Union League Golf Club at Torresdale

Alex Frolish has been a pilot for approaching 20 years and now travels to all corners of the globe in his role as a commercial airline pilot. His passion for flight is only equalled by his passion for golf and golf travel. Having picked up a golf club over 35 years ago when aged just 3 years old, Alex has played over 550 courses across every continent on planet earth furnished with a fairway. Over the next few months you’ll be able to follow Alex’s golfing travels as he brings you anecdotes of his life both in the air and on the course. One thing about being a travelling golfer and panellist who is also an airline pilot, is that you can guarantee nobody will have played the same last ten rounds that you have. This always makes for interesting clubhouse conversations, although keeping tabs on exactly where you’ve just been can be a little troublesome. I’ll be honest, life can be chaos at times. To illustrate that exact point, May might have been my most jam packed and varied month in some time, with thirteen rounds played in three countries at some of the best courses those countries have to offer. Summer rounds, winter rounds, links and parkland. My golfing diary is a myriad of contrasts. The month started on Top100 regional duty, at Bristol & Clifton Golf Club, the final course I had yet to play in my home county of Gloucestershire in England. It has to be said that Gloucestershire isn’t blessed with an abundance of architectural heritage, but it is in the Bristol area of the county that you find the most historic and well rounded golf clubs. One such club is Bristol & Clifton, located just a couple of miles from the famous Clifton suspension bridge, where the members and staff are fiercely proud of their golf course. I was impressed with this place (particularly the conditioning), and would highly recommend a visit if you are ever in the area. Photo credit: Bristol and Clifton Golf Club My next outing was formed in friendship rather than in the hunt for architectural splendour. Rocco and I first connected in 2018 and shared a round at Pittsburgh Field Club in Pennsylvania. It had been five years but we had stayed in touch and I had vowed I would get back out to share another round with him. This time we played at a local municipal, Pittsburgh National, a course I knew little about. It turns out that when you come to a golf course with no expectations, you are often pleasantly surprised, and this ex Country Club layout demonstrated an abundance of interest and value. A first time visit to a quartet of gems of English golf followed, played over two of the finest weather days of the year so far. I will remember Broadstone for its magnificent land and the way in which the course wraps itself around and across the varying undulations. Ferndown was possibly the most supremely conditioned course I have played in the U.K. in the last twelve months; the vista looking down the effervescent 1st fairway will be imprinted on my mind for some time. Woking’s understated historical majesty charmed me nearly as much as the brunch on the terrace after the round. And Worplesdon, just a few hundred yards from Woking, completed an epic 48 hours of golf in emphatic fashion. Photo credit: Ferndown Golf Club Next to the clifftops of Oregon, to play arguably the most wonderful par 3 course on the planet. Coore & Crenshaw were presented with some piece of land to route Bandon Preserve across, but they have done one hell of a good job in telling a story in just 13 par 3 holes. Surely the growth of the game should be focussed on creating more golf courses like this one; playable, enjoyable and accessible to all. Then on to Old Macdonald, to complete the Bandon set (for now). I played the tips in a steady breeze and played one of the rounds of my life to shoot a few under my handicap and a couple over the par of the course. Old Mac might get some stick in certain quarters, but I found it to be a solid blend of beauty and playability, two key ingredients for the enjoyment of a golf round for me, and it was a round I will remember for some time. The Duchess at Woburn was quite the contrast to play just a couple of days after Old Macdonald. This tree-lined parkland layout in the heart of the English countryside places a heavy premium on accuracy rather than options, and I found the contrast in styles a leap too far, following my best round in some time with my worst in living memory. That’s golf I suppose, and as my golfing years pass, I seem to be able to more easily accept these ups and downs! The game is always bigger than your score. Let that be no slight on the Duchess though, which is a beautifully peaceful place to play and to take in the relative solitude that the dense avenues of trees provide. The Jockey Club in Argentina is revered as one of South America’s most