Golf Courses Near Lakewood, NJ

Fast-growing Lakewood, NJ, the Garden State’s largest town, is a New York Metropolitan area bedroom community. Is it possible that the modern professional golf tours originated here? The town’s Visitors Bureau states that the PGA Tour attributes its beginnings to a tournament held in Lakewood in 1899. While that claim is debatable, there’s no disputing that Lakewood was integral to the early development and tournament history of New Jersey golf. As for the golf scene nowadays, the area in and around Lakewood presents a mix of public and private golf courses. When you’re looking for a tee time, two courses that locals go to are the 27-hole Eagle Ridge Golf Course and Lakewood Country Club. Eagle Ridge’s original Pine and Ridge nines occupy up-and-down pine-covered terrain on what was an old sand and gravel quarry. The newer Links nine rambles over somewhat more open ground. Lakewood Country Club, which Walter Travis largely designed in 1920, is a mostly flat, open, playable, easy-to-walk layout with a vintage feel. Both Eagle Ridge and Lakewood Country Club may offer Hot Deals.

Lakewood, which is 90 minutes from Manhattan, is home to the world’s largest rabbinical college and the gorgeous Georgian Court University. As far back as the late 1800s, Lakewood became a health retreat and winter resort for wealthy elites. The community grew around the large estates of notable Captains of Industry such as the railroad baron Jay Gould and the oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller. The former Rockefeller family estate is now Ocean County Park, a public haven with a lovely arboretum and lakes for swimming, fishing, and paddling. Lake Carasaljo is a beauty spot in the center of town where you can rent paddleboat sand rowboats and go hiking. It’s also the site of a summer concert series. In downtown Lakewood, the historic Strand Theater serves as an entertainment venue. Lakewood also loves its minor league baseball team—the Jersey Shore BlueClaws—and frequently sells out its home games.