Ambassador at Hickory Valley Golf Club
About
Hickory Valley Golf Club boasts two 18-hole, regulation-length courses, named the Ambassador and the Presidential. The Ambassador Course is the shorter of the two at 6,450 yards but it still offers a fair test. The classic layout is routed through towering hardwoods forests that stretch to over 70 feet high. The tall hickory trees loom over the fairways. The small greens are sloped back to front, presenting a challenge for even the most seasoned players. Water hazards come into play on several holes and there are a few tricky doglegs to contend with. The bunkering is minimal but the abundant trees will be enough to keep you on your toes. The golf course has some challenging holes but it's not overly punishing for the high handicapper.
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Golfer Photos
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Every fairway looked like this Photo submitted by COOcampo3 on 08/23/2025
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Photo submitted by cDrBv9n7iHmgGbUxd9Oi on 08/02/2025
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Photo submitted by cDrBv9n7iHmgGbUxd9Oi on 08/02/2025
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Best Brothers 1st Round of 2.0 Project! Photo submitted by StuKnod on 04/03/2022
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Photo submitted by ericgrafton on 11/14/2016
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Photo submitted by ericgrafton on 11/14/2016
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Photo submitted by ericgrafton on 11/14/2016
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Par 3 16th Photo submitted by bfalker on 06/16/2013
Golfer Reviews
Tough but fair
The fairways were in great condition, the greens slow but smooth. The course was path only due to excessive rain which accounted for the slow greens. The rough was lush and dense so finding fairways important. Nice layout , with many creeks crossing the fairways and by the greens
First time at Hickory Valley
Course was in great condition. The ambassador course is mature with large trees lining most fairways. Greens are rolling and average speed. For the money I was quite pleased with the course. I would come back.
Great course
This course is beautiful but as a beginner it wasn't the easiest 18 holes. There are many beautifully placed hazards, especially the little pond with all the frogs in it. It was like playing on the tour with all those little green fans.
Do not waste your money and time
Played this course for the first time in Saturday, May 28th as a twosome. We were put out behind a threesome who clearly had never played before. Despite there being several holes open ahead of them, they would not let us play through. When we finally found a ranger, he told us to just be patient and that we should have known it would be a 5 hour round before coming out. No offering to move us ahead of them, nothing.
In terms of the course, the best thing you can say is that it is well maintained. The greens are probably the slowest in the area and full of unfixed ball marks. Leave the driver and woods at home if playing here as every hole requires a layup off the tee.
Overall, do not be lured in by the price. I would not recommend this course to anyone, except maybe a person playing for their first time. I will not be returning.
nice course
good value for this course. Conditions were very good.
Great shape Interesting course
This was a course I I never expected to play and it was a real treat.
there was a tournament in the morning on one course so I played the Ambassador first and Presidential second both courses we're interesting and required course knowledge and shot placement I hope to play these again next time I'm in town
There were several crews working on planting flowers around the course and the place really looks good.
Great coruse w/Friendly staff
Beautifully kept course with a good mix of challenging holes. definately a place where you use all of the clubs in your bag. Recently aerated greens were somewhat of a downer but once they fill back in I expect they will match the quality of the fairways and tee boxes.
Current Conditions Play IT Forward
I've reviewed this course before and I like it a lot. This is a review of current course conditions for April 9 2017. I played with my son and a friend on Masters Sunday. Unfortunately there was an hour frost delay which obviously the staff can't do anything about however it was a bit of a cluster at the first tee with an every group for themselves environment. Starter said he was running about three groups behind yet there were seven groups in line at the tee box. We had to figure out where we fit in. No involvement from the staff. Oh well met some nice guys figuring it out. Staff is usually very helpful so I'll chalk this up to one starter trying to deal with about 60 golfers trying to get out across the two course. OK done ranting
The course itself is in very good shape for April but needs some TLC. Turf is healthy across the board, tees fairways, rough and greens. They are in the process of bringing sand in for the bunkers but haven't finished applying the sand or groomed any bunkers. There was substantial rain during the week so it was cart paths only. The rain caused overflowing of the ponds and streams and there was a significant amount of debris in spots from the overflow especially throughout the 12th fairway. When we drove in it looked like the 18th green had damage across the front but this turned out to be debris as well. I inquired about what happened to the green when paying and was told what it was. The guy behind the counter was a bit stunned that it wasn't cleaned up. The greens appeared to not have been cut in at least a few days and I would estimate their speed at around 7 on the Stimp. There was only one set of tees out and they were all as far up as you could go. I'd estimate it played 5,200 yards at most. Every pin was set on the back of every green. A little frustrating and no mention on golf now or their website that I could find. It's April and the season has begun in eastern PA so I expected more. Maybe the maintenance crew hasn't all come back from the winter? The back tees were all in equal or better shape than the forward tees we played. I did hit most clubs in the bag because I was forced to tee off with various irons on tees.