prized golf clubs. It boasts two (yes two) original Mackenzie golf courses, routed across surprisingly spacious grounds on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. We played the Red course, the more highly regarded of the two layouts, and we visited in early winter after a sustained period of wet weather, the course was in simply stunning condition. The land here was as flat as a snooker table when Mackenzie arrived, and this is one place in the world where the good Doctor had to work hard to generate undulations and interest that felt at the same time, in keeping with its surroundings. Of course, he managed it with aplomb and in doing so, left Argentina with one the best dual course layouts in world golf. As an aside, if you ever get the chance to play here, make sure you order the steak. However your round has gone, this plate of food (and accompanying glass of Malbec) will send you home one contented golfer. Photo credit: Patrick Koenig Finally, a whistle-stop stay in New Jersey found me visiting another world-renowned 36-hole golf club, Baltusrol. This golf club is the stuff of dreams for the average golfer, boasting two world-class golf courses with facilities to match, and it was awe-inspiring to walk the fairways of the Lower course just prior to the LPGA Championship. My lasting memory will be my drive into the 18th fairway which rolled to within a few inches of the plaque, celebrating Jack Nicklaus’s famous 1-iron in the 1967 US Open. Slightly overawed with the potential for replicating such a heroic piece of golfing history, my wayward 3 wood did no justice to the drive that had managed to follow so closely in greatness's footsteps. It didn’t matter though; to have had the chance to attempt it in the first place was the greatest of privileges. On to June, which looks no less packed with golf. It all begins with a pilgrimage to a part of Scotland I have wanted to visit for most of my golfing life. After that, there is plenty of potential for some last-minute madness, with trips planned to Spain, India and Singapore. In the meantime, the golfing season in the Northern Hemisphere is in full swing, so wherever you are and whatever you have planned, I wish you the straightest of drives, well-negotiated four- footers and happy rounds.

US Mid-Atlantic Division Best in State Rankings 2020 We’re closing in on the conclusion of our Best in State re- ranking process for the USA with this, our penultimate revision for the Mid-Atlantic states of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. In such a high quality golfing division, where twenty-seven of the courses are listed in our US Top 100, we’ve acquired additional local knowledge that now allows us to extend our listings in this northeast region by more than a third to a total of 235 courses. Without further ado, we’re going to dive straight in to our Mid-Atlantic reappraisal, starting with the Garden State of New Jersey, where we’ve added another twenty-five tracks to the fifty that we already featured. New Jersey It’s no surprise whatsoever to discover the course at Pine Valley Golf Club in Clementon stays firmly embedded as the No. 1 layout in New Jersey. It is, after all, second to only Cypress Point at the top of both our national and global Top 100 charts. All eighteen holes of George Crump’s Camden County masterpiece have been in play for just over a hundred years now and they collectively form one of the toughest tracks in all of golf. Pine Valley Golf Club Our Florida correspondent Marc Bender posted these comments four months ago: “there is no course that offers a greater variety of 18 unique and fabulous holes with this level of continuity… the attention to every little architectural detail of the course is unparalleled. The balance of holes, use of the terrain, and the green complexes is incredible. Little difference exists between the least memorable hole and the most memorable hole; that’s how good each and every one of them is.” Ten of the top twelve chart places remain unaltered, so the first real movement of significance occurs with the Highlands course at Hamilton Farm in Gladstone, rising six spots to #18, which is the position it previously held in 2016. A late 1990s Hurdzan/Fry co-design from when those two architects were working in partnership, this layout is complemented by a fantastic 18-hole par three course called The Hickory, offering a really diverse 36-hole experience at the club. Hamilton Farm - Highlands course Also climbing six spots to #26, the course at Arcola Country Club in Paramus is the sum product of three English-born architects – Herbert Haydn Barker, Willard G. Wilkinson and Robert Trent Jones Sr. – who fashioned the fairways over a fifty-year period between 1909 and 1958. Our US Correspondent Fergal O’Leary played at Arcola last year and felt it was “a truly wonderful