A lot is said about Northeastern Pennsylvania golf. Most of it is negative.
Yes, the Poconos have given us such great tracks as The Country Club of the Poconos at Big Ridge complete with Fazio, Jim strategy and about 12 miles of cart paths.
But when one looks a bit deeper, we find several museum pieces of architecture from the bygone era of design. Few of these courses would ever host a championship or maintain any national notoriety, however, the likes of Walter Travis, A.W. Tillinghast, Donald Ross and William Flynn have left an indelable mark in what may be the first example of the "Golf Resort region" in the country.
I've made a lot of mention of Donald Ross's work at Schuylkill Country Club, and had an oppurtunity to see the on-going Ron Prichard restoration (and actually take some pictures this time) there.
With the foliage in peak form, here are some views of this gem.
The 18th green and clubhouse:
The view from the middle of the 10th Fairway when one looks right:
The Par 3 11th Hole, looking backward:
The newly restored/renovated 16th Green:
The view from behind the 9th Green:
Valley Country Club, near Hazleton, PA, was something of a surprise for me to find. Mike Cirba informed me the night before that the club was attributed to Tillinghast, and this piqued my curiousity immensely.
What I found the next day was perhaps one of the best set of preserved greens on which I've ever played. This is Tillinghast in raw form, with some work apparently retained from the original 9 holes built in 1906. The original nine hole designer is still in doubt, but A LOT of the features remind me of Walter Travis.
Valley features many Tillie calling cards, including a short Hell's Half Acre Par 5 and some of the most treacherous greens I've seen. At 6200 yards, this hilly course resembles a very small version of Huntingdon Valley in terms of both fairway severity and green complexity.
Valley gets off to a quirky start with the Par 5 first featuring one of the most abrupt Tillie complexes I've seen.
The approach shot looks something like this:
The green's bunkering is severe on both sides, from short left:
The right bunker is like none I've seen, with a steep berm between bunker and green, and the bunker floor about two feet above the green's grade:
One of the more severe greens in terms of front-to-back slope is found on the short Par 4 Third Hole:
My favorite green on the course is on the mid length, uphill Par 4 Fourth, I wanted to chip to this green for hours. With two distinct teirs, a built up back right and a roll up of 4-5 feet in elevation in front, this hole has near infinite options for setup and difficulty:
Of the three Par 3s on the first nine, this one features the most severe green with subtle bumps, ridges and hallows compounding any less-than-perfect approach.
Here's one of the original nine greens, today playing as the mid-length Par 4 6th Hole, I see some Travis in this green but am certainly no expert. He built the first 18 holes at CC of Scranton, which our own Ian Andrew restored recently.
The Par 3 9th Nine features a green benched into the hillside attractively with the putting and 18th greens in the background:
The 18th green exemplifies the nature of the preservation of greens at Valley. Note how the squareness and breadth of the green is preserved by maintaining the green edge all the way out on the green pad, view ain't that bad either:
With Fox Hill, Shawnee, and Valley (All Tillinghast) all within an hour's drive of each other and other Ross, Travis and Flynn courses in the Scranton area, it's surprising that more good in not heard about NE PA golf.