Philadelphia Country Club

 Philadelphia Country Club
1601 Spring Mill Road
Gladwyne, PA  19035
  www.philadelphiacc.net

Architect:  William S. Flynn
Founded:  1890

Club Contacts

Golf ProfessionalScott C. Reilly  (610) 525-7788
General ManagerJanine M Budzius  (610) 525-6000
SuperintendentMichael McNulty  (610) 525-3650

Course Slope & Ratings

Spring/Mill TeesFront 9Back 9Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeYardsRatingSlopePar
 Gold  Male  34.2 131  32.4 118  5237  66.6 125  71 
 Green/Gold  Male  34.7 133  32.9 125  5510  67.6 129  71 
 Green  Male  35.1 136  33.9 130  5775  69 133  71 
 White/Green  Male  35.7 138  34.5 133  6058  70.2 136  71 
 White  Male  36.3 140  35.4 136  6359  71.7 138  71 
 Blue  Male  37 143  36.2 138  6671  73.2 140  71 
 Black  Male  37.7 146  36.9 140  6981  74.6 143  71 
 Gold  Female  36.6 126  34.9 125  5237  71.5 126  74 
 Green/Gold  Female  37.2 129  35.8 130  5510  73 130  74 
 Green  Female  37.7 131  36.7 133  5775  74.4 132  74 
 White/Green  Female  38.5 134  37.6 137  6058  76.1 136  74 
 White  Female  39.2 137  38.5 141  6359  77.7 139  74 
Mill/Centennial TeesFront 9Back 9Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeYardsRatingSlopePar
 Gold  Male  30.9 102  34.2 131  4786  64.5 117  69 
 Green  Male  31.8 108  35.1 136  5321  66.9 122  69 
 White/Green  Male  33.1 113  35.1 136  5616  68.2 125  69 
 White  Male  32.8 111  36.3 139  5820  69.1 125  69 
 Blue/White  Male  36.3 139  33.6 115  5999  69.9 122  69 
 Blue  Male  33.6 115  37 143  6156  70.6 129  69 
 Black  Male  34.3 117  37.7 146  6463  72 132  69 
 Gold  Female  32.3 113  36.6 126  4786  68.9 120  71 
 Green/Gold  Female  34.1 121  36.6 129  5115  70.7 125  71 
 Green  Female  34.1 121  37.7 131  5321  71.8 126  71 
 White  Female  35.3 127  39.2 137  5820  74.5 132  71 
Spring/Centennial TeesFront 9Back 9Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeYardsRatingSlopePar
 Gold  Male  30.9 102  32.4 118  4557  63.3 110  70 
 Green  Male  31.8 108  33.9 130  5226  65.7 119  70 
 Green/White  Male  32.8 111  34.5 133  5451  67.3 122  70 
 White  Male  32.8 111  35.4 136  5769  68.2 124  70 
 White/Blue  Male  33.6 115  35.4 136  5948  69 126  70 
 Blue  Male  33.6 115  36.2 138  6103  69.8 127  70 
 Black  Male  34.3 116  36.9 140  6408  71.2 128  70 
 Gold  Female  32.3 113  34.9 125  4557  67.2 119  71 
 Gold/Green  Female  34.1 121  35.8 130  4894  69.9 126  71 
 Green  Female  36.7 133  34.1 121  5226  70.8 127  71 
 White  Female  35.3 127  38.5 141  5769  73.8 134  71 

Directions


Club History

The membership of Philadelphia Country Club, which had reached a record high of 1,349 at the end of 1928, dropped to nearly half that in the Great Depression, then sank even lower under the impact of the War. At the end of 1943. the roster showed 638 names.

The club contributed to the war effort in a number of ways: allowing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to use the Spring Mill course ("exclusive of greens") in order to test the discoloration of grass through chemical treatment for camouflage; collecting some five tons of old scrap metal from the club grounds (exclusive of bridges!); and entertaining wounded veterans. The servicemen had the opportunity to enjoy a broad range of activities—golf, swimming, bowling on the green, croquet, badminton, tennis, basketball, baseball—followed by dinner, dancing, and a floor show. Only beer and soft drinks were served, no liquor. This circumstance was the source of two memorable directives to the hosts and hostesses from the club’s War Activities Committee: "(1) Please do not boost your morale with a hard drink while waiting for the boys to arrive. The aroma may linger. (2) If, during the evening, you see any group of boys overindulging in beer and they ask you to take and refill their pitcher, take it, but do not return."

