Pine Valley Golf Club – Syndication Server

Golfweek’s Best 2022: Top public and private courses in New Jersey

New Jersey’s private courses shine as brightly as any state, with Pine Valley leading the way.

New Jersey is famous for its private golf clubs, with each of the top 15 on Golfweek’s Best list of private courses in the state ranked among either the top 200 modern or classic courses in the United States. Pine Valley Golf Club tops the list in the state, as well as being No. 1 on the Golfweek’s Best ranking of classic courses built before 1960 in the U.S.

But don’t discount the state’s public-access offerings. There are plenty of solid offerings that don’t require an initiation fee.

Golfweek’s Best offers many lists of course rankings, with that of top public-access courses in each state among the most popular. All the courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time.

Also popular is the Golfweek’s Best list for top private clubs in each state. Check out the best of the New Jersey’s public and private courses below.

MORE: Best Modern | Best Classic | Top 200 Resort | Top 200 Residential | Top 100 Best You Can Play

(m): Modern course, built in or after 1960
(c): Classic course, built before 1960

Note: If there is a number in the parenthesis with the m or c, that indicates where that course ranks among Golfweek’s Best top 200 modern or classic courses.

* New to or returning to list

Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses 2022: From Pebble Beach to Pinehurst, the top 200 golf courses built before 1960

Golfweek’s raters have ranked the top 200 courses built in the United States before 1960, such as Augusta National, Pebble Beach and more

Welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2022 list of the Top 200 Classic Courses before 1960 in the United States.

Each year we publish many lists, with this Top 200 Classic Courses list among the premium offerings. Also extremely popular and significant are the lists for Top 200 Modern Courses, the Best Courses You Can Play State by State and Best Private Courses State by State.

The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce these rankings. The top handful of courses in the world have an average rating of above 9, while many excellent layouts fall into the high-6 to the 8 range.

To ensure these lists are up-to-date, Golfweek’s Best in recent years has altered how the individual ratings are compiled into the rankings. Only ratings from rounds played in the past 10 years are included in the compilations. This helps ensure that any course in the rankings still measures up.

Courses also must have a minimum of 25 votes to qualify for the Top 200 Modern or the Top 200 Classic. Other Golfweek’s Best lists, such as Best Courses You Can Play or Best Private, do not require as many votes. This makes it possible that a course can show up on other lists but not on the premium Top 200 lists.

Each course is listed with its average rating next to the name, the location, the year it opened and the designers. The list also notes in parenthesis next to the name of each course where that course ranked in 2021. Also included with many courses are links to recent stories about that layout.

After the designers are several designations that note what type of facility it is:

• p: private
• d: daily fee
• r: resort course
• t: tour course
• u: university
• m: municipal
• re: real estate
• c: casino

* Indicates new to or returning to this list.

Editor’s note: The 2022 Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses list for the top 200 layouts built after 1960 in the U.S. was published Monday, May 23. The Best Courses You Can Play lists and the Best Private Courses lists will follow over the next two weeks.

Crump Cup: Michael Muehr-John Sawin; Jason Anthony-Stewart Hagestad to meet in semis at Pine Valley

The semifinal matches are set for the 96th annual George Arthur Crump Memorial Tournament at Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey.

Three-time champion Michael Muehr of McLean, Virginia, beat tournament medalist Jeronimo Esteve of Windermere, Florida, in his morning match and Kris Mikkelsen of Atlanta in the afternoon. The 2019 champion will take on 2016 runner-up John Sawin of Pebble Beach, California, in Sunday morning’s semifinal match of the 96th annual George Arthur Crump Memorial Tournament at Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey. Jason Anthony of Fairfield, California, will play 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur Champion Stewart Hagestad of Newport Beach, California, in the final four.

Defending senior champion Gene Elliott of West Des Moines, Iowa, will face his fellow Hawkeye and longtime pal Michael McCoy of Norwalk, Iowa, in a Sunday morning semifinal match of past tournament champions. Michael Kelley of Westerville, Ohio will play against Matthew Sughrue of Arlington, Virginia on the other side of the bracket.

Pine Valley Golf Club, the No. 1-ranked classic course on Golfweek’s Best list, is a private club that traditionally opens its doors on the final day of the competition. However, it will not be open to the public for Sunday’s final match of the 2021 Crump Memorial Tournament.

Here’s the bracket for all flights:

Forward Press podcast: Nelly Korda the new No. 1; Pine Valley admitting women

In this 101st edition of the Forward Press Podcast, Golfweek’s David Dusek catches up with Beth Ann Nichols.

Welcome to episode 101 of Forward Press, a weekly podcast from Golfweek.

In this edition of the Forward Press Podcast, Golfweek‘s David Dusek chats with Beth Ann Nichols about Nelly Korda becoming the new world No.1 in women’s golf and what expectations she now has with that title. Also, the exclusive Pine Valley Golf Club is allowing women to be members at the historic club.

Did you like what you heard? You can catch up on previous episodes of the Forward Press podcast here.