SJ Golf Course Tops in the U.S., Shrouded in Mystery

Jackie Souders has always had an appreciation for local history.

She has written articles on the paint mills in Gibbsboro and the chronicles of Jonas Cattell, who ran from Haddonfield to Fort Mercer (National Park) to warn American soldiers of an impending British attack.

Her latest project tackles the mystique surounding the top-ranked golf course in the country—one that almost no one even knows exists.

Pine Valley Golf Club: 100 Years of Mystery at the World's No. 1 Golf Course in Pine Valley, NJ, looks into what make the South Jersey course and the borough in which it is located so mysterious.

Time and time again Pine Valley Golf Course is hailed as the best in the nation—it been voted America’s top golf course by Golf Digest every year but two since 1985—yet the average person’s chances of playing there are may be about the same as hitting the lottery.

Souders said her book is much more about the history of Pine Valley than the actual ins and outs of the golf course.

Jackie and her husband Bill are both real estate agents with Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors. They've worked in Haddonfield and other company offices around South Jersey for the past 18 years. Her proximity to the famed course, along with her husband’s passion for golf, led her to dig a little deeper into why Pine Valley is such a great mystery.

“Year after year this is labeled the best golf course in the country and yet most people don’t even know it’s in their own backyard,” Souders said.

“I found that interesting, and wanted to find out as much as I could about why that is the case.”

The Front Nine...

The book is broken down in two sections, appropriately named “The Front Nine” and “The Back Nine.”

The first half is a historical look at how the course came to be. It includes stories of Virginia Ireland, who bought up more than 1,000 acres in Pine Hill and Clementon, and course designer George A. Crump, who died with four holes yet to be completed.

Souders describes Crump as an artist whose life was cut short, mysteriously, in the midst of producing his greatest work. Some claim he died of a tooth abscess; others believe it was a gunshot to the head that killed him.

The story also gets into legendary mobster Al Capone. Sounders' research turned up the fact that Capone was a frequent visitor to the Ireland guest house—a property located across Timber Lake and just a short walk from the golf course.

The Municipality

The second half of the book focuses on the of Pine Valley, which borders Clementon and Pine Hill. The majority of its 21 homes are inhabited on a part-time basis, yet has its own school, police department and municipal hall. The 2010 U.S. Census reported the borough population at 12.

In a chapter titled “The Elephant in the Room,” Souders describes how the whole community is guarded by a fence topped with barbed wire. Only residents or invited guests are permitted to enter.

“How can you keep anyone from entering into the municipality?” she questioned. “Legally, I don’t know how it’s possible to have a borough hall and police department, and yet you have the right to not let people in.”

Over the years, there have been many stories about the visitors of Pine Valley, and it is hard to tell what is fact and what is fiction. Souders closes the book with a section titled “The 19th Hole,” in which she discusses these stories.

“Those are the stories that are out there that can’t be proved,” Souders said. “I interviewed some very good sources to get the information.”

Some of the famous faces once seen at Pine Valley include former President George H. W. Bush, Bob Hope, Sean Connery and PGA legend Arnold Palmer.

According to Souders’ research, the course has about 1,000 members scattered around the globe, although the exact number is unknown. Members don’t talk about it, she said, noting that club owners wish to maintain its clandestine aura.

No girls allowed

Souders said she was surprised to see just how little opposition there was to the club's refusal to allow women to play the course other than Sundays after 3 p.m. (Women are also only allowed to be a part of the community if they are married.)

Souders finds the outdated codes a bit ironic, considering the land was owned by Virginia—who sold it for just $1.

“There may be about 10 or 12 courses in the country that don’t include women,” Souders said. “I think what I am most surprised about is that no one discusses it and no one is bothered by it.”

Ultimately, Souders hopes her book gives readers an appreciation for a South Jersey treasure that very few people around the country know about.

“Here, we have the No. 1 golf course in the country, created by a man from Camden, and there is so little written about it and so few people even know it exists.”