‘A little bit of everything’

It was February 2020. The DiDonato family including John and his son Zach were finalizing the purchase of the Pinelands Golf Club.

Nestled on the outskirts of Wharton State Forest in Hammonton about a half hour from Philadelphia, Pinelands Golf Club at 887 S. Mays Landing Road is home to one of the area’s most authentic and challenging 18-hole golf courses.

And with roots in Hammonton, the DiDonato family is at home.

The purchase was six months in the making. Little did they know a month later they would have to shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Now we own a golf course and it’s shut down … we have all these bills and we’re just looking at empty property,” John recalled.

Scary, scary times! Luckily roughly two months later, golf courses were one of the first things allowed open, Zach noted.

People – golfer, non-golfers alike – flocked to outdoor recreation.

“We really picked up,” Zach recalled. “It seemed like the business of golf grew a ton – everyone at that time just wanted to get out of the house because there was nothing else to do. There were parks or you could golf, that was pretty much it. Our restaurant was still closed at the time.”

Fast forward three years out from COVID, the DiDonato family is some 80% complete with their five-year term plan – a million-dollar undertaking, John said.

Before we get into that five-year plan, let’s look at some of the history of the golf club. When the DiDonato’s came into the picture, the golf club “was open, but pretty slow and beat up.”

“The golf course was like a cow pasture … it was pretty bad,” John added.

In 1964, as the ribbon was cut at Pinelands Golf Club for all 18 championship holes, Ralph Leopardi who – designed, oversaw construction, and became the first superintendent at Pinelands Golf Club – was gleaming, according to history of the site. Leopardi had spent the previous 17 years as superintendent of Atlantic City Country Club (ACCC) during many tournaments like when Babe Didrickson Zaharias won her first of three U.S. Golf Association (USGA) Women’s Open Championships in 1948, or the many golf outings of Arnold Palmer at ACCC in the 1950s when Palmer was stationed at the Coast Guard nearby. Leopardi honed his design skills by talking with many of the pros of the day at ACCC as well as the many late night talks with Palmer.

Leopardi was ahead of his time. On opening day 1964, he discussed how his design will provide privacy between fairways and speed up play by keeping balls out of adjacent fairways. He said, “I designed the course to be challenging, but fair.”

However, over the years the golf course fell into disrepair. In 2020, the DiDonato family purchased the public golf course and hired renowned golf architect Stephen Kay to oversee the renovation to return the course to its original authentic design, while adding modern touches to bring the course up to today’s standards.

“We do have members, but anybody can just come in,” John said emphasizing they are a public golf course.

When they purchased the property, they started working on the golf course and with Kay they modernized the club house, cart barn, and upgraded modified greens, bunkers, and fairways turf.

The golf course features 6,503 yards of golf from the longest tees for a par of 72.

Today, at the helm of Pinelands is a seasoned management team, whose goal is to carry on Leopardi’s tradition of providing a challenging, authentic course, that is fair and well kept.

The goal for the Pinelands Golf Club, which is posted on their website, is to offer a challenging, authentic course that is fair and well kept.

“We further want to provide a great outdoor experience, with respect for the environment. No matter the weather conditions or course challenges, just gear-up and get ready for a great day in the pines!”

OK back to the five-year plan.

If you talk to the DiDonato’s, they will explain they offer “a little bit of everything.” And if you have any questions, Morgan Ostermueller is the person to go to.

“I help wherever is needed,” she said. “If a department needs help one day I’m there, even if it’s with the grounds crew, I’ve cooked in the kitchen, I’ll bartend if I need to. I also do backend things. I do accounting for the company and payroll. I used to plan all weddings and events here. I’m just learning the company inside and out. My goal every day is to keep on learning and improving and seeing the company better.”

During the summer, the Pinelands Golf Club employs up to 70 to 80 people – including students who come help out for the summer. During the winter months, staff stays around 35 to 50 people.

As for the “little bit of everything,” let’s start with Twisted Tavern, the restaurant on site.

“There wasn’t really a restaurant to begin with,” Zach recalled when they came in, noting the previous owners were only offering deli sandwiches and hot dogs. “There was no name to it.

“We wanted to open up a real restaurant with freshly made food,” he continued. “We opened up in June 2020 with takeout only in the beginning [due to COVID restrictions]. We had the patio and people were able to sit outside.”

Eventually dining inside was allowed back.

As part of the renovations, the DiDonato’s transformed the entrance space with offices and bathrooms before you enter the restaurant area.

“None of this was here,” John said.

The kitchen was really small with one fryer, one flat top, and two stoves, Zach said.

“There was no dishwasher or anything.”

To transform into a restaurant, they needed more kitchen space.

“We ended up taking out the men’s locker room, built the kitchen, storage area, prep area, and walk in fridge in replacement of the locker room,” Zach said.

Twisted Tavern offers a family welcome environment of fine casual dining offering anywhere from sandwiches, hot dogs, and burgers for that lunch and quick grab to go to a sit-down meal of hearty filet mignon, prime rib and/or lobster tail.

Lunch starts at 11 a.m. and dinner starts at 4 p.m. The restaurant is open every day from April to Nov. 1.

In the winter months, the restaurant is open Thursday to Sunday.

“The chefs work really hard from April to Nov. 1 from events, weddings and what nots,” Zach said. “This gives them a rest, a break with three days off a week and gives them time to relax, spend time with family during the holidays.”

The restaurant offers entertainment from 6-9 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

Now on to the Cart Barn, which offers a unique indoor/outdoor space for weddings, proms, banquets, parties, meetings and events.

“We are working on a project to bring in lodges so people can stay here,” Zach said. “We find sometimes a lot of people that come to weddings here are not from the area and say, ‘Oh man I wish you guys had some place to stay on the property.’ That’s where we got the idea and we believe it be beneficial.”

The Cart Barn space was previously used to store golf carts from the weather and the DiDonato’s decided to keep the name.

Along with the lodges, they look to build a driving range as part of their five-year plan.

“The property is 200 acres, we are kind of built like a resort for the day,” John said. “We are not a course where there’s a lot of houses around it. People come from the city, come and spend the day here, golf, eat dinner and once we have the lodges they can stay the night, and spend the weekend.”

The Pinelands Golf Course is probably one of the busiest courses in South Jersey as far as the number of rounds – four and a half miles of cart paths, John said.

For the DiDonato’s, they are looking forward to completing their five-year plan in the next year or two.

“Once we get to the point where we finish the project we envision with the lodges and all, it’s at that point we will reevaluate,” John said, adding they will always try to be cutting edge. “…I think when we finish everything with the lodges and all, this is going to be something very special for the area.”