Pine Valley Golf Club

Pine Valley Golf Club is a golf course in Pine Valley, Camden County, in southern New Jersey. It was ranked the number one course in Golf Magazine's 100 Top Courses in the U.S. and the World in 2009.^[1]

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 and Ernest Ransome III. 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.

The Clubhouse

Although it is rich in golf tradition, the clubhouse is plain, and simple. The clubhouse consists of the great room and the bar. There is also the pro shop,several dining rooms, the main dining room, the private board room, and the patio. There are numerous pictures of Crump, as well as much history and antique golf memorabilia. Upstairs are member's lockers and a small lounge named the John Arthur Brown room.

Amenities

The club offers shuttle service to and from the airport. There are several places to stay for out of town people, such as the 6 cottages, the annex, the new lodge that was built in 2006, as well as some older homes used for lodging.

The Course

Pine Valley Slope, Rating, and Yardage

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, and more specifically correct placement on approach shots to the green due to significant swales and undulations. 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 155 from the championship tees. Pine Valley's trademarks are the par three 5th hole, which requires a well-placed 220 yard slightly uphill drive over a lake into a small and sloped green, "Hell's half acre" (a barren wasteland on the par five 7th hole which is probably the largest non sea-side bunker in the world), "The devil's asshole" (an extremely deep bunker on the par three 10th hole), and the famous par four 18th, which incorporates many different elements of the golf course into a spectacular finishing hole.

• Yardage, slope and rating are accurate as of 2010 Scorecard.

Entrance

There are 2 entrances into Pine Valley. The most famous one is hidden on East Atlantic Ave behind the Clementon Lake Park. After passing the waterpark there is a road about 50 feet from the waterpark sign. Then, after making a left on that road (which is East Atlantic Ave) and following the road all the way to the dead end, there is a dirt parking lot and a rail road crossing on the right with the gate entrance. The other gate is mostly for people employed by the golf course hidden on East 3rd Avenue in Pine Hill.

Membership

Pine Valley Golf Club is a highly exclusive club. Male-only membership is by invitation from the board of directors only. There are about 1,300 members spread throughout the world, and the list is a closely guarded secret. ^[2] The only way a guest is allowed into the club is if they are invited by a member and accompanied by one. Women are permitted to play the course on Sunday afternoons.^[2]

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, mostly because there is not enough room on the course to accommodate tens of thousands of spectators. The club has stated that they have no intentions to remove trees or change the layout of the course in order to host a major tournament.

The only time Pine Valley 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, a nationally recognized tournament featuring elite Mid-Amateur players.^[3]

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.

Awards and Rankings

Pine Valley Awards and Rankings^[4]

References

External links

• Golf Club Atlas - a well illustrated course guide
• Into Pine Valley -An account of the Crump Cup
• Aerial photos