club that has a lot to be proud of.” Arcola Country Club The first of our new additions arrives at #23 and it’s the course at Manasquan River Golf Club in Brielle, which was originally established back in 1923 when Robert White laid out an initial 9-hole track. Described by our regular contributor M. James Ward as “one of the most underappreciated courses in the Garden State,” this layout hosted the US Girls’ Junior Championship in 1990 and it’s just undergone an extensive restoration exercise by Andrew H. Green. Another place to greatly benefit from a recent restoration is the course at Watchung Valley Golf Club (new at #29) which started out in the late 1920s as a layout planned by Seth Raynor but construction was carried out by Marty O’Loughlin, the Plainfield professional, who oversaw the build after the architect’s untimely death. George Waters has completed a project to polish the Raynor template holes and integrate them seamlessly with the style of the other holes that has evolved over time. Watchung Valley Golf Club Rank/ Click the link to see full details of our latest New Jersey Best in State rankings. New York Such is the strength in depth at the top of the table in New York, the first eighteen courses are all listed in our US Top 100 – and eight of these layouts also occupy positions in our World Top 100 – so with those figures in mind, we’ve decided to expand our state chart to a Top 100, bringing an additional thirty courses under the golfing spotlight in the Empire State. The leading five courses stay exactly as they were after we refreshed the standings two years ago, which means the 18-hole layout at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton retains its No. 1 status. Golf has been played here since 1891, the year that Willie Davis set out an initial twelve holes, and the course has been modified a couple of times since then, first by C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor during World War I, then by Howard Toomey and William Flynn in the early 1930s. Shinnecock Hills Golf Club All the top amateur tournaments have been played here – including the US Amateur, US Women’s Amateur, US Senior Amateur and the Walker Cup – along with five editions of the US Open, the last of which was hosted two years ago. This prestigious event is due to return to Long Island for the 126th staging of the championship in another six years, when the club’s illustrious layout will once again take centre stage. Three courses make double digit upward moves in the new chart. Rising twelve to #31, the course at Teugega Country Club in Rome is a Donald Ross design dating back to 1921. The club was formed in 1899 and members played on a 9-hole layout next to the Mohawk River until a decision was made by the committee to move from their old waterlogged location five miles north to a new site on the southern shores of Delta Lake. Walter Hatch supervised construction, but Donald Ross made several site visits, even securing his first hole in one at the short par three 7th during a round on the new course. Teugega Country Club Advancing fifteen to #44, the course at Westhampton Country Club in Westhampton Beach is one of Seth Raynor’s earliest solo designs from 1915 which Gil Hanse restored a decade ago now. “A truly wonderful layout with plenty of fun for good measure,” is what Fergal O’Leary said about the course in his review last year. “It’s a shot-maker’s paradise and we walked off the 18th green wanting more.” Westhampton Country Club Up ten places to #50, the course at Metropolis Country Club in White Plains was founded in 1904, with Herbert Strong completing his first ever design here. A.W. Tillinghast remodelled the layout in the late 1920s and it was further altered at different times by Joe Finger and his design partner Ken Dye before Ron Forse carried out a new millennium restoration. Metropolis Country Club M. James Ward thought last year the layout had “clearly improved in terms of strategic interest” with the recent removal of trees. Furthermore, he felt “the visual dynamics are clearly improved and turf quality has clearly benefitted from the added air flow... place Metropolis in another area of the USA where the overall competition is not that keen and the overall standing would likely be more noticeable.” Leading the mass infiltration of newcomers into the New York listings, the course at Nassau Country Club in Glen Cove appears at #49. The club’s initial course was laid out by committee members but Devereux Emmet became the first architect to put his design stamp on the property in 1920. Others, such as Herbert Strong and Seth Raynor, made early changes to the course while Tom Fazio is credited with replacing all the greens eight years ago. Nassau Country Club Writing in his golf travel blog, Paul Rudovsky had this to say about Nassau when he played it a