2023 has been ... an experience. If you know, you know. But at least one tradition will continue on, and that's my yearly retrospective on all the golf courses I've reviewed over the past year. Okay, two traditions, once again, I played the majority of these courses in 2022. Hey, global warming's trying its best, but you can't depend on year-round golf in Maryland quite yet, so I still need that backlog. Also, the effect all those courses I played in 2020 are still making themselves known on my review schedule. What a great year for golf 2020 was. Anyway, 2023, that's what you're all waiting for.
16. The Links at Challedon (Mount Airy, Maryland)
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| The second hole at the Links of Challedon. |
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| The third hole. |
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| The fifth hole. |
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| The sixth hole. |
I don't want to say that the Links of Challedon is an awful course. It's not good, but I've played worse. Aside for an obnoxious pond on the third hole, Challedon didn't throw too much at me that I found actively offensive. However, the tee box maintenance was abysmal – and it's not like the rest of the course was Augusta quality either. More importantly, the price to play Challedon is obscene. There are so many better courses that you can play for $60, even in the Frederick area. Don't subject yourself to a mediocre, poorly routed golf course forced through hundreds of houses. And don't encourage inland courses that call themselves "the Links of" something. This is not a links course. In fact, it would be difficult for this to be less of a links course.
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| The tenth green. |
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| The fourteenth hole. |
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| The seventeenth hole. |
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| The eighteenth hole. |
Find my review here and here.
15. Greencastle Golf Club (Greencastle, Pennsylvania)
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| The first hole at Greencastle Golf Club. |
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| The third hole, featuring the world's most convincing and clearly natural waterfall. |
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| The sixth hole. |
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| The eighth hole. |
Frankly speaking, Greencastle is actually a worse golf course than Challedon, but I'm putting it a spot higher for two reasons. No. 1: It costs significantly less and yet, the maintenance was superior. No. 2: It's bad, but at least it makes you laugh. The horrifically artificial waterfall on the third hole is comedy gold, as is the horrendously terrible routing on seven and eight. And I'm not even sure what's going on with the 20 square foot marsh just sitting in the middle of the ninth fairway in a spot no golfer should ever be hitting from. The back nine is slightly more legitimate (i.e., boring), so don't expect the humor to last the entire round, unfortunately.
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| The tenth hole. |
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| The fourteenth hole. |
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| The fifteenth hole. |
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| The sixteenth hole. |
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| The seventeenth hole. |
Find my review here and here.
14. Rich Valley Golf Course (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania)
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| The fourth hole at Rich Valley. |
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| The fifth hole. |
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| The seventh hole. |
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| The ninth hole. |
Rich Valley is a golf course. That is literally all I have to say about it. Uhhh ...
Oh, it's right next to Interstate 81, you can see it as you're driving through the Carlisle-Mechanicsburg area. And you can definitely hear the traffic from the course.
Yeah, that's all I got.
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| The eleventh hole. |
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| The thirteenth green. |
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| The sixteenth hole. |
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| The eighteenth green: The one thing on this entire course that provokes even the slightest amount of thought. |
Find my review here and here.
13. Sunset Golf Course (Middletown, Pennsylvania)
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| The first hole at Sunset. |
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| The third hole. |
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| The sixth hole. |
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| The ninth hole. |
In terms of interesting design, Sunset Golf Course is down there with Rich Valley. Nothing bad, but really nothing good either. However, Sunset differentiates itself in a few ways. For one, there's actual topography, which automatically improves even the most basic golf course. It also has a token long view of the Susquehanna River on the first hole, which I can appreciate. It is a good look. Also, and this is most important, the tenth hole is absolutely visually arresting and intensely memorable. Hitting a tee shot to a fairway 150 feet below is the sort of thing that sticks with you. Watching the ball sail endlessly, hoping you've managed to find the little sliver of grass nestled amongst massive trees really does get the blood flowing, even if it's just for one shot. A lot of golf courses don't manage that feat, so at the very least, I have to give Sunset credit for that.
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| The tenth hole. Yeah, that's quite a drop down to the fairway. |
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| The eleventh hole. Please ignore the Port-a-Potty left of the green. |
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| The sixteenth green. |
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| The eighteenth hole. |
Find my review here and here.
12. Bristow Manor Golf Club (Bristow, Virginia)
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| The third hole at Bristow Manor. |
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| The fourth hole. |
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| The seventh hole. |
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| The ninth green. |
Sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Bristow Manor does the opposite of this. There's plenty of interesting stuff going on, and yet, it just doesn't go together. Things get thrown at you out of nowhere, like the wild mounding on 10, then don't show up again. There's an interesting water feature running through the front nine, and it doesn't affect play in any meaningful way. Instead, you have to deal with partially blind ponds. And while the seventh hole isn't bad, having the eighth green located squarely in the corner of the seventh's dogleg was a poor routing decision at best, and outright dangerous at worst.
