tuesday morning, with developer Eric Bergstol and golf course architect Tom Fazio taking shovels in hand, ground was officially broken for the planned ``world class'' Pine Hill 18-hole high-end championship layout. The site is the former home of Action Mountain Fun Park and Ski Mountain.
For the record, Action Mountain and Ski Mountain went bankrupt in 1986. The 186-acre site has been barren ever since.
``It's been almost four years ago that I heard about the land and the development potential,'' Bergstol said. ``Then when I saw it, I got hooked on it. It was something special here. With terrain that is similar to Pine Valley and the closeness of Pine Valley, it was a fascinating concept.
``I was introduced to the people of the borough and one of the suggestions was a golf course. But they only had 186 acres. That wasn't enough to do a world-class golf course.
``Through this time period when I've been working with the agencies, dealing with wetlands buffers and things like that, I went after and acquired some adjacent properties and tied it all together to accumulate enough land, 360 acres, to have a world-class championship golf course.
``The concept I like to promote is the private club for a day. I want people who play public courses to get a feel of what it's like to play a world-class golf course.
''I think New Jersey has probably been deprived with regards to real quality public golf,'' Bergstol added, ``You have some of the best private courses in the country in New Jersey, but I've always believed the public should have the opportunity to play quality golf courses and that's why I look to New Jersey for projects.''
Bergstol's New Jersey projects include the New Jersey National Golf Club in Basking Ridge and the Pine Barrens Golf Club in Jackson. He's also developed the Minisceongo Golf Club in Pomona, N.Y., and the Hudson National Golf Club in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.
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To put his concept to work at Pine Hill, Bergstol hired Fazio, known world-
wide for his work. To date, Fazio has designed 120 golf courses, including the short-course at Pine Valley, and Galloway National.
Nine of Fazio's courses are among Golf Digest's ``America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses'' and 22 are ``America's 100 Best Modern Courses'' by Golfweek/Golf Travel.
``Being so close to Pine Valley has made this very challenging,'' Fazio said. ``As everyone knows, Pine Valley just happens to be and has been the number one golf course in the world by every expert, every panel. It's just a couple of drivers and a three-wood from here.
``You look at what exists here, the setting, the soil and its basically the same terrain as Pine Valley. But we're not going to build the same kind of golf course. That's the ultimate penal golf course. That golf course is very difficult and very hard to play for the majority of players.
``If anything,'' Fazio added, ``the style here would have a little bit of a Galloway look, because that is also a pine-forested area. It will also have the feel of a Pine Valley, but will be distinctive and has it's own style.
``We have a plan on paper, but it's just a concept. It's not automatic. How many sand bunkers? The square footage of the greens? We really can't pinpoint.
``We may show on paper a golf hole as a par-4, dogleg right with two bunkers on the right side. That doesn't mean we're going to build that. We're going to determine that in about a month or two when we physically start to do it.''
And on a clear day, from atop the highest elevation in South Jersey, the Pine Hill Golf Club came into view.