while back (as he chased down every venue to have hosted the US Amateur); “here is a course that never was on a top 100 and probably never will be... but a fun, fun course to play.” Click the link to see full details of our latest New York Best in State rankings. Pennsylvania Like New York, the top five layouts in Pennsylvania remain in the same order, so the course at Oakmont Country Club remains in the No. 1 slot. Located outside Pittsburgh, on the south bank of the Allegheny River, Oakmont’s reckoned to be one of the toughest tracks in American golf. Industrialist Henry Fownes and his son William devised this layout back at the start of the last century and William (who won the US Amateur in 1910) is said to have continued working on it right up until he died in 1950. It’s due to host the US Amateur in August next year, the sixth time the championship has been staged here. Oakmont Country Club Our International Correspondent David Davis commented last year, following his second visit to the club: “the routing is as good as anything on the planet … the bunkering and the greens really steal the show.” Javier Pintos, our Argentina Correspondent, also posted: “all the long holes are downhill and the short ones uphill so there you admire the design and the balance the course has.” There’s very little movement in the upper reaches of the new chart but casting an eye a little lower reveals a few upward motions of note. The course at Longue Vue Club (up five to #24) in Verona is exactly a hundred years old this year, having been designed by Scottish professional Robert White in 1920 then renovated by A. W. Tillinghast fifteen years later. Set two hundred feet above a bend in the Allegheny River, the layout “is certainly among the best in the Keystone State” according to M. James Ward. It’s also due to co-host the US Amateur in 2021. Longue Vue Club The Old course at the Omni Bedford Springs Resort also moves up five rungs on the ladder. Dating back to 1895, the layout had improvements made by A.W. Tillinghast (1912) and Donald Ross (1923) before a new millennium Ron Forse restoration revitalized the set-up, introducing new bunkers and mounds to build on the strategy and variety already inherent on the course. Omni Bedford Springs Old course White Manor Country Club’s 18-hole layout in Malvern (up to #32) reverses the fall from grace it suffered two years ago when it slipped seven places in the listings. The club was established in 1948 at Paxton Hollow but moved sixteen years later to its current location, where William and David Gordon laid out a new course for the members. Bobby Weed then renovated this layout in 2002. White Manor Country Club The progression made by the Militia Hill course at Philadelphia Cricket Club in Plymouth Meeting (up nine to #33) more than makes up for a drop of four places which took place during our 2018 revision exercise. When this Hurdzan/Fry co-design was unveiled in 2002, it meant the club was the only one in the United States to have had a course built in each of the last three centuries as its St. Martins 9-holer emerged in 1895 and its 18-hole Wissahickton layout took shape in 1922. The first of ten new entries in our enlarged Pennsylvania chart debuts at #35 and it’s the course at Llanerch Country Club in Havertown, where the 1958 PGA Championship was first contested as a stroke play event. Originally designed by Alex Findlay in the 1920s, the layout was reconfigured by J.B. McGovern, Donald Ross’s associate, after World War II. Last year, Brian Schneider from Renaissance Golf Design was appointed to carry out a renovation: “To make the golf course as fun, engaging, and visually attractive as possible.” Llanerch Country Club Click the link to see full details of our latest Pennsylvania Best in State rankings. Next up in our final release are the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses

US Mid-Atlantic Division Best in State Rankings 2018 Our Best in State biennial re-ranking process for the United States of America is almost finished as we’ve now completed eight of the nine divisional revisions. In this edition, we re-appraise three Mid-Atlantic states located in the north east of the country, namely New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. We feature a total of 170 courses across the three states, with no fewer than twenty-five of these layouts listed in our US Top 100. Indeed, fifteen of those tracks also reside within our World Top 100 so describing this is as a high-powered golfing region is by no means overstating its importance in the national and international scheme of things. New Jersey In the Garden State Top 50, sixteen courses move up or remain in the same position, twenty-five fall down, and nine drop out to be replaced by new entries. At the top of the table, Pine Valley Golf Club retains its number 1 status