Best Golf Courses in Pennsylvania: Oakmont, Merion and the Keystone State's Finest
Pennsylvania is one of the most historically significant states in American golf. Oakmont Country Club and Merion Golf Club alone give it a claim to more major championship history than most countries. The state's concentration of elite private clubs in the Philadelphia suburbs and the Pittsburgh area reflects the wealthy industrial heritage of both cities and the golf culture those economies supported through the early and middle 20th century. This guide covers the courses that make Pennsylvania one of the most important golf states in the country.
Oakmont Country Club: The Hardest Course in America
Oakmont Country Club in the Pittsburgh suburb of Oakmont is the most demanding golf course in the United States and the site of a record nine U.S. Opens. Built in 1903 by Henry Clay Fownes with the explicit intention of punishing imprecision absolutely, the course's Church Pew bunkers, lightning-fast greens, and suffocating rough have produced the highest scoring averages in major championship history. At Oakmont, par is a great score.
Johnny Miller's closing 63 in the 1973 U.S. Open — coming from six shots back in the final round — remains one of the greatest rounds ever played in major championship golf. Jack Nicklaus won his first U.S. Open at Oakmont in 1962, defeating Arnold Palmer in a playoff in front of a crowd that openly rooted for the local favorite. Dustin Johnson won the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont at four under par despite a controversial one-shot penalty on Saturday.
Oakmont is private, with no public access. The U.S. Open provides the most accessible viewing opportunity.
Merion Golf Club: Where Hogan Hit the 1-Iron
Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, in the Philadelphia suburbs, is the site of one of golf's most celebrated single shots: Ben Hogan's 1-iron approach to the 72nd hole of the 1950 U.S. Open, struck 16 months after his nearly fatal car accident, that stopped 40 feet from the flag and allowed him to two-putt for par, force a playoff, and win his second U.S. Open. Hy Peskin's photograph of Hogan following through on that shot is the most famous golf photograph in history.
Merion has hosted five U.S. Opens in total, plus multiple U.S. Amateurs that Bobby Jones won in 1924 and 1930 as part of his Grand Slam year. The East Course, the primary championship venue, is compact by modern standards — under 7,000 yards from the back tees — but the design quality and the firmness and speed at which it is maintained for U.S. Open play make it one of the most demanding courses in the country relative to its length.
Phil Mickelson's dramatic final-hole bogey at the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion — needing a birdie on 18 to tie and making bogey instead — added another chapter to the course's collection of memorable major championship moments.
Aronimink Golf Club: The Donald Ross Masterpiece
Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, another Philadelphia suburb, is Donald Ross's most celebrated design in Pennsylvania and one of his finest anywhere. The course opened in 1928 and was immediately recognized as a design of exceptional quality — Ross's crowned greens, strategic bunkering, and emphasis on approach shot positioning creating a test of golf that rewards the same patient intelligence his Pinehurst No. 2 demands.
Aronimink hosted the 1962 PGA Championship and has been a frequent USGA championship venue. It consistently ranks among the top 50 courses in the United States in credible ranking systems and maintains conditions that justify that ranking.
Pine Valley: The World's Best Golf Course
Pine Valley Golf Club in Clementon, New Jersey, is technically just across the state line from Pennsylvania, but its Philadelphia-area context and the social overlap between its membership and the Philadelphia golf community make it inseparable from the Pennsylvania golf conversation. Pine Valley consistently ranks as the best golf course in the world — a private, member-only club built in 1919 by George Crump that has never been host to a professional tournament and that maintains its reputation through absolute exclusivity and course conditions of legendary quality.
Access to Pine Valley requires a member invitation, making it one of the most coveted golf experiences in the world. The course's character — sandy waste areas between holes, treacherous carries over said waste, greens of extraordinary speed and complexity — makes it unlike any other course in American golf.
The Philadelphia Area: A Private Club Ecosystem
The Philadelphia suburbs contain one of the densest concentrations of elite private golf clubs in the United States. Beyond Merion and Aronimink, The Golf Club at Whitemarsh Valley, Philadelphia Cricket Club, Huntingdon Valley Country Club, and Saucon Valley Country Club (in Bethlehem, technically the Lehigh Valley) all represent design quality and maintenance standards at the very top of the American private club market.
Saucon Valley's Old Course, a Donald Ross design that has hosted the U.S. Senior Open and other USGA championships, is the most celebrated of the non-Philadelphia proper designs and consistently ranks among the state's best courses.
Pittsburgh Area Golf
Beyond Oakmont, the Pittsburgh area's private golf club culture reflects the wealth generated by steel and related industries. Fox Chapel Golf Club is the most prestigious private club in the Pittsburgh area outside Oakmont itself, maintaining Ross-era design quality with conditions appropriate to its status. Allegheny Country Club and Pittsburgh Golf Club round out a private club ecosystem that produced the atmosphere for some of the most competitive club golf in Pennsylvania history.
FAQs About Golf in Pennsylvania
What is the best golf course in Pennsylvania? Oakmont Country Club for pure difficulty and major championship history; Merion Golf Club for historical significance; Aronimink for Donald Ross design quality. Pine Valley in neighboring New Jersey is the world's highest-ranked course and closely associated with the Philadelphia golf community.
Can you play Oakmont Country Club? Oakmont is strictly private with no public access. The U.S. Open provides the most accessible experience of the course.
What U.S. Opens has Pennsylvania hosted? Oakmont alone has hosted nine U.S. Opens, the most of any single course. Merion has hosted five. Pennsylvania's major championship total is unmatched by any other state.