best in state
The best golf courses in Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is such a central city in the development of golf course architecture in the U.S. there's a subset of history known as the "Philadelphia School of Architecture." Even though it's not an actual school and there's no unified, transferrable philosophy behind it, it does denote an impressive collection of architects who all have roots here and built courses thoughout the surrounding region: George Thomas, William Flynn, Hugh Wilson and A.W. Tillinghast, namely. Six of the state's top 10 courses are in Philadelphia's suburbs.
There's no Pittsburgh School of Architecture, but it too is an important and golf-rich metropolis. Oakmont, the state's top course and the fifth-ranked course on America's 100 Greatest Courses is there, as are Fox Chapel and Longue Vue. Laurel Valley in Ligonier is just 60 miles east, and the top public courses in the state, Mystic Rock and Shepherd's Rock, are found 60 miiles south.
Below you'll find our 2023-'24 ranking of the Best Golf Courses in Pennsylvania.
We urge you to click through to each individual course page for bonus photography, drone footage and reviews from our course panelists. Plus, you can now leave your own ratings on the courses you’ve played … to make your case why your favorite should be ranked higher.
(Parentheses indicate the course's previous ranking.)
Stephen Szurlej
Once tens of thousands of trees (mostly planted in the 1960s) were removed between the early 90s and 2015, Oakmont’s original penal design was re-established, with the game’s nastiest, most notorious bunkers (founder-architect H.C. Fownes staked out bunkers whenever and where ever he saw a player hit an offline shot), deep drainage ditches and ankle-deep rough. Oakmont also has the game’s swiftest putting surfaces, which were showcased during the U.S. Open in 2016, despite early rains that slowed them down a bit. Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner made bunker modifications and expanded the greens throughout the course in 2023 in preparation for the 2025 U.S. Open. The USGA has already awarded Oakmont three additional Opens between 2033 and 2049, reinforcing its title as it the Host of the Most U.S. Opens ever.
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Stephen Szurlej
Merion East has long been considered the best course on the tightest acreage in America, and when it hosted the U.S. Open in 2013, its first since 1981, the present generation of big hitters couldn’t conquer this clever little course. They couldn’t consistently hit its twisting fairways, which are edged by creeks, hodge-podge rough and OB stakes and couldn’t consistently hold its canted greens, edged by bunkers that stare back. Justin Rose won with a 72-hole total of one-over-par, two ahead of Jason Day and Phil Mickelson. With Gil Hanse's extensive two-year renovation making even more improvements at Merion's East Course, the design should be even more polished when the Open returns again in 2030.
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Russell Kirk
Aronimink is an object lesson in architectural evolution. After Donald Ross completed his design in 1928, he proclaimed, “I intended to make this my masterpiece.” That didn’t keep club members from bringing in William Gordon in the 1950s to eliminate out-of-play fairway bunkers and move other bunkers closer to greens. The course was later revamped by Dick Wilson, George Fazio and Robert Trent Jones. In the 1990s and into the 2000s, Ron Prichard, one of the profession’s original restoration specialists, began returning Aronimink back to Ross’s conception based on the architect’s drawings and field diagrams. But there was always a discrepancy between what Ross drew in plans and what was actually built in 1928. A more recent renovation by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, who live nearby, has put the course’s architecture more in line with what aerial photographs depict of the early design, particularly the bunkering that might have been imagined as larger in scale but built in smaller, more scatter-shot formations.
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Considered by some to be Dick Wilson’s consummate design, Laurel Valley Golf Club was founded by a group that included Arnold Palmer, who lived a few miles from the site. In fact, the group tried to persuade Arnie to quit the PGA Tour and become the club’s head professional and manager. Palmer reportedly mulled over the prospect for a time before rejecting it. Imagine how different the tour would have been had Arnie not become the dashing head of Arnie’s Army in the early 1960s. Instead, Palmer won seven majors, 52 titles overall and founded a golf design company that thrice remodeled the lovely Laurel Valley for major events.
