Sam, a few years back I did a photo tour of what was then still known as Pine Hill. Since this time a few changes have been made to the course, but I think my pics and commentary are still timely. Here is what I started a thread with back in 2008, I think:
I've seen that Pine Hill has been discussed here many times (quite a polarizing layout it seems with the treehouse), but nowhere was I able to find pictures. So last Thursday, while it was raining at Bethpage, it was raining in Philly too and I had a very nice outing to attend for the Katherine Brower Foundation. Thankfully it only drizzled on a few holes, although a point-and-shoot camera has a heckuva time focusing in the rain, so you'll notice fuzziness on a couple of the shots.
PH is a Tom Fazio layout that I guess is about 10 years old now. I played it many times in the early years when it was public, then it went private. But like handful of private courses in our area these days, they are taking limited public play again if you are willing to cough up about one bill.
There was a long thread on PH a few years back that is here:
http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,15797.0/And here is Joe Logan's review of the place from the Inky:
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/golf/course_guide/6238342.htmlThe back nine at PH is nicely walkable, albeit quite hilly in spots, while the front nine has a sequence of holes that are, well, quite stretched out on the property. Here is the routing:
The opening hole is a 524 yard par 5 with a blind tee shot to a fairway that cants hard to the left. This hole is a simple start and your better players will probably expect to make birdie.
The 2nd is a 175 yard par 3 that plays a bit uphill.
The 3rd is the No 2 handicap, a 467 yard par 4 with elevated tees:
The green slopes quite severely from right to left, as these pics sort of show:
The 4th hole is a 437 yard par 4 that runs a bit downhill with a lateral area short and right of the green:
The par 3 5th can play out to 210 yards from the tips:
The par 4 6th is 410 yards long and really sort of plays as a slight dogleg right. A tee shot in the left part of the FW is best, but a very large and fairly deep bunker is out that way:
A 577 yard par 5 awaits at the 7th. It doglegs left late. I really like this hole.
The par 3 8th can be stretched out to 205 yards. The first photo below is from the middle tee box. And I have no idea why those evergreens have been allowed to grow in front of the hazard short of the green!
Some of the greens might be considered a bit boring at PH, but this is not one of them IMO.
No 9 returns you to the clubhouse and is a uphill par 4 playing a very healthy 448 from the tips. And it is very uphill at the end with a skyline green:
The 10th is a 477 yard par 4 that plays from a very elevated tee:
A 408 yard slight dogleg left par 4 awaits at the 11th, with a slightly uphill and semi-blind tee shot:
I guess you could call the par 4 12th (399 yards) a bottleneck hole as the tee shot must be placed precisely in order to see the flag through a chute of trees:
On a clear day the Philly skyline is visible on the 170 yard par 3 13th that for me is the least interesting hole on a back nine I like very much. The green is very deep here, I'm guessing as much as 40 yards.
The 14th is another par 5 (534 yards) that I really like. The ideal line off the tee is middle left off the FW, but it is easy to bail right, but that leaves a more difficult 2nd shot with water in play left on the 2nd shot:
The 15th is a hard dogleg right par 4 where the standard play is to keep a drive out left, the more aggressive line to carry some of the trees at the corner of the dogleg:
A very downhill par 3 awaits at the 16th hole (203 yards):
By far my favorite hole at PH is the 17th, a dogleg left par 4 (453 yards; and the No 1 handicap hole), with my only minor suggestion would be doing a little pruning of the trees right so a FW bunker is not so obscured:
The 18th at PH also takes you back up the hill to the clubhouse, a slight dogleg left par 4 (406 yards) with another skyline green:
