PRIVATE COURSE REVIEW NUMBER THREE  HAWK POINTE

Hawk Pointe is located approximately 15 minutes north of the route 78/route 31 interchange just over the Hunterdon border in Warren County. When you drive into a club you immediately get a feel about what level of service and the type of treatment you will receive. Hawk Pointe felt good from the get go. The clubs were out of the car, in our cart and cleaned before we started out round. It might not seem like much but when you are going to be joining a club and playing regularly being cared for on a day to day basis is one of the reasons you select on spot over another.

Into the clubhouse the assistant pro who got us rolling couldn’t have been nicer and was well prepared to help us with anything we needed. We arrived about fifteen minutes early and had an opportunity to take advantage of not only there putting green, but their chipping green as well which was nice because as prime time golfers know the short game is everything and most places don’t have room to let you hit 30 yard chips into a green before you begin. Another nice touch is that the driving range is latterly seconds from the first tee which creates two nice scenarios, one; You are warmed up for that first tee shot as you have literally hit a ball a minute before you strike one, and two; it doesn’t create a backlog of people waiting on the first tee, putting pressure on people who are hitting their first ball because you can see when the tee opens up from the range. The range was stocked with quality balls and a nice touch that you don’t see everywhere was a distance scope so you could track exactly how far you were hitting a specific iron, which dials you in more for the days challenge.

As always we look at the same criteria for every private course – so here we go –

1)      Is the course in good condition?  -  Superb , we could just leave it like that very easily. The greens were fast and you had to hit high spin approaches to make them stick. The ball putted true, which is all you can ask of anywhere. The greens also seemed to match their holes well. When there was a very difficult hole from the Tee the greens played a little flatter, when the holes were shorter and easier to attack the greens had more undulation to make all of the holes somewhat comparable in the difficulty of play, which is fine architecture. There were several Tee boxes, all of which were in fine condition, to choose from and the distances gave all a fair shot depending on handicap level. The fairways were tight, if you could hit them, and allowed you to get the needed spin on the ball. One point which might make some wary was the fescue, in some spots it’s a bear, and frankly if you hit it in the waist high stuff you should just take your medicine and drop because you can easily make ten trying to play out of if. And just a simple note, all of the carts had a sand mix for divots on them, as many places do, but the nice thing, as you will see in one of the pics below, is that they had replacement containers on the tenth tee and you could tell the membership used them to keep their surroundings well groomed. Overall – the course condition was excellent.

2)      Can you play a fast round?  Absolutely and here’s why, they have a ranger, also pictured below, who is cognizant of how different members like to play speed wise, and not only do they try and coordinate with their tee times, they also orchestrate playing through with ease. Our foursome of the day is happiest playing in about 3 hours fifteen minutes, which realistically is faster than most and as such we caught up to people on the front nine and the ranger set it up to have us play through, and then on the back nine, while the group of members in front of us was interacting with the beverage cart, they more than happily let us play through understanding we were at a quicker pace. You can’t ask for more than that.

3)      Is it affordable? Hawk Pointe has all types of memberships, corporate slots are available and encouraged.  As we usually state you have to decide upon your own economic status and whether it is within your reach. You may reach Angela Wilson at 908-689-1445 or e-mail awilson@hawkpointegolf.com  and she will be more than happy to set up a tour, a round, and give you all the information you might need in making your decision.

4)      What are the Members like?  Fantastic – as mentioned above, we played through two groups that were more than happy to let us do so and the second time we actually stood and spoke with the group about how they liked the club and to a man they all glowed about it and we more than gracious to explain to us how their tournaments work and how they have events all the time for members etc… This is a very nice group of people.

5)      The Staff – We give credit where it is due and it is due here. From the gent who got our clubs from the car to the guys in the pro shop to the rangers, the car gal, the people in the restaurant, we were all met with kindness and we would like to say thank you to all we interacted with for a very nice afternoon.

Overall impression – for a first time player it is a tricky course as sometimes you don’t know how far to hit the ball or at what angle. A great example is hole three where it appears you can hit your drive toward the pin but when you get around to the other side you realize that fescue reaches out a lot farther than you think. One of the nice things about the course is that it has a lot of variety of doglegs in different directions, doesn’t put on hole running right up against another, it doesn’t bludgeon you with yardage so the shorter hitter isn’t being run over by par fours of 500 yards like some other places.

If you are looking for a place to play that is close to Hunterdon, has superb facilities that your clients and family might enjoy, you would be doing yourself a disservice not calling Angela to take a look, it is certainly worth the time.

Another on of those trick par threes, did anyone bring a beach blanket??

Aim at the center fairway bunkers and you will be happy. Too far right leaves you in the high stuff.

A short drive to here still leaves you dead red to the pin.

Par five, hug the right edge of the left fariway bunker and you will be happy. 

The green is between the two silos, give it a go in two

A nice greenside view of the rest of the course.

Simple little par 3, trust the distance and relax.

This is a scoring hole, blast it right at those bunkers and have a short second in.

Looking back

Nice shot to about a foot by the writer.

Water is only visual, but it does intimidate, those left bunkers see a lot of action.

here's what a dead straight drive gets you, a good look at the fairway tree forcing you to hook or slice, whatever your pleasure might be.  Nice finishing hole.