Ballyowen Golf Club

The rolling hills of northwestern New Jersey provide a dramatic canvas for this Rees Jones design, where elevated tees launch drives across deep valleys and native fescue grasses frame every hole. The signature par-3 17th demands a 180-yard carry over a stone-walled creek to a green that sits like a jewel against the Appalachian foothills. What separates this daily-fee gem from the pack is Jones's restraint—he carved golf holes through the terrain rather than bulldozing it into submission.