Presidential at Hickory Valley Golf Club

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.

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

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.

Friendly staff, good conditions best value

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.

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.

The course was great as always, but there were some really impossible pin placements

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!!

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.

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!

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.

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.

Booked 9am tee time through Golf now as a single. Showed up at 8:30 to be informed that another single had taken my spot. I mentioned i had a reservation and was told as a single i had no standing at HV on a weekend. My earliest available time was 10:15. I asked for a refund and the starter came in and moved me to the other course with a regular threesome.

Starter was super nice, clerk at desk was a jerk.

Course was great. Play it; just bring a friend.

The course was in great shape considering no rain all summer great job by the super. The leaves are falling early due to drought so finding balls is a challenge if your off the fairways, but overall fine public course.

I liked the course because if your an above average to long driver of the ball you need to take the appropriate line or club selection off the tee to avoid hazards . Just can't grip n rip the driver ; but with that said it will not really punish you on less than perfect shots , it's pretty open. It should be noted that we went during drought conditions here in PA and the course was in great shape.

We played both Ambassador and Presidential.

Ambassador is old style so it is tighter Presidential is a little longer but more forgiving. Both courses are in great condition. But no cart lady/girl. Could not buy a cold drink in this hot day but there was plenty of water stations.

Course was in good shape, but pin placements on some of the holes were on slopes and a little unfair for the average golfer.

It was hard to stop the put within 2 feet around the cup. Having a day on the links is still better than working. Good price thanks to GolfNow deal.

The course is kept in great shape....The Ambassador course can be tough if you are a "ball-sprayer."