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Courtesy of Evan Schiller
Philadelphia Cricket was Tillinghast’s home club in his early years as a golfer, so when he laid out a new course for the club in the early 1920s, he devoted special attention to it. Over the century, it aged. Greens shrank, bunkers eroded, trees grew (including one right through the roof of a clubhouse veranda). In 2008, Keith Foster was retained to restore the course to its Tillinghast glory, but a poor economy postponed the work until the summer of 2013. The Cricket is now faithful to Tilly once again, with trees removed and original greens and bunkers reclaimed, including the famed “Great Hazard” that must be carried on the par-5 seventh. As per his request, Tillinghast’s ashes were scattered in the Wissahickon Creek that crosses the 18th green.
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Russell Kirk
When Fox Chapel hosted the 1985 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship (won by Michiko Hattori), some observers were disappointed that its Seth Raynor design seemed so ordinary. Greens had become circular, many bunkers were overgrown and those that still existed bore fancy modern shapes. Most alarming, the Fox’s 17th, originally a Biarritz hole, had the front portion of the green and trench mowed as fairway. In the early 1990s, architect Brian Silva was called in to restore Raynor’s features. He reclaimed green dimensions, including the Biarritz, and recaptured original bunkers, particularly the necklace wrapped around the front of the 11th (“Short”) green. Tom Marzolf, of Tom Fazio Design, has continued to refine and draw forth more Raynor-inspired shaping and bunkering--this latest work debuted in the fall of 2020 with profound enhancements to the Punchbowl second (a par 5), Redan sixth, the Lions Mouth green complex at nine, Bottle 16th and the Redan.
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Jason E. Miczek
Originally a small nine-hole course founded in 1901, William Flynn designed the layout we see today in 1920. The course is constructed on rolling terrain with a river flowing through the heart of the property and water comes into play on the vast majority of holes. While the course really shines from holes two to eight, all in a river valley that provides the golfer with exciting yet testing shots. The bunkering on the course stands out, and like with all Flynn courses, they are placed in a way that forces golfers to take an extra consideration. The par 3s too are very good with great variety and intrigue. The course is the host of the 2015 and 2024 U.S. Women's Open.
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Jon Cavalier
Stonewall’s Old course is a minimalist layout designed by Tom Doak, about 45 miles northwest of Philadelphia. The challenging layout has a good amount of elevation change, including at the par-4 finisher, where the approach plays dramatically downhill to a green set in front of the old stone clubhouse. There are five strong par 3s, including the downhill fifth, where the green is guarded by wetlands short and a creek to the right. The club hosted the 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur and will host the 2023 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur.
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Founded in 1897, Huntingdon Valley started out as a nine-hole course before expanding to 18 in the 1910s. The club then had to move to its present site in the 1920s and acquired enough land for 27 holes. The main 18 was designed by William Flynn and Howard Toomey and opened for play in 1928.The third nine called the C course fell into disrepair during the Great Depression and only the main 18 was maintained. However to coincide with the club’s centennial, they hired Ron Prichard to bring back what is now called the Centennial nine. The greens are difficult in terms of both undulation and slope. Huntingdon's routing is its strength, as it makes great use of incredibly rolling topography where the only flat lie one gets is on the tee box. It also takes advantage of the valley and creek that the property sits on meaning golfers have to navigate and avoid the tough features they bring.
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Dylan Lake
The Country Club of Scranton features 18 holes designed by Walter Travis in 1927. Dr. Michael Hurdzan added the "New Nine" in 1988, giving members and their guests three combinations of 18-hole composites to play. The nines: Pines, Willows and Falls combine to play as the Old, North and South. The Old course is the 18-hole combination evaluated by Golf Digest's panelists, and it sits 11th on our most recent list of the Best Courses in Pennsylvania.
