Philadelphia Cricket Club (Militia Hill) - Pennsylvania - USA
401 Stenton Avenue,
Plymouth Meeting,
Pennsylvania (PA) 19462,
USA
+1 215 247 6113
3 miles NE of Plymouth Meeting
Members and their guests only
Jim Smith Jr.
Chris Cerven
The Philadelphia Cricket Club already had something to boast about in its highly-ranked Wissahickon course, but it added another flower to its cap with the opening of the Militia Hill 18 during 2002. That build, when taken along with the property’s first course (the St. Martins) and the Wissahickon, made Philadelphia Cricket the first club to build a new course in three-consecutive centuries.
With more than half of the course located on the other side of the tracks from those courses, Militia Hill takes its name from the area’s Revolutionary War past while offering a more modern round of golf from the design duo of Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry, traveling around and across native grassland and marshland, while offering a range of large, amoebic bunkers to trap the wayward shot.
There are some similarities to be had with Wissahickon, however: The central hazard on the route will be the very same creek that splits many of the fairways on the east side of the property.
Reviews for Philadelphia Cricket Club (Militia Hill)
Bill Vostniak
As I add reviews to this site, I am seeking courses not previously reviewed and this is one not unsurprisingly so. it is a lovely place for a round of golf, but is physically as well as architecturally removed from the club and its ethos. There are 45 holes at "Cricket", the Wissahickon, Militia Hill and the lovely St. Martin's 9-hole course (1895 n- Willie Tucker). St. Martins remains open in winter for play and is a Hickory Golfer's dream. It is necessary to add it to the discussion to appreciate where Militia Hill fits into the whole.
A.W. Tillinghast originally designed 36 holes to be completed on and near the site of the current Wissahickon Course. Only 18 were built and it was much later when Militia Hill was built and could not be the second 18 by Tillinghast, thus a new white paper design was constructed.
Hurdzan & Fry are an interesting design team providing mechanically correct but often soulless courses, I refer to them as solid and unspectacular for the most part. Their most highly regarded course Calusa Pines benefits from a near perfect club ethos, but frankly has little quality to distinguish it from nearby Naples National save the latters' awful 18th design.
Militia Hill proves a stern if unexciting test of golf, built to test the modern player with length and as with all the other courses mentioned über-conditioning. Cricket is a club with amazing turf.
Big splashy modern bunkers are almost mathematically placed along fairly wide fairways. Par 3's vary in length as do par 5's but remembering holes is a challenge, much of it due to parallelism of holes and bland ground.
The 4th Par 4 is most interesting to me because of its use of a water feature (burn) in a diagonal. It plays very strategic as an elbow hole and is visually pleasing. It is on some of the more interesting land on the plot which is as noted generally minimally contoured.
There are forced carries and for right and wrong reasons 18 next most memorable, with a large wetland carry to the green which catches more poor shots than near great ones.
The course rarely is crowded in my visits there. Were I a member, I would play-practice at Militia Hill, it is a missed opportunity.
Not unsurprisingly, I have no photos of my own to share.
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