Harold (Jug) McSpaden was head golf professional at the Country Club during World War II, though the club granted him extensive leaves of absence to take part in exhibition matches with Byron Nelson for the benefit of war bond sales, the Red Cross, the USO, as well as in what PGA Tour tournaments were being conducted. Art Morrow’s column in the Philadelphia Inquirer, April 28, 1944. quotes McSpaden: "The tour, I feel, not only will help the war effort, but also will stimulate interest in golf .... Some of our best friends in service—Ben Hogan, Jimmy Demaret, Sam Snead, Jimmy Thomson, Lawson Little, Paul Runyan, Horton Smith—have asked us to play as much as we can in order to keep the game going for them." Nelson and McSpaden, who would come to be called the Gold Dust Twins because of their tournament winnings, were only too willing to oblige.


At Phildelphia Country Club a pair of horses and an old wagon were pressed into service so that golfers could get back and forth to public transportation while the ban on pleasure driving persisted.

V-J Day found Philadelphia Country Club, like Merion, deeply in debt. The mortgage on the two properties, Bala and Spring Mill, was $590,000. Payments had not been paid on the principal, and overdue interest amounted to $70,000. Approximately $200,000 was now raised from the membership. It was used to pay the delinquent and current interest and to make improvements to the properties that had been precluded by the war.

The Centennial Nine

On Oct. 19,1991, as the culmination of its year-long 100th Anniversary celebration, Philadelphia Country Club opened a third nine holes. What especially prompted interest in it was the identity of its architect: Tom Fazio.

Born in Norristown, Pa. in 1945, Thomas Joseph Fazio entered the world of golf course architecture at the age of 17, when he joined his uncle, George Fazio, in course construction. He got a thorough apprenticeship that included design, engineering, soil analysis, and construction, not to mention the business side of the trade as well. Among the local courses the young fellow worked on, essentially by the sweat of his brow, were Kimberton, Waynesborough, and Moselem Springs.

In 1974, Tom became a full partner with his uncle. The fruits of this teaming included Butler National, Ontario’s National Golf Club, and Palmetto Dunes. By 1980 George Fazio was in semi-retirement, and within a few years the two went their separate ways. The opening of the Links course at Wild Dunes, along the Atlantic shore on the Isle of Palms, South Carolina, marked a breakthrough for Tom. It was enthusiastically received by both press and players. So were his Mountain and Desert courses at the Vintage Club, near Palm Springs, California. Now came a series of brilliant designs that placed him at the very pinnacle of American golf course architecture: the Fazio course at Barton Creek Club (Austin, Texas); Wade Hampton (Cashiers, North Carolina), named "Best New Private Course of 1987" by Golf Digest; Black Diamond Ranch Golf and Country Club (Lecanto, Florida), which was accorded the same honor in 1988; Shadow Creek Golf Club (North Las Vegas, Nevada), the 1990 winner. And withal, he was singled out by Golf Course News, a publication which surveys the work of some 250 American golf architects, as the country’s leading architect three years’ running, 1990-1992. After all these extraordinary successes, it was the Centen


The 5th on the Centennial Nine, a par 3 of 155 yards.

Like all of Fazio’s work, it is endowed with aesthetic charm, fairness, and playability. And if it blazes few trails, it nevertheless offers a number of solidly testing holes and two that are particularly distinctive. The 4th is a 520-yard double dogleg that plays from an elevated tee down to a generous landing area marked, on opposite sides of the fairway, by two sentinel trees, a massive oak and a graceful ash. The second shot is uphill, with out of bounds left and a rough-covered ridge on the right. The green, angled diagonally to the fairway, sits shelf-like atop a rise and is defended principally by a very large bunker on the right. This snares many an ambitious second shot and leaves the player with the unappetizing prospect of a long—and uphill—sand shot to a green whose surface he may not be able to see.

The 8th is rather the opposite of the 4th. Instead of a climbing par 5, here we have a falling par 3. It is 225 yards long; the green, tilting left to right, is bunkered on both sides; and the shot must thread its way fully 200 yards through trees on both sides before it finally clears their clutches and can now seek the haven of the green.

The Centennial Nine can be played at 3,315 yards, 3,100 yards, and 2,770 yards. Early on, the club considered integrating it with nine holes of the William Flynn eighteen, but that did not turn out to be quite satisfactory. By and large, it stands on its own feet and is only infrequently used in conjunction with holes from the original course. In high season, or on days when the club is hosting a competition, the Centennial Nine is a godsend.


Back to Listing ]

Individual Membership
Membership Information
Club Membership Application
Services

Pennsylvania Golf Association
301 Pennsylvania Ave, Ste 400
Kutztown, PA 19530

ABOUT US
MEMBERSHIP
HISTORY
COMPETITIONS
VOLUNTEERS
CONTACT US