Pilgrim's Oak Golf Course

Hilly course with holes reminscent of Aronimink & Merion West. I walked, & most ride here. It can be tough on the legs with all the up/down. The greens play true. Everything was well maintained. I wish the score card had a hole map. On many holes I wasn't sure where I was aiming.

Loved this course. Brought buddy that caddies on the tour. Said it was the best course he’s played on the East Coast outside of Florida. Will be back in a week- it’s that good.

Fairways and greens or a really nice,The ruff is dense and tough ,u don’t want to be there,Very nice course

Most courses have some easy holes where you can pretty much know you'll get a good score unless you completely muck it up. Replaying this round in my head, there's not a single hole where you get easy shots to secure your par. If the fairway is forgiving, the approach will challenge you. If those two shots are average difficultly, the green can bite you. The one exception is the short/simple par 3 #4.

It's not so much that trouble is lurking on every hole, But if you don't control your shot, it will end up in a funky lie well above or below your feet, or it will fall of the steep edge of the green, or it will skitter from the middle of the fairway into the rough.

This was my 4th time playing the course and I really, really like it, but you alway have to earn your score. It was a windy day with a pretty steady 12-15 breeze, which made the course even harder and I would rate it "extremely challenging" in windy conditions. But greens were excellent and fast/consistent, and you could get some good rollout in drives in the fairway.

First time this year to Pilgrim's Oak. Great condition and challenging course. I like the new tee boxes. Speeds up the pace a bit and a little more challenging.

My brother and I decided late this afternoon to play a round of golf. We called around and this place had open times. I must say for the price this place was well worth it. One of the better courses I've been to. Great layout and wonderful views. We will definitely be returning in the near future.

Course was in amazing shape…greens were quick and if above the hole you better have some touch….will be back soon!!

Walk onto this golf course and you’ll find the outside world fading quickly. What lies beyond Pilgrim’s Oak, though, are mainly farms, and the ones adjacent to the course create a serene, rural mood that should help any golfer’s concentration.

Today, playing this lush, well-manicured course brought back spring-green memories for my son and I, having played here, twice, two Aprils ago.

Though no dunes appear anywhere, the feel of Pilgrim’s Oak is links-like openness; trees are a bit sparse on most holes though a few are wood-lined, mostly on one side. The landforms seem natural but surely have been shaped here and there into distinctive configurations: mounds, hollows, rolling fairways, plateaus, small depressions, considerable borrow on all the greens, and undulations everywhere. The course is peppered, too, with enough hazards (six water; a few man-made, with numerous fairway, grass, and greenside bunkers) to keep things lively. Or explosive, if your swing is faltering.

Still, another aspect here amplifies the layout’s setting and beauty: the design is terrific. Dr. Michael Hurdzan is one of the few modern architects who can craft a course that will rival, hole for hole, the work of a Ross or Raynor. His meticulous layouts reflect a seemingly iron determination to sculpt balanced, varied, and visually striking courses that appeal to all handicap levels and yet challenge better players.

Perhaps the finest hole is the third, a modest downhill par-4 of 382. From the tee, the first sight may suggest an open hole that’s no more capable of inflicting harm than a butterfly. Yet that is a deception. In fact, an overdrawn tee shot will scamper into the woods, while a big fade, conversely, will leave a tough second shot: the lone freestanding tree on the right becomes a clear obstacle into the green. Then there’s the small pond set near the middle of the fairway. The rest of the hole continues to obstruct any easy path to a par.

Doubtless the signature twelfth is a great hole, with its fortress-like, left-side rock wall awaiting to fend off weak tee shots. But equally impressive is the 204-yard downhill eighth. Here, tree limbs jut out over the green’s left side, but it’s the forced carry over a frontal pond that intimidates. A small landing area lies to the left-front of the green for bail-outs.

This pair of par-threes is part of a tide of challenging holes (seven through thirteen) that comes in during the middle of the round; it doesn’t ebb until the nearly routine par-5 at thirteen.

The others in this stretch are the following:

SEVEN: The #3 index, and 423 yards of tee-to-green turmoil. The double-tiered green may be nightmarish.

NINE: Another impressive hole and covering 548 yards, the ninth travels uphill to three big landing tiers and moves higher all the way to the cup. Its sheer size and shape gives it the resistance of a steamroller, and all but your best efforts to reach in regulation may be crushed.

TEN: A straightaway par-4 that eases up a bit, but it’s still 423.

ELEVEN: Index 4, right behind the seventh in difficulty. Big uphill climb from tee to green. If you can hit the surface in regulation, you’ve got a chance at four.

THIRTEEN: Ingenious short par-4 of 364 with a narrow green (especially in the back) that may leave you gnashing your teeth. Wedge play around this green is dicey.

BEST FOUR-PAR: FIFTEEN: The drive at this 434-yarder has no tricks, but the approach into a two-tiered, elevated green may ambush you. Falloff on both sides of this surface puts accuracy at a premium, and you’ll need a sharp wedge game to recover after a miss. Strategic players may use the slope on tier two as a ‘backboard’ for incoming second shots.

BEST FIVE-PAR: The sixth typifies Hurdzan’s emphasis on angles to allow strategic play. Here, on the second shot, the bolder line of play is across the pond--a tighter and riskier flight path--to gain an advantage for a closer third shot into the green. The green, guarded by high mounds, is a deceptively tough two-putt.

Dr. Hurdzan has designed classical holes that blend enough creative and offbeat touches to strike the imagination. Could anyone be bored here? It seems unlikely.

We drive an over an hour each way to play this place every year. The layout is fun, with huge hills and lots of elevation changes, and the course is always in good or great shape. The had aerated the greens less than three weeks ago, and they were already all the way back. Throw on top of this that it is one of the most inexpensive places around, and this place is a no-brainer.