Philadelphia Country Club: Spring Mill

The original 18 at Philadelphia Country Club, known as Spring Mill, was designed by William Flynn in 1927 (Tom Fazio later added an additional nine holes in 1990, called Centennial). The appropriate word to describe the course and the property is “grand,” especially after Jim Nagle’s 2023 and 2024 renovation work expanded fairways and greens, upscaled the bunkering to better match Flynn’s original hazards and opened up the remaining sight lines so the full scale of the land’s movements and vistas across the west Philadelphia horizon could be appreciated. The design is full of standout holes like the uphill, double-dogleg second, the sweeping downhill fourth and the par-3 seventh nestled in a cove. But the second nine stretch of holes, particularly from the par-5 12th walking along a high ridgeline through the powerful dogleg right 17th that banks through a valley corridor into a green sitting in a secluded hollow are in a class with the best of any course in the Philadelphia market. Philadelphia Country Club was the site of the 1939 U.S. Open, won by Byron Nelson only after an additional 36-hole playoff with Craig Wood and Denny Shute. The tournament may be most remembered, however, as Sam Snead’s best chance to win the Open. Playing the 72nd hole, he needed only par to win but thought he needed a birdie to tie Nelson. After driving the ball in a bunker on the par-5 18th, he elected to go for the green with his 2½ wood instead of laying up with an iron. That shot caught another bunker under the lip and he proceeded to make an 8. The infamous hole is now the par-5 third—the sequencing changed when the clubhouse was relocated to the other side of the course in the 1970s.