Saucon Valley (Grace) - Pennsylvania - USA

Beyond a golf course being absolutely pointless the next worst thing is the insertion of a very simple but direct word -- dull.

Saucon Valley is an immense complex containing three 18-hole golf courses and the facility has a rich history in hosting a number of top tier events -- especially USGA Championships.

The architecture at the Grace Course is a throwback to the period of time in America -- the 1950's and 1960's -- when the focus was on creating large-scaled courses with plenty of length, distance and difficulty. The Grace Course is bereft of any meaningful topography. Think being in Florida while actually in Pennsylvania. That's hard to imagine when the other layouts at Saucon Valley do have land elements of note. Interestingly, the Gordons did provide a superior layout with their work on the Weyhill Course.

Amazingly, the layout was ranked in the Top 100 by Golf Digest for a time and my initial visit to the club was because of this. I actually played another of the layouts first -- The Old Course -- before playing the Grace. I enjoyed the former and then after finishing the round at the Grace I was shaking my head in total amazement on how the raters could come to such a conclusion.

The style of architecture that came to fruition in American course design during that time frame is no longer in fashion -- thankfully replaced with more imaginative holes and courses that feature shotmaking and creativity at their core and often blessed with terrain that adds to the experience when playing.

The Keystone State has a number of top tier courses that have quite rightly been reassessed for their qualities. For too long they were in the shadows. The Grace, for me, would not sniff a top 25 position.

For total transparency, my review comments predate the recent bunker renovation, but I feel the issues with the Grace course go way beyond a dressing up of the bunkers.

by M. James Ward

Without question, this is the most underrated course in the State. I would easily place it in the top 20. Over the past 2 years, the distinctive bunkers have been restored and will take your breath away. They reminded me of many bunkers I saw down in the Sandbelt in Melbourne. They could be compared to rolling waves moving along the ocean. Each bunker has a raised middle section, many of which are deeper than first imagined. Many of the template holes from Seth Raynor are on show here (eg: Redan and Eden), which just adds to the visual delight of playing the course. You really have to think about club selection off the tee on ‘Grace’, it’s not a course where you switch your brain off and hammer driver until the cows come home. Charming par 4s, a fabulous mixture of strategic par 3s are effortlessly integrated with challenging doglegs, which crescendo towards the last three holes, all of them long tough par 4s. Don’t let the name of the course fool you; this is a very good test of golf. Having recently played each of the three 18-hole championship courses at Saucon Valley (Old, Weyhill & Grace), I can confidently say it’s the most enjoyable country club in the Eastern half of the country. Grace is the preferred course of the members and it was certainly my favourite of the three layouts. This course was ranked in the Top 100 courses in the World by GOLF Magazine in the early 1990s, and with the renovation over the last 18 months, I am excited to see where this fabulous layout will position itself among the country’s best. What a treat!