Laurel Valley - Pennsylvania - USA

13th Pennsylvania - Best in Area
Laurel Valley Golf Club,
Route 711 S,
Ligonier,
Pennsylvania (PA) 15658,
USA

  • +1 724 238 9555

  • 25 miles E of Pittsburgh

  • Members and their guests only

Pennsylvania Best In State Golf Courses

Laurel Valley Golf Club played host to the 1975 Ryder Cup matches between the USA and Great Britain & Ireland. Team Captains were Arnold Palmer (US) and Bernard Hunt (GB & I). The story behind the 21st Ryder Cup was that America won once more on home soil but the US winning margin would have been greater had England’s Brian Barnes not upset Jack’s applecart. Barnes beat Jack Nicklaus (who said he was playing “the best golf of my life”) twice, recording perhaps the biggest Ryder Cup upset in history. “You've beaten me once, but there ain’t no way you're going to beat me again,” Nicklaus said to Barnes on the first tee before the afternoon singles… Barnes went on to win 2 & 1. USA 21 - GB & I 11. The Ryder Cup was played at Muirfield in 1973 and Royal Lytham & St Annes in 1977.

Laurel Valley Golf Club is a private course which was designed by Dick Wilson in 1960 and then redesigned by Paul Erath in 1965. Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay made further modifications to the layout in 1988.

The 1965 PGA Championship (won by Dave Marr) and the 1975 Ryder Cup put Laurel Valley on the map. The USA team brushed GB & Ireland to one side winning comfortably 21-11. Top flight golf returned to Ligonier in 1989 in the shape of the US Senior Open which was won by Orville Moody twenty years after he won the US Open at Champions Golf Club in Texas. More recently, the 2005 Senior PGA Championship was hosted at Laurel Valley, which was won by Mike “Radar” Reid after a three-way playoff.

If you do manage to secure a game, a caddie is mandatory if you choose to walk. An experienced caddie will help you negotiate the tree-lined Laurel Valley course which is entertaining and varied with water coming in to play on numerous holes. The greens are undulating, very tricky to read and well protected by bunkers.

Laurel Valley is considered by many to be Dick Wilson’s finest design, which is positively riddled with variation and character. Probably the most memorable of the water holes is the 205-yard 14th which requires a forced carry, but perhaps the most notable is the closing hole par five where the green is ringed by water and the approach is a do-or-die affair.

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Description: The 1975 Ryder Cup put Laurel Valley Golf Club on the map and team USA won comfortably 21-11. The winning margin would have been greater had England’s Brian Barnes not upset Jack's applecart. Rating: 4.5 out of 6 Reviews: 2
TaylorMade
M. James Ward

I do like a few of the designs from Dick Wilson but Laurel Valley is an example of a long over-watered layout with little in terms of memorability or character. Much of the fanfare comes from its ultra-private status and that the club has hosted a few key events most notably the '65 PGA Championship and the '75 Ryder Cup Matches. Western Pennsylvania has a number of solid layouts worthy of more attention. Laurel Valley gets high marks from many because of the stellar treatment you receive when there. Unfortunately, the golf side of the equation is a distant second.

by M. James Ward

November 19, 2017
3 / 6
Laurel Valley
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TaylorMade

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Larry Berle
It was just Jeff, me, and our caddie, Brian. Brian was a 4 handicap and had caddied for Arnold Palmer dozens of times. He’d even played a few rounds of golf with Arnie. He was a great caddie and made a special day even more special. On the 6th hole, Curt, the head pro, came by in his cart to make sure everything was going all right. Talk about service!

Jeff and I both fell in love with Laurel Valley, which is set in the foothills of Pittsburgh. This piece of land was a golf course waiting to happen. The immaculate course is more about discovery of great holes than about creating great holes. Laurel Valley easily makes my Top 10, but unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, the course gets little notoriety among golfers, especially compared to Oakmont, its neighbor 40 or 50 miles down the road. Laurel Valley’s membership is corporate, and the club has terrific guesthouses, fantastic food, good meeting space, and awesome golf. We had lunch with Curt, who introduced us to Sandy, Arnie’s sister.

Like many great golf courses, Laurel Valley is the vision of one man – George Love – and it’s a testament to his unrelenting drive for excellence. Arnie lives 15 miles from here at Latrobe Country Club, where he grew up and his dad was the greens keeper, but Arnie plays Laurel Valley quite a bit and is a serious presence here. Jeff and I went to Latrobe Country Club and checked it out before we returned reluctantly to the airport to fly home. Larry Berle.
November 22, 2014
6 / 6
Laurel Valley
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Keith Baxter
November 22, 2014
The above review is an edited extract from A Golfer’s Dream, which has been reproduced with the author’s kind permission. A Golfer’s Dream, by Larry Berle, tells the story of how a regular guy conquered America’s Top 100 Golf Courses (following Golf Digest’s 2001/2002 list). Larry has exclusively rated for us every course in the hundred, using our golf ball rating system. However, Larry did not rate the 100 courses against every golf course he has played, but instead he rated them in relation to each other within the hundred. Consequently, in some cases, his rating may seem rather low. A Golfer’s Dream is available in Kindle format and also on Kindle Unlimited via Amazon... click the link for more.