Blue Heron Pines Golf Club

Blue Heron Pines Golf Club sits about 15 minutes outside Atlantic City in Galloway Township, and for thirty-plus years it has been the Jersey Shore's go-to public-access course. Architect Stephen Kay opened the property in 1993 and has returned multiple times, the facility has two courses now, the East and the West, both Kay designs. The West is the more celebrated of the pair: a relatively flat layout with narrow fairways, fast greens, and water hazards on seven holes that demand precision off the tee and patience with the putter. Kay's tribute to Pine Valley's famous 'Hell's Half Acre' hole is the memorable moment, an enormous waste bunker that has to be carried on the second shot, followed by a forced carry into the green. The East Course shifts the vocabulary to a true links style with wide, fast-running fairways and difficult bunkering, meant to be played firm and quick. Blue Heron Pines has been selected by The Press of Atlantic City and other regional publications as the best 18-hole course at the Jersey Shore on multiple occasions, and Super Bowl-winning quarterback Ron Jaworski's ownership group runs the operation.