Pittsburgh Field Club

Name a golf course architect and there is a chance that they’ve made a stop by the Pittsburgh Field Club: Alex Findlay created the original 18-hole course and the club has in the years since received Donald Ross, A.W. Tillinghast, Willie Park Jr., Robert Trent Jones and a handful of others. Most notable perhaps was the recent visit from Keith Foster, who undertook a restoration project of sorts, which is to say that facets of many architects have been retained to comprise the current, acclaimed course.

Findlay famously had a bit of a routing problem in the notoriously hilly Pittsburgh area. The result was a final hole that played severely uphill for 275 yards. During an era without golf carts, aging and otherwise unfit members risked heart attack climbing up to the green (club lore claims this happened on occasion). Therefore a decision was to relocate the No. 17 hole and create a cable-car lift that still takes players from the No. 17 green to the No. 18 tee to this day. No doubt this offends the sensibilities walking golfers just a little bit, but we don’t recommend hiking up the hill.

Despite the club’s name, it’s located in the Fox Chapel neighborhood, catty-corner to the highly rated Fox Chapel Golf Club.