Also, I'm not sure what this course has against fully continuous fairways, but there's definitely some comedic value to looking at all the split fairways on Google Maps. That's a lesson right there: If you can't be good, at least be amusing.
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| The eleventh hole. |
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| The twelfth green. |
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| The fifteenth green. |
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| The eighteenth hole. |
Find my review here and here.
11. Packsaddle Ridge Golf Club (Keezletown, Virginia)
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| The first hole at Packsaddle Ridge. |
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| The second hole. |
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| The sixth green. |
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| The seventh hole. |
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| The eighth hole. |
Sometimes, I enjoy a good mountainous, wild golf course. And Packsaddle Ridge absolutely provides that. The course truly feels like it's in the middle of nowhere, and it really does feel like it's been carved out of the wilderness. Big views of the surrounding mountains abound, and I didn't even play the course on a particularly clear day. I also really enjoyed the fact that the course was very lightly populated; I did have to wait a little on the front nine, but I pretty much didn't see a single person on the back.
That said, Packsaddle Ridge isn't much of a golf course. There's not much thought or strategy required, and the greens in particular were pretty atrocious. In bad shape and boring. Also, if I want a wild golf course experience, I could go play Fore Sisters, which is both closer to home and wilder than Packsaddle Ridge. This is a course I'd play again if I was coincidentally in the area, but I wouldn't bother otherwise.
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| The tenth hole. |
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| The eleventh hole. |
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| The thirteenth green. |
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| The sixteenth green. |
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| The eighteenth green. |
Find my review here and here.
10. Waverly Woods Golf Club (Marriottsville, Maryland)
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| The second green at Waverly Woods. |
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| The fourth green, with its very tall flag. |
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| The fifth hole. |
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| The seventh green. |
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| The eighth hole. |
The thing I remember most about Waverly Woods is how many golf balls my brother and I lost there, which doesn't make a lot of sense. Waverly Woods is not an overly tight golf course, but every time we missed a fairway, lo and behold, there would be some tall grass and our golf ball would be gone. That did get annoying.
Putting that aside, Waverly Woods is clearly not the worst course in the world, and it does some interesting stuff. It does suffer from the same sort of problem as Bristow Manor, however, in that it has interesting parts, but the pieces don't fit together as well as they should. Also, I'm not a big fan of the routing, which is very isolating; with just one or two exceptions, the only hole you can see is the one you're playing, and I'm not a big fan of that.
At the very least, this course is better than Maryland National, the other Arthur Hills course I've played. Not an accomplishment to be excessively proud of, but it did clear that bar.
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| The tenth hole. |
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| The eleventh green. |
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| The thirteenth green. |
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| The fifteenth hole. |
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| The seventeenth hole. |
Find my review here and here.
9. The Bucks Club (Jamison, Pennsylvania)
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| The first hole at the Bucks Club. |
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| The second green. |
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| The fourth hole. |
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| The seventh green. |
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| The eighth green. |
From tee to green, the Bucks Club is a pretty average golf course. An average golf course that's undergone some hole reshuffling, loss, and gain; the result of a portion of the original design being sold off for housing. The new holes, strung out over long distances among housing, don't exactly mesh exactly with the bulk of the course, which is very tightly routed and easy to walk. However, the course does have an ace in the hole that keeps it from complete mediocrity: A very solid set of greens. There's so much to like about the Bucks Club's greens, and they truly do give the course an identity. The new holes get a lot wrong, but at the very least their greens capture the essence of the original course. Then there's 16, a short par 3 with a truly unique green that has to played to believe. Pictures just don't capture the insanity of that sixteenth green.
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| The tenth hole. |
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| The eleventh hole. |
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| The thirteenth green. |
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| The sixteenth green, with its absolutely insane green. |
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| The eighteenth hole, currently under goose occupation. |
Find my review here and here.
8. The Golf Course at Glen Mills (Glen Mills, Pennsylvania)
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The first hole at Glen Mills.
 | The second hole.
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 | The third hole.
