With the recent "affordable golf" thread, I thought I would revisit Pilgrim's Oak. I had done a thread back in late 2007 with pics of the green. Let's do something more now.
I've only played a handful of Hurdzan/Fry courses, and Pilgrim's Oak in Peach Bottom, PA is a lesser known of their work, a neat little public course built on a former farm out in the beautiful Amish country. What really strikes me most about Pilgrim's Oak is that the greens are fairly bold, more like for a private club than public.
Here is the routing, and it appears the aerial was taken not long after some greens were punched and sanded:
All the pictures are 'clickable' to a larger size.#1: Slightly downhill par 4 (428 yards) where big hitters will likely just hit a 3 wood as a booming drive can roll down a big slope, but the fairway is S-shaped and the ball will end up in the rough.
#2: Par 4 (414 yards) with an uphill tee shot with fairway bunkers left and right.
#3: The angle from the tips is interesting on this par 4 (382 yards) where a creek comes into play about 100 yards short of the green, as well as tree near the creek:
#4: This is sort of a simple par 3 (130 yards), to a fairly large green, but missing the green leaves a fairly tough up and down; stay tuned, however, as I think the other par 3's are better!
#5: A shortish, but quite uphill, par 4 (338 yards) with OB left and a fairly shallow green.
#6: The first par 5 at PO (515 yards) is a sweeping dogleg right with water to the right. Your better players will probably expect birdie here. The tee shot is blind but I love a landscape where you can line up off the right silo to leave maybe 200 yards in for the 2nd shot!
#7: A par 4 (423 yards) with a two-tiered green.
#8: A downhill par 3 (204 yards) with a stream and pond short, and a green that slopes fairly hard from right to left.
#9: The No. 1 handicap hole is this par 5 (548 yards) that is a very steady climb uphill.
And here's the view of the countryside from near the 9th green. Note the horse-pulled implement in the distance of what is likely an Amish farm.
Now it is time for the back nine at Pilgrim's Oak, which I find harder to score on than the front.
#10: A par 4 (423 yards) with a small, three-tiered green.
#11: This par 4 (383 yards) starts from elevated tees, a dogleg-right that goes very uphill at the end.
#12: (groan) The signature hole at PO is this 198 yard par 3.
#13: A slight dogleg-left par 4 (364 yards) where the tee shot looks very narrow and there is OB left; but the fairway opens up at about 250 yards so driver is really the play for most here, IMO.
#14: A dogleg-right par 5 where bigger hitters may try to consider biting off some of the yardage by carrying part/all of the bunker right; the green is narrow and tucked up against a lateral hazard.
#15: A long par 4 (434 yards) with an interesting two-tiered green, with the lower tier sitting down ~5'.
#16: A blind tee shot on this par 4 (390 yards) with another wonderful green with so many pin locations, the most devious being back left.
#17: Another beautiful par 3 (179 yards).
#18: A short par 5 (493 yards) but lots of water in play on the 2nd (and perhaps 3rd shot) shot in.
Here is my photo album with all the photos and formatted at a larger size:
http://www80.homepage.villanova.edu/joseph.bausch/images/albums/PilgrimsOak/index.htmlEnjoy!