Atlantic City Country Club - New Jersey, U.S.A.

Atlantic City Country Club is actually in the town of Northfield, a few miles away from the famous Atlantic City boardwalk. The club dates from 1897, but the present Course was designed by the leading Philadelphia architect William Flynn in 1923. Set in marshland, the course is relatively flat, with views from the front nine across Lakes Bay and to the skyline of Atlantic City. The term "birdie" is Supposed to have originated at Atlantic City at the turn of the last century when a member named Ab Smith hit an approach shot within a few inches of the hole and called it a "bird of a shot," the word "bird" often being used at that time to refer to anything great. The members of the foursome, and soon all the members of the club, agreed to pay double for a score of one under par on a hole and began to refer to it as a "birdie." Atlantic City was owned and operated for many years by Leo Fraser, who was president of the PGA of America. The current owners hired Tom Doak in 2000 to carry out a restoration of the course. He opened up the views over the marsh and created the new 14th and 15th holes.

Pine Valley Golf Club - New Jersey, U.S.A.

Pine Valley Golf Club is perennially ranked and is generally considered the greatest golf course in the world. There are many incongruities in Pine Valley's lofty stature. The course is located in the pine barrens of southwestern New Jersey near Clementon, which would not spring to mind as the site for the world's greatest course, and Pine Valley was designed not by a well-known professional architect, but by a dedicated-some would say crazed-amateur. Pine Valley was the all-consuming passion of its founder and creator, George Crump, a Philadelphia hotelier and member of the Atlantic City Golf Club. Crump labored on the course from 1913 until his death in 1918, moving to the site and living first in a tent and then a bungalow. Crump died having finished 14 holes, with Hugh Wilson, the architect of Merion, completing the design. Crump received key advice regarding the routing from the leading English architect Harry Colt, but Crump created a novel course, in which the fairways are islands subsumed by sandy waste areas overgrown with Scotch broom, huckleberry, and wild grasses, and each hole is framed by the statuesque forest of pines, oak, larch, and hemlock. Legends of Pine Valley's difficulty are legion. There is a standing bet that no one can break 80 the first time he plays the course. Arnold Palmer won his bet when he shot 68 in 1954 as the U.S. Amateur Champion, and Jack Nicklaus stopped to play the course in 1960 while on his honeymoon, with his wife Barbara waiting for him in the car.