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| The seventh green. |
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| The ninth hole. |
The front nine at Glen Mills is very good, solid golf. If the entire course were at that quality, this would be fourth or fifth on this list. The wild seventh green is a definite highlight. Unfortunately, Glen Mills does not maintain the same level of quality throughout the round. There are multiple holes on the back nine that are among the worst I've ever played, as a matter of fact: 11, 17, and 18. The issue is narrowness. Those three holes simply have no room to breathe. The playing area on 11 is all of 25 yards wide, and I don't care if it's not a long par 4, 25 yards isn't enough space for any hole longer than 100 yards. And while 17 and 18 are slightly wider, they're both much longer holes, so if anything they suffer the problem even worse. As for the other, nonstupid holes on the back nine, other than 15 they're generally mediocre, not possessing the same charm and interest as the holes on the front. This really is a story of two nines, the first nine fun and charming, the second a long, occasionally miserable slog.
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| The tenth hole. |
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| The twelfth green. |
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| The fifteenth green. |
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| The eighteenth hole. |
Find my review here and here.
7. Pinehaven Country Club (Guilderland, New York)
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| The first hole at Pinehaven. |
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| The third hole. |
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| The sixth green. |
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| The eighth hole. |
Wouldn't you know it, but Pinehaven Country Club is a haven for pine trees! Incredible, shocking news.
Abundance of pine trees aside, Pinehaven is a pretty solid course. It doesn't do anything flashy or have any particularly great holes, but it doesn't really do anything wrong either. Just generally good, fairly strategic golf, coupled with interesting greens. Thanks to all the trees, it was never going to come close to the top of this list, but I also can't really fault it in any meaningful way beyond "it has too many trees." It's a solid member's course, and I'm sure anyone who plays here regularly is an accurate driver of the golf ball. If not, they're going to be eaten alive.
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| The eleventh hole. |
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| The twelfth hole, with a very interesting tree. |
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| The fifteenth hole. |
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| The eighteenth hole. |
Find my review here and here.
6. Bucknell Golf Club (Lewisburg, Pennsylvania)
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| The second hole at Bucknell Golf Club. It was not a pleasant day. |
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| The third hole, with the Church Pew bunker. |
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| The sixth hole. |
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| The ninth hole. |
You know everything I just said about Pinehaven? It's basically applicable to Bucknell. This is also an old-school style golf course with a few too many trees, but I'm putting this ahead of Pinehaven because it does have a few unique features like the Church Pew bunker on the third hole. The sixteenth and seventeenth holes here are also pretty good. However, you can tell the difference between the original nine and the newer nine; it's not a drastic difference, but the newer holes are definitely not quite as good. Still, I enjoyed my round despite the absolutely horrible weather, and seeing as this is a public and affordable golf course, it definitely deserves to be ahead of Pinehaven.
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| The twelfth hole. |
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| The thirteenth green. |
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| The sixteenth hole. |
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| The seventeenth hole. |
Find my review here and here.
5. Lederach Golf Course (Harleysville, Pennsylvania)
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| The first green at Lederach, showcasing the course's best feature: Its wild greens. |
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The second green.
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The third hole.
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| The fifth hole. |
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| The ninth hole. |
As a general rule, you can avoid any golf course that only exists as a means to sell houses. But as with so many rules, this one has exceptions, and Lederach is a housing development golf course that is worth your time. It can't escape the housing curse completely; this is still cart golf, and the routing has absolutely been compromised because the housing came first, but overall, Lederach is a fun and interesting golf course. Particularly at the greens: Straight from the first hole, Lederach possesses a fun and exciting collection of greens. It's not quite so solid from tee to green, but it's not completely lacking either. There are strategic decisions to be made out there, and more importantly, the housing is kept far enough way that Lederach never feels claustrophobic. Overall, despite fighting against a massive inherent flaw, Lederach does pretty well for itself.
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| The eleventh green. |
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| The thirteenth hole. |
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| The fourteenth green. |
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| The sixteenth hole. |
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| The eighteenth hole. |
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| The eighteenth green. |
Find my review here and here.
4. Schoolhouse Nine Golf Course (Sperryville, Virginia)
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| The first green at Schoolhouse Nine. |
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| The second hole. |
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| The second green. |
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| The fourth hole. |
Schoolhouse Nine is the golf course every golfer wishes they had in their backyard. Being a nine-hole par 3 course laid out in a relatively uninteresting field – albeit a field with fantastic views of the Blue Ridge Mountains – Schoolhouse was never going to set the world on fire. But it's plenty good enough. Every hole has something working in its favor to make the golfer think, and nearly every green is filled with interesting breaks and slopes.
In addition, Schoolhouse is just a nice place to be. The scenery is fantastic, and since the course is routed through a small open field, there are no trees blocking the view of the course, so you feel very connected to the entire place. You can see all the golfers walking around, and you can hop around to play the course in whatever you like, if that's something you want to do. And the price is right too, with unlimited golf maxing out at $25 per person. Everyone should have a course like Schoolhouse nearby, and I'm very jealous of the people of Sperryville, Virginia, for having something I don't.