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LC Lambrecht
In just his second solo design, Gil Hanse’s Applebrook aims to provide a challenge with options for playability. With wide fairways and green complexes both subtle and intricate, Hanse allows for players of all levels the opportunity to try and put up a score. While bunkers are plentiful and varied they do not overwhelm the golfer, and the water’s presence on nearly half the holes provide for manageable forced carries. The course is not long in comparison to some of Hanse’s championship renovations and the wide fairways allow for aggressive tee balls, accuracy is rewarded equally to avoid the 40-plus greenside bunkers and to deal with difficult hole locations.
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Courtesy of the club
Situated high on the bluffs overlooking the Allegheny River, Longue Vue possesses some incredible vistas and strong strategic holes, which tested the world's best amateurs as a co-site of stroke play for the 2021 U.S. Amateur alongside neighboring Oakmont Country Club.
Despite the hilly nature of the property, the original Robert White design features a routing that highlights the strengths of the terrain while incorporating several templates including Redan, Eden, Alps and Punchbowl holes. A.W. Tillinghast improved the playability of several holes in the mid-1930s.
Andrew Green executed a number of improvements to the design ahead of the U.S. Amateur and continues to make updates as part of a long-term plan.
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Sunnehanna was designed by A.W. Tillinghast in the early 1920s (it opened in 1923). The club is located on a beautiful property east of Pittsburgh with gentle rise and fall and elevated views of the surrounding Allegheny Mountains. Ron Forse oversaw a remodel of the course in the early 2000s that included bunker renovations and significant tree removal to open up sightlines across the property. More recently, Bruce Hepner, the 13th architect of record to work on the course, has continued the process of enhancing Tillinghast's orignal design by rebuilding all bunkers and tees, adjusting fairway lines and selectively removing additional trees. The club is home to the Sunnehanna Amateur, one of the top events since the 1950s that has attracted young players like Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods
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Mystic Rock is one of the more curious courses Pete Dye ever designed, with mostly oval greens and rectangular bunkers. Because many holes were blasted from rock, some holes have fields of boulders in the rough and all water hazards are bulkheaded with stacked stone. The course concludes with Dye's favorite finish, a gambling par-5 16th, a 17th over water (in this case, 205 yards) and a now-strong par-4 18th. Mystic Rock's 18th was rebuilt and lengthened before the course hosted a PGA Tour event, the 84 Lumber Classic from 2003 to 2006.
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Courtesy of Whitemarsh Valley CC
Situated just north of Philadelphia, Whitemarsh Valley Country Club was the first 18-hole course designed by George C. Thomas. Thomas designed the course, known originally at Mount Airy Country Club, on his family’s estate. The course is one of the few that Thomas created before heading to California, where he designed Los Angeles Country Club, Riviera and Bel-Air Country Club, among other notable layouts. At Whitemarsh, Thomas used sprawling bunkers with jagged thumbs to shape many holes, as he would come to do at his top designs. Many of the greens accept run-up shots, making Whitemarsh playable for the average golfer, though clever shaping requires precise shots to get close to many hole locations.
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Courtesy of Omni Hotels & Resorts
One of my personal favorites from their portfolio is The Old Course at Bedford Springs at The Omni Bedford Springs Resort in Bedford, Pa., where they rescued the resort's 18 holes from an unharnessed floodplain and years of neglect.(The restored Omni Bedford Springs Hotel is worth a sidebar. Built in 1806, it was in 1855 site of the only U.S. Supreme Court session held outside Washington, D.C. The hotel also served as President Buchanan’s summer White House before the Civil War. It's every bit as impressive as the hotel at The Greenbrier in West Virginia.)The Bedford Springs resort boasts that their course was the work of three “architectural masters”: Spencer Oldham, A.W. Tillinghast and Donald Ross. Oldham was no architectural master. He was simply a Baltimore club pro who staked out the first nine in 1898. Tillinghast and Ross were definitely involved at different times, and remnants of both were still evident when I walked the site back in 1997 after the course had been closed and was overgrown. But it looked to have been a mediocre layout, despite that pedigree. It took Forse and Nagle, a decade later, to turn it into a timeless golf design.
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