New Castle - Tillinghast

[Joel_Stewart]

Has anyone played this?  Last night I had dinner with a large group from the Tillinghast Society and a few mentioned this as their favorite Tillinghast course.

From their web site:

Golf Course
This “hidden gem” is one of Western Pennsylvania’s best-kept secrets. The famous golf course architect, A. W. Tillinghast, designed the New Castle Field Club in 1923. Mr. Tillinghast is revered for such famous designs as Baltusrol, Winged Foot, and the San Francisco Club, host to many of golf’s premiere events.  Renamed in the 1940’s, New Castle Country Club offers a challenge to golfers of all levels and a beauty and design that is forever enjoyed. In recent years, New Castle Country Club has been host to many USGA, WPGA, and Tri-State PGA competitions.  This venue routinely is a site desired by the governing bodies in golf to host many of their prestigious events. In 2003, New Castle Country Club hosted both the Tri-State Open and the USGA Amateur Qualifier, with the latter sending three contestants to the Amateur Championship at Oakmont Country Club. The 2004 golf season hosted two prestigious amateur events: the Western Pennsylvania Mid-Amateur Championship and the Tri-State Championship. The last decade has afforded the Club the honor of the best greens one year and the best fairways another year in Western Pennsylvania. The 6,600-yard challenge has stood the test of time and remains one of Western Pennsylvania’s “hidden gems.”

[Billsteele]

Joel-While I have not played New Castle, I know that last year, when the Tillinghast Society's annual meeting was at Lakewood in Cleveland, several attendees stopped at New Castle on the way over from the Eastern states (New Castle is on the Ohio/PA border). Uniformly they spoke very highly of it. Unfortunately, even though it's only about three hours from my house, I have not made the trip yet. But it is definitely on my list of places to visit.
   John Garrity, who writes for Golf.com, also thinks highly of it. Check out this link:
 http://www.golf.com/golf/courses_travel/article/0,28136,1640643-6,00.html

[Mike_Cirba]

Joel,

No, but I'm finding Tillie has little unknown gems all over the place..

I played Valley CC yesterday in northeastern PA and if there's a better golf course on less than 100 acres (is Wannamoisset under that?), I'd love to see it.   I'm hoping to play another called Wyoming Valley this weekend, which is also supposed to be a total hoot.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Mike

I played Wyoming Valley a few years ago and it's a fun course to play.

Have you played Irem Temple in Wilkes-Barre?

[Phil_the_Author]

You guys definitely know how to make someone jealous!

[Mike_Cirba]

Steve,

No...that's on the list too!   I've been trying to do a Tillie Tour the past few weeks.

I know Tom Paul was blown away by some of the quirkiness of Wyoming Valley, which is saying quite a bit from Mr. Misquamicut.

[TEPaul]

Joel:

I feel bad that I've never seen New Castle because I sure have been in the vicinity plenty of times and had the opportunity. I've had that opportunity and I've been very aware of it for a few years now (I very much think of stopping in when I go by it) because someone a few years ago told me I just have to see it. I think it was Brad Klein.

I have seen and played Wyoming Valley and it's OK but I would expect New Castle to be better than that one, hopefully a lot better. The deal with Wyoming Valley is there are a couple of holes on that course that are fairly unforgettable.

As I recall one of those holes is unforgettable because it is a drop shot par 3 of the impact and drama of Lehigh's #7. The other hole is unforgettable (it seems like perhaps it is the 2nd or so) for the simply reason that noone seemed to know how in the world one is supposed to play it. I seem to recall it was something like a 5 iron off the tee and then another 5 iron to the green and that was about the extent of it. Holes like that tend to either confuse or frustrate tournament players.

[John Kirk]

I played it a couple years ago.  John VanderBorght arranged a day of golf there for us.  He's seen the course more than once, and would remember more about it.  Based on a fuzzy memory, it's a Doak 5 or maybe a 6.  It has some unusual features, and sloped greens that look like they've never been softened from their original contours.

Not too long, maybe 6900 yards, pretty difficult course.  John and I both shot about 80.