Walkill Golf Club

Franklin sits in Sussex County, in the highlands of northwestern New Jersey — a part of the state defined by the Kittatinny Mountains, glacial lakes, and the kind of open farmland and forested ridges that feel a world removed from the suburbs an hour south. It's a region with a genuine rural character, and golf courses here tend to reflect that: routed through rolling terrain shaped by glacial activity, with the natural contours doing much of the work that architects elsewhere have to manufacture.

Walkill Golf Club fits that mold as a community-rooted layout serving the locals of Sussex County rather than destination travelers. A par 70 suggests either a shorter overall design or a course that converts a couple of par 5s into longer 4s — either way, expect a track that rewards accuracy and course management over raw power.

Franklin itself is known historically as a mining town, once one of the world's most significant sources of zinc ore. That industrial past has given way to a quiet, unpretentious community — and Walkill reflects that same no-frills, straightforward character.