Galloping Hill Golf Course is a Must Play This Summer

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If you’re looking for a terrific course to play some day, look no further than right off the Garden State Parkway-Southbound, in Kenilworth. You can’t miss it, actually. Play Galloping Hill Golf Course.

One of two of Union County’s county -run golf courses, and home of the New Jersey State Golf Association, and site of the 2016 NJSGA State Open, Galloping Hill, is a terrific example of parkland-style golf with generous rolling fairways with several, and sometimes surprising, incredible elevations.

Known as New Jersey’s “home of public golf,”, Galloping Hill has a challenging, championship-scale course, that offers learning opportunities for all ages with three putting greens, a practice course, and all-weather driving range with world class instructors. The state-of-the-art Clubhouse at Galloping Hill, which provides golfers and visitors with a top-quality playing experience and atmosphere which also includes The Hill Tavern sports bar overlooking the stunning, and lovely landscape of the gorgeous Raritan Valley.

Established in 1928 at the direction of course architect Willard Wilkinson, and formerly a 27-hole golf course, GH features 18 beautiful golf holes that have been renovated over its nearly 100 years by top architects Robert Trent Jones(1949), Alfred Tull(1953), Stephen Kay(1998) and Rees Jones(2013).

Elevation is maybe the main buzz word for Galloping Hill, and it applies both to the thrilling golfing experience that players will feel when they get to play there, but also literally with its many elevated tee boxes and greens along the way. Two terrific examples of GH’s elevation are its First and Tenth tee boxes, starting off two Par Fours measuring in the 300s with tee shots shooting straight down to narrow fairways. The 10th, which tees off almost right on the Southbound GSP, doglegs fairly severely down and to the right before straightening out. The second hole, meanwhile, goes straight uphill to an elevated green guarded by sand to the left and a massive False Front to the center and right. Approach shots from anywhere within 130 yards will be played from a severe uphill lie. Hole No.3, which starts from right behind the 2nd Green, the highest point on the Property, a Par 4, plays like a short-to-medium sized Par 5 from what can feel like about 50 yards above the fairway into a prevailing breeze with a creek running across the run to the green.

Soon after that, there is the straight up-the-hill Par 3 Fifth. Though only playing about 100 to 120 yards(and about 150 from the Back Tees), 5 is a cliffhanger of a par 3 where accuracy with your lofted to long irons, or maybe even a hybrid, is a premium. Come up short, and your rolling straight back to the base. Go long and you will have a devilishly delicate chip to the green below.

The Ninth and 18th Holes, which run parallel to each other coming back to the Clubhouse, both play, like No.5, heading uphill to greens some 50, or so, feet above the tees and fairways. 18, a dogleg right Par 5 measuring a little less than 500 yards, gives goof golfers a better-than-average shot at making par, or even birdie, and sometimes even eagle, to finish their round.

Galloping Hill’s Signature Hole is No.14, a long and treacherous Par 4 playing uphill with out-of-bounds to the Right and a large pot bunker straight down its spine. The second swing is a blind shot to a green tucked into a hillside. Long grass and several bunkers come into play, left and around the putting surface catching wayward approaches and making double bogey a very real possibility.

Galloping Hill Golf Course Kenilworth New Jersey
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“Galloping Hill Golf Course gives the golfer a country club feel at a municipal golf course. Being the crown jewel of the Union County Parks System, Galloping Hill is known as “the golf course that never sleeps.” With an 18-hole course and a 9-hole course, Galloping Hill hosts over 75,000 rounds of golf per year and over 400 social events in their banquet hall. In addition, they have a recently renovated sports bar named “The Hill Tavern” that welcomes not only golfers but thousands of local residents all year long,” said Galloping Hill’s General Manager Chris Flegar.

“The Learning Center at Galloping Hill opened in 2009, with 52 stalls (20 of them covered and heated for year-round use) and 4 practice greens for golfers of all experience levels to work on their game. Soon, they will be adding range technology to bring the already Top 50 GRAA rated practice facility to an even higher level.

To top it all off, Galloping Hill is not only the headquarters of the NJSGA as well as the NJ Golf Hall of Fame, but in 2016 was the first (and still only) public golf course chosen to host the New Jersey State Open. All of this adds up to a state of the art, full-service facility for everyone from the most experienced amateur or professional golfer to someone picking up the sticks for the first time.”

Whatever your golfing ability, Galloping Hill, with all that it has to offer, is where every New Jerseyean, and everyone else, should go and play.

www.GallopingHillGolfCourse.com