St. Davids/Main Line Golf Club

[wsmorrison]

RE Blanks,

The ale house has good RB, but next time, go about 10 stores down...closer to Upper Darby and try the RB at Cut Above Deli. It is awesome.  No beer/drinks though.

[Joe Bausch]

Since the subject of RB has come up (gosh I'm hungry as I watch the BMW Championship!), I'll put in my two cents for Ithan Market (on Conestoga near Radnor-Chester road).  They make their own RB for their deli sandwiches, with my personal fave the Roast Beef Heaven (medium rare RB w/ creamy horseradish, leaf lettuce, on LeBus multigrain bread w/ a slight amount of butter).

[D_Malley]

They never did consider my suggestion of putting in a moving sidewalk to get players from the new 17th green to the 18th tee.

[TEPaul]

Racetrack:

You're suggestion wasn't necessary. Golfers who just step out on U Gulph Rd and stick their thumb out have an excellent change of hitchhiking down to the 18th tee.

[RE Blanks]

Wayne/TE

I will try the deli next time.  The last few times I was there we were playing during the day and having drinks and RB's at the Ale House.  Then back to the crows nest at Gulph Mills.  College buddy of mine worked there for a couple of years and we got to play some of the great courses in your area over about a three year period.  After golf, we never waivered from the Ale House.  Best golf city in the US in my opinion.  

[wsmorrison]

RE Blanks,

I agree with you about Philadelphia being the best golf city in the US.  Ben Crenshaw agrees.  But of course you can't tell those New Yawkers anything, so they remain blissfully ignorant  

As for those years spent coming to Philadelphia, curious why you chose to concentrate on roast beef when the cheesesteak tour was at your doorstep.  Come on...you need to include a culinary tour along with golf.  Make sure you put some serious study into cheesesteaks, snapper soup, soft pretzels, scrapple, potato chips, pretzels and Philadelphia style deli (much better than the thick slice chewy NY style).  

[RE Blanks]

Wayne, the only cheesestake I had was in a clubhouse just outside of Clementon, New Jersey.    

Hopefully I will have an oppurtunity to play and eat in Philadelphia in the near future.  

[wsmorrison]

RE,

Not a bad cheesteak (my brother ordered one), but not up to par with the golf course.  You have to cross the river for the best cheesesteak/golf combo.  I'll be happy to lead you on your Philadelphia culinary tour...you already know the golf it seems.  What courses haven't you seen around there that you'd like to?

[RE Blanks]

Wayne, last time I was there we played GM, PV, Philly Country, HVC, St Davids, and even drove up to Somerset Hills.  I saw LuLu, Manufactures,Merion, Cricket, Aronomink, and RG.  

How can anyone go wrong with any of those?  Next time I do want to play HV again, RG, and Manufactures.  Those are the ones that really impressed me.  

The front nine of Philly COuntry is a terrific stretch of golf.  As you can probably tell I was very impressed with the Flynn courses.  

[Kyle Harris]

I fully expect to one day hear a story from Tom Paul along these lines:

"It was a cold September morning when Buddy Marucci, Jay Sigel and I decided to skip the Tavistock CC ether frolic and head over to the 'mink for a quick 36. As Jay sped his AMC Gremlin down the Admiral Wilson Blvd. I leafed through the an issue Collier's Magazine in the hopes of catching up on the latest serialized Fitzgerald...."

[Dan Boerger]

If they need a 4th, I'm in!

[TEPaul]

Kyle:

You need to get out of the golf business and into the writing business, my boy! You've got the knack. Or maybe you can do both simultaneously. I should introduce you to Schmitty who caddies down at Pine Valley. Only caddy I've ever known who can regale you with his great poetry pertaining to the holes you're playing complete with references to American Indian history such. If you really concentrate with him you may be able to hear the voices in the sandy woodsy scrub.

Good stuff.    

[Joe Bausch]

Geoff Walsh introduced this web site on the Cobb's Creek thread:

http://www.pennpilot.psu.edu/

This is really neat for unearthing old aerials in the state of Pennsylvania.  And my original post of this thread asked about the Main Line Golf Club, formerly the original site of St. Davids.  I'd always wondered whether the practice area off Iven Ave called the Radnor Range, which has the remnants of a green associated with it, really was part of the MLGC.  People have said that for years and here is proof, a 1937 photo the course:



Up at top of the photo is the R5 train line, near the bottom the ole P&W train line.  And that is Lancaster Avenue running prominently.  The two holes farthest south in the photo are south of Iven Avenue, right where the Radnor Range and some baseball fields are now.  Here is how that area looks now, but you can see where those two holes were and the remnants of the green are present correlating with what appears to be a dogleg left par 4:

[Dan Boerger]

Joe - Great work! Really interesting stuff (at least to me!). As I mentioned earlier in this thread, if you ever get the chance to see the "new" St. Davids Golf course photos which currently reside in the clubhouse you'll be pretty amazed at the (1) size and "squareness" of the greens (2) lack of trees and (3) scarcity of bunkers.