and in Volume 3 of The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses book, it was one of only three courses to score full marks (10 out of 10) from Tom Doak and each of his three co-authors. The architect had this to say about George Crump’s timeless masterpiece: “If you believe that a golf course is the sum of its holes, then there is no course that dares challenge Pine Valley: any one of its 18 holes would be a welcome addition to almost any other course… the most overlooked aspect of Pine valley is its terrific set of short par-4 holes. Their inclusion has actually helped the club not overreact to changes in technology, and make it the complete design.” A couple of 18-hole tracks make admirable upward moves in the New Jersey chart and both have attracted very positive reviews from our regular contributor M. James Ward. The first of these layouts is the Banks course at Forsgate Country Club in Jamesburg (up nine to #14) where he finds it “particularly shocking that many self-proclaimed golf cognoscenti often gloss over [its] qualities.” The second layout is the Bay course at Stockton Seaview Hotel and Golf Club, close to Atlantic City (up nine to #41), which “is blessed with a quality routing that constantly keeps players moving around.” Rising thirteen spots to number 20, the highest climber in the new state standings is Montclair Golf Club in Essex County, where 27 holes laid out by Donald Ross in 1922 were supplemented by another nine holes from Charles Banks six years later. Our regular contributor Paul Rudovsky visited the club recently and commented as follows: “The property is extremely hilly and given I was planning on playing 36 holes or more, I took a cart as it would be a very tough walk otherwise. I played the Banks Nine (#4) then #2 because these were the two nines used when the 1985 US Amateur was held here. Being a Ross design, #2 certainly felt different to #4. The lack of geometrical lines was very obvious but of course the greens were diabolical.” The highest placed newcomer arrives at number 25 and it’s the Short Course at Pine Valley which was brought into play for the members in 1992. The ten holes of this layout were designed by Tom Fazio and Ernie Ransome to emulate a number of the holes on the main course. “Eight of these ten holes are close reproductions of approach shots on the big course,” according to Tom Doak, “and the ‘tees’ are fairways so you can play from anywhere you like. It’s an excellent solution for the club, because no original design was going to be good enough to get regular use.” Rank/ Click the link to see full details of all courses in our latest New Jersey Best in State rankings New York The top three places in the Empire State listings are unchanged from the chart that was published two years ago, which means the course at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club is still the state number 1. Host to this year’s US Open, this stellar track from Howard Toomey and William Flynn rides very high in our American and global Top 100s – only Cypress Point sits above it in these rankings – and it will be the focus of world-wide golfing attention when the USGA’s flagship Open event is held here again in 2026. It’s a particular favourite of Matt Ward who wrote this about the course last year: “Shinnecock is blessed with ideal land – rolling but never so abrupt as to distort shots to the point where luck, rather than skill, is the determining factor. The routing is second to none. You’re taken to all corners of the property – all the attributes of the land are brought to the forefront… Shinnecock mandates control with not only various clubs – but with knowing when to shape shots and apply the appropriate trajectory to secure the desired result. The final element is conditioning which cements the first three characteristics… it means a linking of turf quality to what the game of golf calls upon.” There’s not much movement within the Top 10 positions for New York but, just outside the top tier, three courses make notable progress. Wykagyl Country Club near New Rochelle (up eight to number 15) has been renovated in the last few years by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. The landscape is fairly rugged in that part of Westchester County and our US Consultant Fergal O’Leary terms the terrain “rocky and undulating, which is glorious for golf as it offers endless options for doglegs and exciting greensites.” Three hundred miles further northwest of Wykagyl, just outside Rochester, Monroe Golf Club (up six to number 20) is an old Donald Ross design that has been tastefully reworked by both Brian Silva and Gil Hanse over the last thirty years. Beautifully routed, with many of the greens tilted back to front, it’s a largely undiscovered gem that’s only now becoming more widely known. A reviewer summed the course