Pine Valley Golf Club

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Pine Valley Golf Club in Pine Valley, New Jersey in Camden County, in southern New Jersey, is one of the most esteemed golf courses in the world. It is regularly ranked the number one course in Golf Digest's list of America's 100 greatest courses.

1 History
2 The Course
3 Tournaments at Pine Valley
4 Awards and Rankings
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

Pine Valley was founded in 1913 by a group of amateur golfers from Philadelphia. They purchased 184 acres (0.7 km²) of rolling, sandy ground deep in the pinelands of southern New Jersey, and gave George Arthur Crump, who knew the area from hunting expeditions, the opportunity to design the course. This was Crump's first and only golf course design, and he set himself some idiosyncratic principles: no hole should be laid out parallel to the next; no more than two consecutive holes should play in the same direction; and players shouldn't be able to see any hole other than the one they were playing. He also felt that a round of golf on his course should require a player to use every club in the bag.

The site was challenging and the project became something of an obsession for Crump, who sold his hotel in Philadelphia and ploughed his money into the course. Marshlands had to be drained and 22,000 tree stumps had to be pulled out with special steam-winches and horse-drawn cables. This was all done at a time when many golf courses were still built with minimal earth moving, and the course was called "Crump's Folly" by some. The first eleven holes opened unofficially in 1914, but when Crump died in 1918 four holes - #12, #13, #14, #15 - were incomplete.

Pine Valley later spread to 623 acres (2.5 km²), of which 416 acres (1.7 km²) remain virgin woodland. Since Crump's death, alterations have been made by several other leading golf course designers. The club also has a ten hole short course designed by Tom Fazio. It is a private club, and non-members can only play if invited and accompanied by a member. Two members were once suspended for charging guests $10,000 a round.

[edit] The Course

Pine Valley Slope, Rating, and Yardage

Tee	Slope	Rating	Yardage	Par
Championship	153	74.10	6656	70
Regular	150	73.00	6442	70

Image:Pine Valley, May 14, 2004 001.jpg

Approach at Pine valley

Pine Valley Golf Club is praised for the consistent level of challenge and conditioning on each hole, requiring thoughtful placement of the ball from tee to green. Among its many accolades, Pine Valley has arguably the best collection of par fives and par threes in the world. The course prides itself in being one of the toughest challenges in all of golf, with a slope of 153 from the championship tees. Pine Valley's trademarks are "Hell's half acre" (a barren wasteland on the 7th hole which is probably the largest non sea-side bunker in the world), "The devil's asshole" (an extremely deep bunker on the 10th hole), and the famous 18th, which incorporates many different elements of golf into one spectacular finishing hole.

[edit] Tournaments at Pine Valley

Although it is regarded as one of the greatest courses in the world, Pine Valley has not played host to any major professional golf tournaments. This is because there is not enough room on the course to accommodate tens of thousands of spectators. In fact, the only time Pine Valley has ever had mainstream exposure was a 1962 Shell's Wonderful World of Golf match between Gene Littler and Byron Nelson. The club does allow the public in for one day in late September every year to watch the "Crump Cup" tournament. The Crump Cup is a nationally recognized tournament featuring elite Mid-Amateur players.[1]

Pine Valley also played host to the Walker Cup, an amateur competition between teams from the United States and Great Britain & Ireland, in 1936 and 1985.

[edit] Awards and Rankings

Pine Valley Awards and Rankings

Year	Source	Award
2003	Golf Magazine	Best Golf Course in the United States
2005	Golf Week Magazine	Best (pre-1960) Golf Course in the United States
2005	Golf Magazine	Best Golf Course in the United States
2006	Golf Digest Magazine	Best Golf Course in New Jersey
2006	Golf Digest Magazine	Best Public and Private Golf Course in the United States
2006	Golf Digest Magazine	Second Best (pre-1960) Golf Course in the United States