@swade I would love to be in on this as well. If there’s one thing I’ve learned on the Refuge today, it’s that I need to put more names to faces.
If anyone’s interested I’ve got 3 open spots for 11:30 at Jeffersonville on Saturday. Was originally booked for 3 but 2 of the group have their kids this weekend so they’re out. Weather looks good, figured I’d put it up here before I ask the pro shop to try to group me with someone else.
Well, to follow up on the country club search, here’s a list of clubs I got pricing/info from:
Philly Cricket
Whitemarsh Valley
Green Valley
Rolling Green
Llanerch
Huntingdon Valley
North Hills
The 1912 Club
ACE Club
LuLu Country Club
The only one that’s absurd cost-wise is the ACE Club, which makes sense since it’s a corporate-owned facility that probably doesn’t need individual members. I broke the rest of them into 2 buckets based on affordability.
The “Not So Affordable” group:
Philly Cricket (duh)
Whitemarsh Valley (duh)
North Hills
Llanerch
The “Affordable” group:
Green Valley
Huntingdon Valley
The 1912 Club
Rolling Green
LuLu
I felt like I was on The Bachelor, whittling down my list of candidates based on price, distance (I live in East Falls), the golf courses themselves, extra amenities, etc. The final 3 for me were LuLu, Green Valley and Huntingdon Valley. And after much deliberation, I’ll be going to Green Valley this week to check things out and hopefully start the membership process.
Has anyone ever played Green Valley? It looks like a quality place - Flynn-designed 6800 yard course, driving range/100 yard practice facility, all the good stuff for a young guy looking to get better at golf.
Send me a message if you want any more info on any of these places - the one thing I found was that all of them will send you the pricing info with a simple request.
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I’d love to have the pricing information for each of these. Thanks!
Funny enough, I live in East Falls too.
A work friend was a member for a year at green valley a couple years back. Can’t say too much about the membership side of things but the course was pretty solid. Huntingdon and Rolling Green are head and shoulders above in my opinion though. How much difference are the prices?
My neighbor was a member at Rolling Green and is now a member of Philly Cricket. He described the monthlies as very similar (except that he gets a lot more at Cricket). Are you solely going on the initiation fees or the monthly costs?
Huntingdon, Rolling Green and Green Valley are basically the same when it comes to monthly fees. Rolling Green has a much higher initiation than the other two. Actually Huntingdon is the cheapest. For me it came down to location, location, location - it’s 35 minutes to HV without rush hour traffic and a big priority for me was getting to a course ASAP if I log off work at 5:00.
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He’s right about that - I think the thing that struck me the most was how affordable (at least in my age bracket) Philly Cricket is. I had the initiation and total annual fees broken out and both of those factored into the decision. I had a cap for each that I wasn’t willing to go over and that filtered out 3/4 of the choices.
Thanks, that’s the feeling I got too. Without knowing where life is going to take me over the next few years, a good course of championship length was really all I needed. FWIW the guy I spoke to on the phone didn’t even mention that it was a Jewish club and there was almost no mention of it in the materials they sent me, which I thought was curious. Maybe it’s been de-emphasized a little.
We played a few summer twilight rounds out there and it was great. There is a couple hole stretch on the back, I think it’s 13/14, that is pretty perfect in the mega light.
Out of curiosity, did any of these places mention membership freezes due to high demand or anything along those lines?
I know Cricket Club is on a quasi wait list which they weren’t on going back a year or two. You can only join (with sponsorship / acceptance etc.) into their “Intermediate” membership category which for a golfer is like a glorified social membership with 8 rounds that can be played on the Wissahickon or Militia Hills course and unlimited access to St. Martins.
For those interested in tracking progress at the Cobbs Creek project, it is very much still on. We’re actively fund raising but the restoration work is in progress. Beyond the golf course itself, there will be a huge investment in programs to benefit the local community, particularly the youth. It’s an exciting time for the project, expect to see and hear more in the coming months. The website was relaunched recently, you can find it here: https://cobbscreek.org/.
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I realize my opinion isn’t a popular one, but I wasn’t impressed with Whitemarsh Valley. It was in great condition but there wasn’t really a stand out hole (18?)… and I found many of them to be forgettable.
that is a way better way of making the point I was trying to. Reputation aside, it’s a nice course. But I showed up expecting to be blown away and… just wasn’t. Kind of reminded me of the time I played Aronimink. Fun, but didn’t think it was worthy of the crazy praise it gets.
Officially moving to Philly (center city) week of 12/21 and will know 0 people who play golf. Hoping to get out to play with some of you guys next year!
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Welcome to the area! I recently moved to Bucks County but lived for several years on 20th and Spring Garden in Fairmount. Miss living in the city a ton but the burbs have their benefits as well. Looking like an iffy winter for play with everything going on but feel free to hit me up sometime if you want to check out any courses up this way. Makefield Highlands is an absolute favorite of mine and my Dad and Brother are members at Yardley CC.
Are you totally new to the area? I’m sure everyone in here would be open to helping you get the lay of the land. My invite to play goes for any other Philly denizens as well.
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I can vouch for Makefield, as @Zachilroy mentioned. That one is northeast of the city, a little over half an hour away. That is what you’re looking at for most decent courses distance-wise, unless you cross the bridge into Jersey for Riverwinds.
I also moved out of the city into the burbs, but Center City is awesome. You’ll really enjoy it there.
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St Martins is a great nine-hole
In the year of Covid you probably missed out on The Locker House at Whitemarsh Valley CC. There is no better men’s locker room in GAP.