Chester Valley

Host to the United Hospitals Senior Golf Championship on the Champions Tour between 1985-1987 (and subsequently under different sponsorship until 1997), Chester Valley Golf Club has flown quietly under the golfing radar since Don January (1967 PGA Championship victor) claimed the inaugural 1985 title here.

“Chester Valley was for many years the subject of debate as to whether its original 1930 course was built by Donald Ross (the odds on favorite) or Perry Maxwell,” wrote Daniel Wexler in The American Private Golf Club Guide, “a question rendered largely moot when late-1960s road construction led to George Fazio building 16 new holes, retaining only the 3rd and 4th from those early days.

The present layout represents fairly typical Fazio work, with smaller greens requiring accurate iron play, but also yielding birdie putts of reasonable distance. Aside from the creek-guarded 192-yard 7th, Chester Valley’s best stretch comes in the first half of the back nine where the 357-yard 11th (which twists between trees and over a creek), the 435-yard 12th, and the 441-yard 13th will test even the best of players. A solid track, but it’s doubtful that Fazio’s version is better than Ross’s/Maxwell’s was.”

The club itself states that holes 2, 3, 4 and the green at No. 9 are originals. Regardless, most of the classic design disappeared due to the building of Route 202, but a 2009 renovation by Jim Nagle of Forse Design, Inc, undoubtedly breathed new life into Fazio's old layout.