I'm confidant Hickory Valley will get it together soon as they usually do an excellent job in preparing and caring for this throwback, tree lined, traditional northeast course. I'll give it a couple of weeks and call before booking another time just to make sure they are "officially open for the season". But I'll definitely be back
Nice features,challenging yet enjoyable and playable.
Perfect yardage , challenging yet playable for my husband and I . Nice layout and the pace of play was good, no downtime. We can't wait to play here again.
Good value
Friendly staff, good conditions best value
Hickory Valley never disappoints
This is the first time I've played the Presidential ,and enjoyed it thoroughly. I've played the Ambassador many times, and it's always enjoyable. It's hard to believe the courses are across the street from each other, as it has the feeling of being in a different area all together. I drive over an hour, and fight Blue Route traffic to play here, and it's worth it. The pace of play Friday was slow, but the weather and scenery allowed for an enjoyably slow round. The ranger came out to make sure all was well..and that's all one could ask. As always, the staff at Hickory Valley is terrific. Only wish i lived closer to justify becoming a member.
Neat course
This is not a special course. It is a good public course. I joined up with three other golfers and we had a good time. There are many doglegs on the Ambassador course. Greens were well taken care of. Fairways were in very good shape. Not an overly difficult course but it is tight on some holes. Water comes into play on several holes. For $25 this was well worth it.
Tough pin placements
The course was great as always, but there were some really impossible pin placements
Leave the driver in the bag
Great lil track. Not crazy long, but the dog legs and tighter fairways make it relatively tough if your game is off a little bit. Lots of doglegs and tight-ish fairways and it was very easy to run the ball through the fairway on several of the holes.… I was too lazy and didn't use my rangefinder enough on tee shots. I need to come back and focus on my tee shot placement and I think I will score MUCH better!!
Super SLOW!
The young guy who answered the phone tried to say it was the frost delay. But this is the second time this year we played rounds over 5 1/2 hours. The Ranger must have been off both times I played. Nice layout but not worth the drive from DELCO. This must be the new trend in golf course management, don't offend slow golfers. Just tell the other patrons "we're trying to move them along"and then ignore the situation. Won't fool us again. Plenty of other courses nearby. The sad part is they really don't care.
Current Conditions Excellent
I've played and reviewed HV many times before. This review is primarily an update on the current conditions. Given the brutally hot July August and even part of September, HV was in excellent shape. The fairways greens and tee boxes are all in great shape. The rough is very good, just a couple of spots here and there that are thin but nothing like other courses in the area. The bunkers tend to be a bit thin in spots. Just adding sand every year doesn't cut it if the bunker has been contaminated. They will need to bite the bullet and re do all the bunkers if they want to resolve the problem but this is very costly and probably not in the budget of a public course that charges such low greens fees. I played with my son on a Sunday and we teed off at 1:45. We played in just about 3 hours and that included some lengthy searches for balls in the deep rough. There was no one on the course in front of us probably because the iggles were on. Great time to play... This is an oldy but goody. Tree lined fairways, well placed bunkers and everything is right in front of you. It's not tricked up in the least. Go Play!
Sold golf great value
Nice track, always in very good condition. The course is not particularly long, but there are many (!) trees that will disrupt wayward shots. The front nine is harder than the back. Best holes are #2 (narrow driving area, creek bisects the fairway, green guarded by large trees, and #6 (straight par 4, another creek bisects the fairway, small slopey green protected by stream and grass bunker. Trees on 10 makes the approach shot difficult - a chain saw is sorely needed here. A fun track at a very affordable price.
Shoot 'em straight and score
This older course has mature trees lining many holes. Nice feel to it, but requires some distance and shot control. Entire course was well maintained. Greens were a little faster than the average course in the area, but not much. Several sets of tee boxes help the long and short hitters create the challenge level they want.
Hole variety is good. Something I like. Pace of play can be slow as it gets folks who should really play the more basic open courses in the area but seem to think they can handle doglegs with 200 year old oaks.
Club house is always well staffed and folks ready to help.
You won't be able to let it fly on all holes, but can on others. It's worth playing to experience an old course with tree lined fairways.