Review: Lancaster Country Club (Part 1)

William Flynn is best known for Shinnecock Hills, and rightly so. That course earns its place as one of the country's best. But if you want to study William Flynn and his golf courses, go to Philadelphia. You can hardly go 5 feet without tripping over a classic Flynn golf course. Except, of course, you can, because they're all extremely private and beyond the reach of the average golfer. My brother is an assistant pro and has gotten us onto private golf courses before, but we had very little luck with the various Philadelphia Flynn courses. Except, of course, for Lancaster Country Club.

Dating back to 1913, Lancaster began to take its current form a few years later when William Flynn came in and designed 18 holes on one side of the Conestoga River, and over the next 20 or 30 years intermittently adjusted the course, including a four-hole expansion on the far side of the river in the late 1930s. (A third nine was added nearby that expansion in the 1990s, which we didn't see or play.) After that, the course began the typical Golden Age golf course story of benign neglect. Trees grew in, greens shrunk, bunkers disappeared, the usual story. But in the mid 2000s, the club began a restoration process that is still ongoing. However, the restoration was far enough along in 2015 that Lancaster Country Club hosted the U.S. Women's Open, won by Chun In-Gee at –8. It's also scheduled to host the 2024 U.S. Women's Open. That's a pretty impressive honor, and a giveaway that this is no walk in the park. But the real question: Will this be the best course I've ever played? It has a real shot at it. 

The first hole is a longer par 4 at 425 yards, but since it plays downhill it's not too intimidating of a prospect. The fairway is reasonably wide, but there are large bunkers on both sides. The side you'll want to favor on the drive varies on where the hole is located; for the left side hole location we had, the right side is better. The green is pretty big and flanked by sand. In general, Lancaster doesn't have the most undulating greens in the world, but they play extremely firm and fast, as befitting a club capable of hosting major championships. I wouldn't call the first hole a warm-up hole, but it's definitely not the toughest par 4 Lancaster has to offer.

The first hole.

The first green.

The second hole is one of the course's best holes, a fairly short par 4 at 375 yards, playing slightly uphill to a fairway sloped from right to left, doglegging left around a steep slope leading down to the Conestoga River. That slope increases the further left you go, so tee shots need to be careful lest they run out of the fairway entirely. My long iron tee shot landed just in the left-middle portion of the fairway and ended up in the rough. These fairways are quick. The fairway is narrowed beyond the 275- to 300-yard mark by bunkers left and a new bunker far right, so you also won't want to use driver. The green sloped fairly sharply from right to left, and is placed on the edge of the ravine, and is surrounded by four bunkers. It's a good hole, and somewhat remarkably, both my brothers and I birdied it. That is a rare occurrence, for all of us to make birdie.

The second hole.

Approaching the second green.

The second green.

The third hole was sadly partially under construction for the round (it was late October and the end of the season, a good time for bunker rebuilding), but normally plays as a 400-yard par 4, with the tee shot crossing the river. While the drive is steeply downhill, the fairway slopes just as much uphill, especially once you pass the 250-yard mark. Long drives can get a reasonable view of the green and a wedge in, but if you can't carry up to the higher portion, you will have a completely blind and long approach. The green is angled from right to left, meaning you're better off favoring the right side, which is the more bunkered side. The green is tilted severely from right to left and is protected by three bunkers in front and on both sides. 

For our round, we had this hole as a 190-yard par 3, which makes this green an extremely difficult target. Uphill, no fairway to act as a run-up, it's not really a feasible par 3 or a fair one. But construction happens, and I won't hold that against the course in the end. 

The third hole. We played from the tee at bottom left.

The third green.

The fourth hole is also about 400 yards, with the drive playing down into a narrow valley. The fairway is bounded by a meandering stream right and a steep hillside left. Naturally, the closer you get to the stream, the shorter and easier the second shot will be. A good drive cozied up along the stream will leave just a wedge into the green, which is perched up on a hillside behind three bunkers. The green is long, shallow, and sloped pretty severely from back to front. You do not want to miss the green long, so the second needs to be precise. Not the easiest task from the ideal position from the fairway, but even more difficult if you play safely out left. 

Something else I'll mention is that the club has placed numerous ball retrievers alongside most of the water features that come into play. So even if you do go in the water and incur a penalty, you can often get your golf ball back. Which is a nice touch.

The fourth hole.

Approaching the fourth green.

The fourth green.

The fifth hole is 390 yards, similar to the previous two holes, but as one might expect from a course of such high caliber, all three holes play very differently. This one doglegs left as the drive crosses the narrow valley from the last hole; that severe downslope and trees also lurks left, waiting to catch hooked or overly aggressive drives. While you can cut the corner on this hole, leaving a shorter shot, you'll also have a severe sideslope to deal with on your second shot. Play out to the right side of the fairway and you'll have a much flatter stance. The green is the most undulating thus far and is closely guarded short and right by the stream.

The fifth hole.

Approaching the fifth green.

The fifth green.

The sixth hole is the first non–par 4 at Lancaster, but it honestly doesn't feel like it. All five of the first five holes play very differently. Anyway, what we have here is a 180-yard par 3 playing downhill to a medium-sized green tucked right alongside the creek. There's no sand or much of anything right, so that obviously makes it a tempting bailout, but of course the green slopes from right to left, making it extremely difficult to get a chip from the right side close. The golfer is definitely rewarded for taking the risk and aiming at the flag here.

The sixth hole.

The sixth green.

The seventh hole is, at 530 yards, the longest hole at Lancaster Country Club and home to its most exciting tee shot. The tee is on one side of the Conestoga River and the fairway is on the other, with a ravine wall beyond. An aggressive drive, carrying as much of the water as you dare, can leave you with as little as a mid iron; a safe drive to the left makes the seventh a distinctly three-shot affair. If you're laying up, favor the left side with the second. There's a pond front left and four bunkers lining the back of the green, which is sloped toward the pond. Be very careful if you miss long, shots can absolutely drift over the green and into the pond. My third went just over the back, and my fourth shot got very lucky and avoided the water by about a foot.

While we didn't see it, there's also apparently a tee up on the hillside left, which would make the drive steeply downhill with the river lurking out right. I think the riverside tee is probably the better one, but still, it would be interesting to try out the alternate tee.

The seventh hole.

Approaching the seventh green.

The seventh green.

The eighth hole is a 200-yard par 3 over a valley to a very small green sloped pretty severely from back to front. There's two bunkers left and right, and the land falls away right. Right isn't really a good miss, but of course neither is left, since the green doesn't really slope in your favor. The green is open at the front, as befits a par 3 of this length and difficulty, so if you're stumped, you could always try to bump one onto the green rather than aiming at the flag directly. Bogey is honestly not the worst score on this hole.

The eighth hole.

The ninth hole is the first in a three-hole stretch of long and very tough par 4s. This one is the shortest at 435 yards, but it plays straight uphill to a fairway routed between two large bunkers. You can lay up short of them to a very wide section of fairway, but that'll leave nearly 200 yards for the second shot. And with the green mostly tucked behind a large bunker, you don't really want that long an iron. The green here isn't the most interesting one in the world, so if you can hit the green in two, you should at least be guaranteed a par.

The ninth hole.

Approaching the ninth green.

The ninth green.

That's it for this week, next week we'll take a look at the back nine.