Berkshire Country Club - Reading, PAJohn Reid 1903, Willie Park 1916-23, A.W. Tillinghast 1934, Kelly Blake Moran 2005, Ron Forse/Jim Nagle 2008-2019
Doak Scale Rating - 6.5Pleasantly quirky surprises abound at Berkshire. Here at the Alps 8th hole the green is set in a punchbowl along a quarry. The golfer on the right playing from one of a nest of bunkers cut into the fronting hillside.From the category of "hidden gem", little known Berkshire has quietly existed for well over a century, with the exception of the years 1947 through 1949 when it hosted the "Reading Open" on the PGA Tour.
Starting as a nine hole course designed by local professional John Reid, in 1916 the club hired Willie Park, Jr. to design an eighteen hole course. He told them he could only create 14 good holes on the land the club owned and they would need more for 18. World War I intervened and it wasn't until the early 20s when the club acquired an additional 26 acres across the street where today's holes 11-14 were created, again to Park's plan, opening on Memorial Day 1923.
Today's course is one of Park's best preserved, rediscovered in recent years by an extensive tree removal, green-space recapture, and bunker restoration by Jim Nagle & Ron Forse. The results are compelling and rate very high on the fun factor.
Short by today's standards at just shy of 6,400 yards to a par of 71, there are a wide variety of hole yardages with par threes running from the 120 pitch into the quarry on the 9th to the uphill 203 yard 6th with the green set atop the rock quarry wall. Par fours range from the diminutive uphill Alps 8th (302 yards) to beasts like the beautiful 470 yard 5th that runs through a natural valley to a shelved, plateau green. There are only two par fives, the first which at 485 uphill could easily be a par four for tournament medal play for the card and pencil set, but the sweeping 552 yard 5th is another kettle of fish. Set hard along OB right, and rising quickly from the landing area, it's a hole best played conservatively.
Ultimately, it's the pitched, creatively contoured greens that are the heartbeat of Berkshire. Being above the hole is never a good idea, but that's often difficult to achieve as many greens sit high on rises and shallow approaches to firm greens tend to run towards the back. Thankfully, they are kept at speeds befitting their vintage and inherent challenge.
The front nine is terrific, culminating at a quarry coming imaginatively into play on 6, 8, & 9. The back nine is a balanced mix of long and short holes with a street crossing, and reaches a crescendo on the long-par four 15th to a wild green, followed by a lovely mid-length par three, both under the shadow of the clubhouse.
Ultimately, however, the momentum is sadly lost on the 367 yard par four 17th, truncated unwisely from a par five by a swimming pool in the 1950s, and the short uphill 18th over bunkers to a featureless green which looks to have been altered at some point.
Still and all, this is not an invite to turn down.