up a while back by stating: “Monroe shows that grand New York State golf is not the sole domain of the New York City metro area.” On the North Shore of Long Island in Suffolk County, the Devereaux Emmet-designed course at St George’s Golf & Country Club (up six to number 19) is shoe-horned into a tight tract next to the State University of New York Stony Brook Campus. Paul Rudovsky visited the club recently and had this to say about a layout where Gil Hanse has been consulting since 1999: “Viewing the course from adjoining roads made me salivate… this place looked incredible... and it was. Firm and fast in near perfect condition, it has rolling, wide fairways (except for #12) which offer great strategic options, brilliant bunkering and interesting greens with every trick in the book“. A little further down the table, three other courses make a significant double-digit leap up the chart. First of all, there’s a pair of century-old Donald Ross designs at Glens Falls Country Club in Warren County (up nineteen to #26) and Tuegega Country Club in the foothills of the Adirondacks (up seventeen to #43). Then there’s Paramount Country Club (up fourteen to #36), which was built for the founder of Paramount Pictures by A. W. Tillinghast in 1920 and restored within the last five years by former Tom Doak associate, Jim Urbina. The highest new entry at number 39 is the course at North Shore Country Club on Hempstead Harbor, where C.B. Macdonald, Seth Raynor and club professional Robert White worked together on the redesign of the original Glenwood Country Club layout in 1915/16. Featuring trademark replica holes from Raynor such as a Cape at the 7th, Redan on the 9th and Eden at the 10th, the course is under the watchful eye of Tom Doak and his Renaissance Golf Design company as they’ve been consulting here for some time now. Click the link to see full details of all courses in our latest New York Best in State rankings Pennsylvania The top three positions in the Keystone State chart haven’t altered since we began compiling Best in State rankings in 2012 so Oakmont Country Club comfortably holds onto its number 1 billing. The father and son architectural team of Henry and William Fownes devised this titan of a tough track back at the start of the 20th century and it’s been testing the best golfers in the world ever since then, evidenced by it hosting nine US Opens, five US Amateurs, three PGA Championships and two Women’s Opens. This extract from a recent Matt Ward post sums up the allure of such a golfing behemoth: “Oakmont has always been about a penal style of architecture – the Fownes were not interested in treating half-hearted shots with anything other than tough love… But the aspect that elevates Oakmont beyond the torture chamber reputation is the pedigree of the [tournament] winners who have been able to climb the Mount Everest in golf in America. In many ways, Oakmont rivals Muirfield in being able to identify those with the most consummate of golf skills.” Bursting into the state Top 10 at number 4 after an eleven-place jump, the Old course at the Country Club of Scranton comprises the original Walter Travis-designed Pines and Willows nines from the late 1920s, which were renovated six years ago by Tom Marzolf. Despite misgivings about some of the bunker work carried out in 2012, our man Fergal O’Leary thought last year that “the club doesn’t get the praise it truly deserves as it’s certainly a US Top 100 golf course.” Well, twelve months down the line, the Old course now hurtles up the Pennsylvania state chart with a national ranking position of number 86 for good measure. The highest of five new entries debuts at number 32 and it’s the North course at Stonewall, near Elverson in Chester County. The Old course was the first 18-hole layout to open at this golf facility twenty five years ago when it was one of Tom Doak’s first golf projects, designed along with Gil Hanse. The North course was unveiled a decade later, playing from a separate clubhouse, with Tom Doak partnering Don Placek this time to create a more open layout than its older sibling, allowing golfers a wider range of options off the tee. According to the architects, greens on the North course were built to permit “more changes of strategy due to hole to hole locations than the original 18 holes”. Click the link to see full details of all courses in our latest Pennsylvania Best in State rankings We don’t produce definitive rankings but we do publish what we believe to be the most informed listings that you’ll find anywhere. Your opinion matters to us so if you think we could have done better with any of these three newly revised US Best in State charts then please click the “Respond to this article” link at the top or at the bottom of this page to share your thoughts. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses