PCC St. Martins - Info

[Ben Hollerbach]

I'll be playing in the World Hickory Match Play at the Philadelphia Cricket Club - St. Martins course in June. Doing my usual pre-tournament research I've found the course experienced a minor restoration a few years ago with greens and bunkers being redone. Does anyone have pictures of the course post renovation and possible current course yardages? I haven't been able to find a consistent set of yardages for the course.

[Joe Bausch]

Here you go Ben.  These are from a little GCA gathering in March of 2013:

http://xchem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/albums/PCCSM/

[Ben Hollerbach]

Thanks Joe,

It may be the winter photos but it looks that many of the greens don't have fringes, am I seeing that correctly?

[Joe Bausch]

Thanks Joe,

It may be the winter photos but it looks that many of the greens don't have fringes, am I seeing that correctly?

You are seeing correctly.

[Powell Arms]

Ben, the course plays from three sets of tees. There were sand tee boxes installed last year, and those are all no more than 5-15 yards shorter than the red tees, which total 2304 yards.  The distances below are the reds, and I have take a guess in the yards shorter for the sand tees.

1: 299, 10 yards
2: 242, 4
3: 313, 8
4: 256, 10
5: 71, 0
6: 304, 6
7: 287, 10
8: 316, 8
9: 216, 3

I will double check the distance from the sand in the next week or so.

You will find St Martins in great shape.  It has been restored over the past 18 months in accordance with a master plan developed by Keith Foster when he was working on the club's Tillingahst course - Wissahickon. All of the restoration work at St Martins was done by in house maintenance staff, making it very economical and a great living laboratory for the work at Wissahickon.  

Here's a photo from early May of this year looking up the 1st fairway on the right with the 9th fairway on the left.

[Ben Hollerbach]

Thanks Powell,

I don't believe we will be using the sand pads built for the National Hickory last year. The tournament in June is a post 1900 hickory event and we will be using balls that fly much farther than the guttie ball. Looking at the card in Joe's link I would guess we will be playing the full length as typically our tournaments are held on courses between 5,800 and 6,200 yards.

[Ed Brzezowski]

Ben do you have the dates? Just  purchased a set of hickories and would love to see the event.
Ed

[Ben Hollerbach]

Ed,

We will be out there June 16th-18th.

If you live in the philly area you may want to check out the Philadelphia Hickory Golf Society, they hold events throughout the year.

[Mike Policano]

Ben,

Glad you are excited to attend The Inaugural World Match Play Hickory Championship. Philly Cricket has very generously agreed to host the event which is invitational only based on playing resume. The Championship Division is comprised of 16 National or International hickory tournament winners. I believe that ultimately five countries will be represented.

Ed,

You and others are more than welcome to attend the Matches. That Monday is practice round day. The nine hole matches and the final matches will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday.

IM me for information on the Philadelphia Hickory Society.

Cheers, Mike