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| The fifth green. |
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| The seventh hole. |
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| The two-thirds Biarritz seventh green. |
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| The eighth hole. |
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| The ninth hole. |
Find my review here.
3. Mohawk Golf Club (Schenectady, New York)
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| The first hole at Mohawk Golf Club. |
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| The third green. |
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| The fifth hole. |
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| The seventh hole. |
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| The ninth hole. |
Mohawk Golf Club offers a lot. The par 3s are all extremely good, as are the short par 4s. It's a well-preserved Devereux Emmet design, and it's got some very interesting greens. However, there is a bit of a drawback to Mohawk's design: The large number of par 4s. There are 13 of them, and even the most talented architect in the world would struggle to make them all play distinctly, especially considering Mohawk doesn't have the most interesting topography. In particular, the last three holes honestly do feel like busy work to get back to the clubhouse. The par 3s are great, but there's only three of them, and I wish there were more of them. It's far from a bad golf course, it's third on this list after all, but it's not Emmet's best work.
Also, the maintenance was not up to the standard one would expect from a private golf course. The greens in particular had a lot of bare spots. Nothing I haven't seen before, but when you're paying thousands of dollars to join a private golf club, you expect more competency from the greenkeeping crew. This isn't affecting Mohawk's place on my list, but it is something I feel is worth mentioning.
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| The twelfth hole. |
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| The thirteenth hole. |
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| The fourteenth green. |
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| The fifteenth hole. |
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| The sixteenth hole. |
Find my review here and here.
2. Paxon Hollow Golf Club (Media, Pennsylvania)
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| The first hole at Paxon Hollow. |
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| The third hole. |
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| The fifth hole. |
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| The eighth hole. |
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| The ninth hole. |
It always makes me happy when an unassuming public course can hang in the same neighborhood as the stuffy, pretentious country clubs. And that fits Paxon Hollow to a T. I'm not normally one to underestimate public golf, but I was honestly not expecting to have as much fun with Paxon Hollow as I ended up having. Oh, it's only 5,700 yards, I thought, how interesting could it possibly be?
I was so wrong.
Paxon Hollow doesn't get off to a strong start. The first few holes aren't anything to write home about. But then you get the fifth hole, and suddenly, things get more lively. And once you get past the seventh, Paxon Hollow doesn't miss a beat. Out of the 108 holes I played during our Philadelphia trip, I truly believe the tenth hole at Paxon Hollow is the best. It even beats the best my No. 1 choice has to offer. Somehow, Paxon Hollow manages to regularly take driver out of your hand without you noticing what it's doing. That, I think, is its greatest trick. It is a very short golf course, but unlike Cape Arundel, it never feels like you can overpower it. And while I think the No. 1 course this year has more to offer in terms of golf course design, in terms of sheer golfing fun, Paxon Hollow is tough to beat.
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| The tenth hole. |
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| The eleventh hole. |
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| The twelfth hole. |
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| The thirteenth hole. |
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| The fifteenth hole. |
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| The eighteenth hole. |
Find my review here and here.
1. Lancaster Country Club (Lancaster, Pennsylvania)
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| The first hole at Lancaster Country Club. |
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| The second hole. |
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| The fifth green. |
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| The sixth hole. |
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| The seventh hole, running along the Conestoga River. |
Yeah, this isn't really a contest, Lancaster was always going to take the top spot this year. While it's not my personal favorite course, it's pretty clearly the best course I've ever played, hovering just outside Golf.com's top 100 in the country. It's a past and future major championship host. How are you going to argue with that? Paxon Hollow is a ton of fun, but it's not in the same league.
Lancaster, quite simply, is an incredible test, and the front nine is home to the best golf design I've ever seen. That's true even with the third hole being partially closed for our round. The second, fourth, and seventh holes in particular are brilliant. I didn't enjoy the back nine quite as much, but we're talking "very good" instead of "great." And while it was unfortunately almost pitch-black when we played it, that eighteenth hole is a sight to behold. It's so grand and stately, and the slope of that green is something else.
I won't say it's my favorite course ever, as I feel it does lack a bit of the charm and X factor that courses like CC of Troy and Leatherstocking possess, but there's no denying the fact that Lancaster Country Club is a great course and well deserving to be No. 1 on this list.
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| The eleventh hole. |
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| The twelfth green. |
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| The fourteenth hole. |
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| The sixteenth green. |
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| The eighteenth hole. |
Find my review
here and
here.
