Ambassador at Hickory Valley Golf Club

They doubled charged me for a round and I can’t get through to anyone

I typically play Hickory Valley 4/5 times a year but haven’t played it in a couple of years. I was pleasantly surprised with the course conditions. For a public access course the conditions were very good. The tee boxes, fairways and rough were all very full and the turf was in great shape. Divots were perfect not the exploding type of poor turf conditions. The greens were the best I’ve played them. They were also very lush and were running faster than I’ve ever played them. They usually don’t break as much as they look but when we played, the breaks were much more prevalent than usual. The bunkers all had an appropriate amount of sand and the fairway bunkers were a bit firmer than the green side bunkers as they should be.

We played the 6,290 white tees. Two golfers had 7 handicaps other two are struggling to break 100.

This is a tough course for beginners or the higher handicap golfers because there are numerous forces carries. A “penalty area” formerly a hazard, comes into play on 7 of the front nine holes. The tee shot landing areas on the front side are generous but longer hitters need to be careful on their lines and distances on 1,2,6,7 and 9. Holes 2,4,5,7,8 and 9 have approach / tee (par 3’s) shot carries over a penalty area to the green. The greens on the front side are very large so hitting them in the proper place is key to scoring.

The back side is much tighter than the front and starts with a fairly long dogleg right par 4 into a tight green that is well bunkered with a lateral on both sides. Pull or push your approach and you’ll pay the price. 12 is a really tight driving hole that do legs slightly left with a lateral down the right side and trees on the left. You need to get far enough down the fairway or stay to the right or your approach is blocked. The par 5 14th is a benign tee shot. Pretty open but the left side is OB. There is a large set of trees on the right side up by the green about 60 yards out. Makes you thing about going for the green in two and where to place your approach shot. The green is pretty small and well bunkered. They changed around the pars on the 16th and 17th holes and I don’t think this is a good change. 16 is now a very short and tight par 5 From what used to be a par 4. It was hard to par this hole because on top of it being tight, the green is elevated. A well struck drive results in a mid to long iron to the elevated well bunkered green. (The back black tee on this hole is nearly impossible. It is 490 yards). The now par 4 17 is about the same yardage as the 16th. The problem is it is a slight dogleg right with a water hazard running across the fairway at about 260 yards from the tee. The forces you to hit a three wood or a long iron / hybrid Off the tee to come up short of the hazard leaving you with a 220 plus approach into the green and if you are in the right rough or even the right side of the fairway, you are left without a shot. It doesn’t matter relative to the overall par but they should change this back.

7 handicappers shot 80 and 82 with two lost balls each. The higher handicappers lost about two sleeves each

Overall the superintendent and his crew are doing a great job with what I’m sure is a limited budget. Due to Covid-19, we had little interaction with the staff but they are usually very friendly.

Nice course and always a fun round. Water always in play or OB. Tight fairways and hilly greens which play slow. A good iron player is suited best. Staff was great and accommodated as my playing partner showed up 30 mins late and threw us in right away, thanks guys!

Early Season first time playing this we were really surprised at how nice the fairways and greens were for this time of year.

18 in under 4 hours, not in bad shape considering it's near the end of winter

The staff was very pleasant and helpful...first time playing the course would recommend to my friends.

Lots of water holes. We will be back to play the President course soon.

A few weeks ago I tried out Hickory Valley for the first time. One time playing the ambassador and the other on the presidential. Now these are completely different courses. While I liked the Ambassador for the challenging narrow fairways and approach shots, the Presidential offers exceptional golf for many reasons.

For the public courses in the Philly area, the front nine of the Pres. is some of the funnest golf you can find. The first few holes show off the wide fairways but don’t make them easy. Multiple dog legs, lay up shots, and water keep you on your toes throughout the whole front nine. Beautiful scenery especially in the fall. After playing 3 times in the last few weeks, #5 has become one of the my favorite par 3s of any course.

The back nine plays long and narrows up a bit. Hitting low ball flight, well placed tee shots is the key to playing well. A bad tee shot will be punishing on the back, there isn’t much room for error and if caught in the trees or even the rough, your second shot will not offer much other than a punch shot to the fairway.

The conditions were also excellent. Of the three times, the fairways were lush and soft and the greens rolled well. One round was after heavy rain the day before and the fairways were drained well and the greens still held up. Other than aeration on one day, the course couldn’t have been better.

The only down side to this course is that it is heavily surrounded by large trees. While that makes the course beautiful in the fall, be prepared to lose a large amount of balls if in the rough this time of year. It’s nearly impossible to find your ball. I appreciated the grounds crew trying to blow out and manage the leaves, but there’s only so much you can do about them!

I’d recommend anyone to get out here and play this course. It offers fair prices (especially on weekdays) and is totally worth the extra buck to play over the ambassador (while that course is still fun). Just an all around fun time and it’s become one of my favorites of the 50+ public courses in the SE PA area.

Course was in good shape but the greens were recently aerated.

The course could not verify my payment on their computer. Although the pro shop was very nice and did not hold up our round, it was disconcerting to me and I had a terrible round. I let it bother me because it was embarrassing to me. There always seems to be something unusual that happens when I use Golf Now. I used two promo codes from a prior situation for this round. The incidents were not exactly due to Golf Now per se, however, I don’t believe they would have occurred if I would simply call for a tee time. You cannot always account for the unusual things, but when I make the arrangements for myself and my friends and it doesn’t go smoothly, you get upset. For me it’s not worth the dollars saved to become upset over strange situations like greens aeration or computer glitches. Hopefully things will go smoother next time.

This course is great from tee boxes fairways and green carts are old but if that’s the only downside we can live with that will play again

Tee fairways and green all in great shape well kept keep up the good work

Greens were great but grass around greens and fairways was inconsistent with weedy and thin patches in key areas around the apron.

Interesting layout, lots of dogleg holes and local knowledge would have been helpful on a few holes. Pretty flat with very few elevation changes but narrow fairways and water made up for that lack of challenge. Over all a decent track for the $. Everyone working there was friendly and helpful.

Even though the course was wet and it was cart path only the pace of play was still good. Ended up hearing what they local what you made the course play better. Apparently nobody knows how to fix ball marks at this course or the greens would be even better.

Some drivable par-4