Pine Valley Golf Club in Pine Valley, N.J.
Jon Cavalier
As part of GOLF’s rigorous ratings process for our newly released Top 100 Courses in the U.S. and Top 100 Courses You Can Play rankings, our fleet of 100-plus expert panelists identified the best golf courses in every state.
You can check out the links below to browse all of our course rankings, or scroll down to see the best courses in New Jersey. And if you’re looking to create your own trip in the future, you’d be wise to let GOLF’s new Course Finder tool assist you. Here, you can toggle all of our lists — Top 100 public, best munis, best short courses, best par-3s and more — or filter by price to create the perfect itinerary for your next trip.
GOLF’s other course rankings: Top 100 Courses in the World | Top 100 Courses in the U.S. | Top 100 Courses You Can Play | Top 100 Value Courses in the U.S. | America’s Best Municipal Courses | The 100 Best Short Courses in the World
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SYMBOL GUIDE
# = Top 100 Course in the U.S.
Y = Top 100 You Can Play in the U.S.
V = Top 100 Value Course in the U.S.
P = Public/Resort
Ed. note: Some courses were omitted from our rankings because they did not receive enough votes.
1. Pine Valley (Pine Valley) [#]
Analyzing a golf course need not be complicated. One simple but effective way to judge a design is by the quality of the course’s property, its hazards and greens. Pine Valley excels at all three, with many contending it has the most formidable hazards and sophisticated green complexes in golf. Throw in a wonderful routing that hopscotches from one island of turf to the next across the rolling, sandy landscape, and you have a course that hasn’t budged from the No. 1 spot for decades, meaning Pine Valley’s only benchmark is itself.
2. Somerset Hills (Bernardsville) [#]
Thanks to a 25-year restoration effort with meticulous attention to detail, Somerset Hills has reached the point where some trumpet it as A.W. Tillinghast’s finest design for regular play. Its two nines are diverse — the first is on more open land while the second jumps into the woods where Tillinghast incorporated natural water features to perfection. Tillinghast’s time in Scotland manifests itself at such holes as the Redan 2nd and the par-5 9th with its attractive cross hazard. A die-hard New Yorker remarked, “It’s enough to make one want to live in New Jersey.”
3. Baltusrol — Lower (Springfield) [#]
Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner’s 2020 restoration showcases Tillinghast’s immense talent for innovative bunker patterns and fascinating greens. Central hazards once again abound here, most famously at the 2nd and 17th holes, where large bunker complexes bisect the fairways. Just as impressive is the diagonal bunker scheme that slashes into the 5th fairway, making it one of the best 400-yarders in the country. Though the middle of the property is pretty tame topographically, that’s precisely where Tillinghast created some of the best greens. Take the time to study both green pads of the par 3s on the second nine, as each is a master class in creating something from nothing.
4. Plainfield (Plainfield) [#]
Larry Lambrecht
Designed by Donald Ross and expertly restored by Gil Hanse, the course features blind shots, challenging hazards and some of Ross’s finest holes. The first nine features several stellar two-shotters, including the 1st and 7th, while the second nine highlights Ross’ range of holes. The 145-yard 11th may be his best all-time short par-3, while the 12th and 16th are epic par-5s. Plainfield oozes history — a Revolutionary War battle was fought on the site and Leighton Calkins’ created the modern handicap system here — but the course is in no way stuck in the past.
5. Hollywood (Deal) [#]
Walter Travis would be thrilled if he could see his course today. Some of the best hazards and greens on any inland course are found here once again, thanks to recent restoration work by Renaissance Golf Design’s Brian Schneider. The relatively modest topography and Travis’ tight green-to-tee routing makes it a walker’s delight while the manmade features (i.e., greens and bunkers) lend the course special playing qualities. A good stance and easy swing are far from guaranteed in some of these pit-like bunkers, which is the way it should be. Let hazards be hazardous! The par-3 4th and 12th are its most famous holes, but no education on Travis is complete without studying the 6th, 7th, 9th and 16th green complexes.
6. Ridgewood — Championship (Paramus) [#]
This northern New Jersey classic isn’t as well-known as Tillinghast’s other great tri-state designs (Winged Foot, Bethpage Black and Baltusrol), but it’s just as challenging and offers a superb variety of holes. Both nines feature terrific green complexes and play from the stunning Norman Revival clubhouse, where Byron Nelson once worked as an assistant pro. After building Ridgewood, Tillinghast played it regularly as a member, and his granddaughters said it was his favorite course of all he designed. The contestants at the 2022 U.S. Amateur seemed to agree with him.
7. Baltusrol — Upper (Springfield)
8. Mountain Ridge (West Caldwell)
9. Essex County (West Orange)
10. North Jersey (Wayne)
11. Union League National (Middle Township)
12. Trump National Bedminster — Old (Bedminster)
13. Galloway National (Galloway Township)
14. Hidden Creek (Egg Harbor Township)
15. Hackensack (Emerson)
16. Morris County (Morris Township)
17. Bayonne (Bayonne)
18. Forsgate — Banks (Monroe Township)
19. Montclair – nines 2 & 3 (West Orange)
20. Hamilton Farm (Gladstone)
For our newly released Top 100 U.S. and Top 100 You Can Play lists — a process that helped us create 50 best-in-state rankings — each panelist was provided a ballot that consisted of 609 courses. Beside the list of courses were 11 “buckets,” or groupings. If our panelists considered a course to be among the top three in the U.S., they ticked that first column. If they believed the course to be among Nos. 4-10, they checked that column, followed by 11-25, 26-50, and so on out to 250+ and even a column for “remove.” Panelists were also free to write in courses that they felt should have been included on the ballot.
Points were assigned to each bucket; to arrive at an average score for each course, we divide its aggregate score by the number of votes. From those point tallies, the courses are then ranked accordingly. It is an intentionally simple and straightforward process. Why? Because it historically has produced results that are widely lauded. Like the game itself, there’s no need to unnecessarily complicate things or try to fix something that already works so well.
