Best Golf Courses Near Lakewood, NJ

Lakewood, NJ, the Garden State’s largest town, is located 90 minutes from Manhattan. Back in the late 1800s, it was a winter retreat for the likes of the railroad baron Jay Gould, the oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, and other notable elites. Golf was an early favorite sport in Lakewood, as it still is nowadays. Lakewood Country Club, a mostly flat, easily walkable, originally private course that is now public, still sports some of the characteristics Walter Travis gave it in 1920. At Eagle Ridge Golf Course, a 27-hole facility, an old sand and gravel quarry was converted into the original Pine and Ridge nines that feature fairways lined by tall pines. The Links nine plays a little more open on varied terrain. Notable attractions in Lakewood include Georgian Court University (the gorgeous campus was the estate of Jay Gould’s son) and Ocean County Park, a charming spot with lakes and an arboretum. The park used to be the Rockefeller family’s Lakewood estate. Lakewood residents take pride in the historic, renovated Strand Theater, an old movie palace that is now a performing arts venue, and in supporting the Jersey Shore BlueClaws, their hometown minor league baseball team.