Best golf courses near West Chester, PA

The Robert Trent Jones Sr.-designed South Course is routed among the rolling terrain of northern Delaware and provides some really good vistas of large sections of the golf course. The routing takes advantage of the terrain to produce a course with strong layout design and a variety of holes that include thoughtful short par 4s such as the 11th, challenging longer par 4s such as No. 5 and a beautiful mix of par 3s. Recent tree removal plus some tornado damage have opened up the course even more, and some bunkers were added at the corner of doglegs in an attempt to restore some shot options back to a few holes ahead of the 2022 BMW Championship, the first time the PGA Tour will host an event in Delaware.

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.

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.

Applebrook Golf Club is one of the best golf courses in Pennsylvania. Discover our experts reviews and where Applebrook ranks in our latest rankings.

Stonewall: North Course is one of the best courses in Pennsylvania. Check our experts reviews and how they rate the courses.

Designed by Donald Ross in the late 1920s on an old steeplechase horse-racing loop, this rolling piece of land was restored in the 2000s and is one of the best public courses in the Philly area.