“The Cream Rises”
Everyone loves a good comeback story, and the comeback of Cream Ridge Golf Course is one of the very best in New Jersey Golf. A CORE GOLF property, Cream Ridge GC in Cream Ridge, near Allentown, offers a terrific, challenging and fun golf course with ultra-friendly customer service making for a memorable and enjoyable day on the course.
“ Cream Ridge Golf Course can be very challenging at times,” says Cream Ridge GC PGA Professional Kevin Figa. “ There are moments when you need to be aggressive and then times when you need to relax and be in control. If you can get past the first five holes with decent scores, you’re on your way to a good round.
One of my favorite holes is right out of the gate. A straightforward hole, with trouble left and right, The Par 5 First Hole is an excellent par five. Most of the time it’s a three-shot hole, unless you happen to bomb one down the middle with no fear keeping in the fairway. I recommend using a 3-wood or a rescue. A controlled 220 off the tee is perfect. If you manage to be in good position off the tee, your second shot is going to be a nice short iron focusing on hitting it at the 150 marker. This will leave you with another short iron shot to a green protected by water on the left. If you miss short or to the right side of the green, it’s okay. Hopefully you hit the green in regulation, make a 2-putt par and move on to the next hole.”
Holes 2, 3, 4 and 5 add to the exciting Beginning with No.2 and, maybe even more so No.4, both par 3s with water, grabbing your attention. Hole No.3, perhaps Cream Ridge’s Signature Hole, will test your nerve playing blind over a crest and then downhill to a small pond strategically situated about 250 yards from the tee box and right before the green. A lay up tee shot of not much more than 150 yards will set up for a short iron or wedge approach. You don’t really need, and I wouldn’t recommend, much more than that since the bottom half of the fairway runs straight down to the water. Hit Driver, or stroke a tee shot of about 200 yards on the fly, and you’re likely going to be having to fish your ball right out of the H20.
Hole No.5, one of my personal favorite holes, tees up high from an elevated tee close by the 15th green over water with a sharp dogleg to the right. Long hitters who can play a fade, or especially a cut, can get close to the putting surface, or maybe even land it, making a look at eagle, and a chance for birdie, potentially possible. A well-hit, straight drive will likely run through the fairway, though, so make sure to curve your ball left-to-right, or hit 3-wood just to be safe.
The rest of the Track is just as much fun to play as its Start. Tricky, sloping greens on the 10th and 12th holes, both medium-sized par 4s, are highlights of Cream’s Back Nine. The par three 13th, which tees up downhill over water, and the par four 15th, with its fairway sloping severely downhill and from right-to-left, are fun and well-designed. The par-5 Eighteen, meanwhile, which doglegs left to right around water with water just short and right of the green is, in my opinion, one of the very best Finishing Holes you’ll find. If you go for the green in two, you have to miss left. You’ll have no chance hole high and right, and might only get lucky landing it dry short of the front.
Entering now its six season, after five full years of very successful upgrades and renovations, Cream Ridge is a fair, but challenging, and a sublimely scenic golf course that all players of all levels can play and will love coming back to over and over and over again. Together with its first-rate restaurant, The Roost, featuring traditional pub fare and up-scale entrees to satisfy every taste, Cream Ridge Golf Club really has it all.
“Cream Ridge was a family built and run golf course and continues to be,” said Core Golf General Manager Bob Lowrie. “ Our top priority is to treat people like friends and have them just enjoy their time here.”
Job done.
Tee it high and let it fly at Cream Ridge GC today.
