Fox Chapel Golf Club is located in Western PA just northeast of Pittsburgh in a very nice old town suburb called Fox Chapel. I'm not too sure about much of the club's history but I do know that the golf course was designed and built by Seth Raynor and opened for play in 1923. I'm not certain, but from the pictures it appears that Charles "Steamshovel" Banks also helped Raynor out at this site. There are many deep bunkers and steep slopes off the greens into bunkers, a Raynor characteristic indeed, but also Banks was noted for this trait as well, especially during the 1920s.
I played Fox Chapel in the middle of July this year and it was a really hot day, but a great day. It was my first Raynor and I was very excited to play and very curious as to what my impressions would be. To make a long story short, I loved the place...
The Clubhouse sits up on a hill looking over the 1st fairway. The locker room was a really cool old locker room with great old photos of the course being built and early play on the golf course. There's a really nice patio that I'm sure gets tons of business where members and their guests can dine outside overlooking the golf course.
This picture was taken as we were walking off the 18th green...
Here are the stats:
Par: 35-35 - 70
YardageBlue Tees: 6696 73.9/135
White Tees: 6318 72.1/133
Green Tees: 5798 70.0/128
Red Tees: 5665 74.1/131
1st Hole Par 4 418/403
AwayA dogleg right with a pretty wide fairway. There are a couple bunkers on the left that you do not want to be in. The tee shot is pretty much straight away, then the 2nd plays over to the right.
From the tee..
From the fairway. The green slopes away from you and from left to right. A run up shot is the proper play, especially if you were playing this course in the 20's or 30s!
From right in front of the green. You can see the squared off trait there and that the green as some pretty good slope from here to the back right portion. A great starting hole.