Ridge At Back Brook, The

Hunterdon County sits in the heart of what locals call the Skylands region, where the terrain lends itself to parkland golf with genuine contour. A layout routed across a back brook and its surrounding ridges offers the kind of variety — uphill approaches, sidehill lies, tumbling fairways — that keeps the round interesting from first tee to last green. Conditions in this part of the state tend to run firm and fast through summer, with the tree cover providing both definition and, on warm afternoons, welcome shade.

For golfers who know northern New Jersey's better private and semi-private options, Back Brook occupies a respected place in that conversation — a course that rewards those willing to leave the Garden State Parkway corridor and find out what the western counties have been quietly holding onto.