It is settled law, GAP*-style, that the Aronimink Golf Club course is solidly one of the top-10 courses in greater Philadelphia. Yep, that’s how good the Donald Ross course, in Newtown Square, Pa., is. The 108th PGA Championship will be played there this week.
(*The Golf Association of Philadelphia, founded in 1897.)
For further proof of Aronimink’s high standing, I’d like to bring in an expert, Doug Borgerson. Borgerson is the borough manager of a nearby West Conshohocken, where there is a Marriott, home for many players are staying this week. But Borgerson’s expertise for this exercise is not in balancing a municipal budget. It derives from his side gig, as the boys’ golf coach at the elite Episcopal Academy, just down the road from Aronimink and closed this week for the tournament. Borgerson has an ideal job if you’re looking to play courses you might not otherwise sniff.
I know this territory myself. In the late 1980s, I was a member of the Philadelphia Newspapermen’s Golf Association, and it was through the PNGA that I first got to play the sublime Merion West course. (Lee Trevino won a U.S. Open on its sister course, Merion East, also good.) Merion West has a trio of holes called Oh Sh*t Corner, not named by Herbert Warren Wind.
This corner of the course comprises No. 6, a crazily downhill 120-yard par-3; No. 7, a 280 par-4 where your only goal is to finish with the ball with which you started; and No. 8, a 240-yard par-4 up a suburban mountain. Some of the local high schools play their events at Merion West. It’s perfect. Herb Wind, you may know, did invent the phrase Amen Corner for that nook of Augusta. The same Herb Wind once told me that the U.S. has three great golf capitals: Chicago, New York and Philadelphia.
Golf is an elemental part of Philadelphia’s sporting culture, along with squash, court tennis (don’t ask) and (of course) the Flyers. Most of the high schools have golf teams for girls and boys, many of the clubs still have thriving caddie programs, and there is excellent public golf and private-club golf for almost every budget. Borgerson, who has lived in and around Philadelphia all his 47 years, knows all this well. Between his coaching and his recreational play, he has played golf everywhere in the region. I asked him to name his top-10 greater Philadelphia courses. It was a struggle, limiting himself to 10. Without further ado:
1. Pine Valley, opened in 1919, designed by George Crump, et al.
“More British than anything in Britain,” Nick Faldo once said. Gorgeous, in an Old Spice sort of way.
2. Merion Golf Club, East Course, 1912, Hugh Wilson.
Justin Rose, winner of the 2013 U.S. Open there and a member, plays it annually. Lee Trevino, upon winning the Open there in 1971: “I just fell in love with a girl named Merion and I don’t even know her last name.” Mixes speeds like few other courses, starting with six holes of drama, followed by six holes of comedy and ending with six holes of tragedy.
3. Huntingdon Valley, 1928, William Flynn.
“A symphony of a golf course that never plays the same, one day to the next,” says Borgerson, a former member there.
4. Rolling Green, 1926, William Flynn.
When the U.S. Open was played at Rolling Green in 1976, Sandra Palmer and JoAnne Carner tied for first at eight over par through 72 holes. Carner won the 18-hole playoff by two — with a Monday 76. It’s hard. Also great.
5. Philadelphia Cricket Club, Wissahickon Course, 1922, A.W. Tillinghast.
(Full disclosure: I’m a member.) Borgerson’s fifth is my first, my favorite course in Philadelphia: quirky in places, beautifully bunkered, mystery-theater green, with you-can-find-your-ball rough and a lovely call home, to an awninged porch overlooking a winding 18th hole bisected by a creek where Tillinghast’s ashes were dispersed.
6. Aronimink, 1926, Donald Ross.
“Big ballpark,” Borgerson says. Big in every way and big enough for the PGA Championship or any other event. Gary Player won the ’62 PGA there. A perfect condition course, with an affluent membership. The club had a beautiful pool. The club moved to build an outdoor event space. The country star Luke Bryan performed there the other night.
7. Saucon Valley, Weyhill Course, 1966, William Gordon, David Gordon.
Just 50 eagle-flying miles from the Liberty Bell in downtown Philadelphia, a stunning and often overlooked greater Philadelphia course that was once a hideaway for Bethlehem Steel executives. “My favorite of the three Saucon courses,” says Borgerson, and all three Saucon Valley Country Club courses are really good. “So dramatic.”
8. Applebrook, 2001, Gil Hanse.
“It’s my house course,” Borgerson says, “but I liked it before I joined it. It doesn’t kick you in the shins, and there are three par-3s on the back nine.” It brings to mind something else Herb Wind once said: You may sooner insult a man’s wife than his home course. Or (as the phrase is rendered today) you may sooner insult a person’s life partner than his or her or their home course. Playful and playable.
9. Atlantic City, 1897, John Reid and many others since him, including Tom Doak.
Windswept, gorgeous. “You have to hit every shot,” Borgerson says. In 1901, Walter Travis, an Australian, defeated Walter Egan, an American, in the U.S. Amateur. The battle of the Walters. People are still talking about it, along with the grillroom floors pocked by spike marks.
10. Gulph Mills, 1919, Donald Ross.
This has been said before and it will be said again: “You know the Duke brothers, Randolph and Mortimer Duke of the trading firm Duke & Duke, depicted in the classic Philadelphia movie ‘Trading Places’? They would be members of Merion, of course. But they would play their golf at Gulph Mills.” Incredibly charming, start to finish, with a letter from Bob Jones to the members hanging on a clubhouse wall, inviting the gents to board a private southbound train to check out his new course, in Augusta, Ga., in case anybody was looking for a winter club to join.
“Nice list,” I said to Borgerson when he was done. “But what about Jeffersonville?”
“Jeffersonville!” the coach said, followed by a lot more. A true muni, owned by West Norriton Township. Borgerson regularly sings about Jeffersonville to the West Norriton township manager. Borgerson says that if he could play Jeffersonville — Donald Ross, 1931 — unimpeded (it can get crowded and slow), he would put it in his top 5.
On and on we went, and round and round.
We also talked about Merion West; the St. Martins nine-hole course at the Cricket Club; the LuLu Country Club course; Manufacturers; Whitemarsh; Philadelphia Country Club; Wilmington, or one of its courses; Stonewall, or one of its courses. Somehow, one of the best did not get raised — Lancaster. Lancaster!
Doug Borgerson could have worked the PGA this week. His club, Applebrook, is marshaling the 9th hole, a 600-yard par-5, where a lot can go wrong. But Borgerson is not working the event. There’s no way. He wants to watch. He wants to hang, see the action on a course he knows well. The fellas are coming to town. They’re playing a very, very good course. One of our best.
Did I mention Llanerch? Oh, it’s special. Dow Finsterwald won the 1958 PGA Championship there, the first at stroke play, and people are still talking about that. Some people really are.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.
