Buck Hill Falls Golf Club

Buck Hill Falls began in 1901, when Samuel E. Griscom, a Philadelphia Quaker who had inherited the land, had it opened for cottage lots; the first 43 lots went mostly to Quaker Friends. Golf followed in 1907, when Robert White, the first president of the PGA of America, laid out nine holes along an open, hilly stretch of the mountainside. That nine survives as today's Red course.

Donald Ross added two more nines, now the White and the Blue, which the club dates to 1922 and celebrated as its "Donald Ross courses" with a centennial in 2022. The Donald Ross Society and Tufts Archives directory lists 18 Ross holes at Buck Hill Falls as new work, records that the Tufts Archives holds information on the course, and does not find it on Ross's own 1930 list of his courses. With the third nine in place the club became the 27-hole layout it is today, with the two Ross nines making up its principal 18 and either of them pairing with White's Red nine.

Holes to Know

The White/Blue 18 plays to par 72 and 6,509 yards from the Blue tees. The White nine, holes 1 to 9 on the card, is par 36 at 3,331 yards; the Blue nine, holes 10 to 18, is par 36 at 3,178. There are four par 3s, four par 5s and ten par 4s, with back-to-back par 5s at the 12th and 13th, and the 563-yard 4th is the longest hole and stroke index 1. The club's own hole notes use each nine's numbering, so the Blue nine's 4th and 7th are the 13th and 16th on the card.

The 510-yard 2nd from the Blue tees (par 5, stroke index 5) is the hole the club names for Griscom Run. Today the creek cuts in from the left and crosses the line about 345 yards from the tee, some 160 yards short of the green, then follows the left edge of the fairway to within about 40 yards of the putting surface. Trees wall the right side the whole way, and the oval green has one bunker on its left and two on its right.

The 207-yard 9th from the Blue tees (par 3, stroke index 15) is the club's signature hole, a downhill par 3 that the club gives as 199 yards from the White tees, with the mountains rising behind the green. Griscom Run crosses it on a diagonal about 65 yards short of the green. The green runs along the line with a long bunker on its left and a small one short and right, and a pond lies about 35 yards beyond it.

The 558-yard 13th from the Blue tees (par 5, stroke index 2) is the Blue nine's 4th, which the club calls its signature par 5, "crowned by the elegant Swarthmore Gazebo shelter near the green." It is a long corridor between two walls of trees, edging right around 300 yards out and back left to a green with no bunkers visible around it today. The gazebo stands about 25 yards short and 30 yards left of the green's centre.

The 182-yard 16th from the Blue tees (par 3, stroke index 14) is the Blue nine's 7th, which the club calls "a prime Ross par 3, set over a massive hump and a deep swale in front of the green." From the tee the shot carries a band of rough, then fairway, to a rounded green with a single bunker curling around its left side and trees hanging over its right.

Ross's Design Here

Ross's two nines are different in character, and the club describes them that way. The White is the longest and flattest of the three nines and winds through the community's golf cottages; its creek, Griscom Run, comes into play on the 2nd and runs down to the 9th, so water is in play early in the nine and again on its closing hole. The Blue is the club's "terrain-inspired compact course with notably elevated greens and tees," played through tree-lined fairways. The 16th, with its hump and swale in front of the green, is the one hole the club itself calls a Ross par 3, and the club pictures the 13th finishing at the Swarthmore Gazebo.

The two Ross nines were added to an existing course rather than laid out on open land, and each is a par 36, while White's original Red nine is a par 34 on the club's card, which makes the Red/White and Blue/Red combinations par 70, according to the Pennsylvania Golf Association's ratings. White's Red nine is, in the club's words, "the most open and the most hilly" of the three, with sidehill lies and some of the club's hardest par 4s.

Today's aerial imagery shows tree-lined corridors on the Ross holes examined for this listing, and modest bunkering: the 13th has no bunker visible around its green, the 16th a single bunker, and the 4th three bunkers around the green with a fourth about 40 yards short on the right. No source read describes which of these bunkers follow Ross's own placements.

Historical Significance

At Buck Hill Falls Ross worked as the second architect on a resort community's course, expanding a nine laid out by Robert White, the first president of the PGA of America, into 27 holes. The club and the Pennsylvania Golf Association both credit the White and Blue nines to Ross, and the club treats them as the heart of its golf: it marked their hundredth year in 2022 and spent its centennial restoration budget on those 18 holes before turning to White's nine.

The Donald Ross Society directory records Buck Hill Falls among Ross's Pennsylvania courses and lists it as semi-private, with 18 Ross holes still in play. It notes that the course is not on Ross's own 1930 list of his work, while recording that the Tufts Archives holds material on it.

Changes Since Ross

The largest documented change to the Ross nines is the recent restoration. The club says that for the 2022 centennial "the 18 holes were fully restored with the help of renowned course architect Rees Jones, golf historian Andrew Mutch, and NMP Golf Construction," in a multi-year, $2 million project paid for by the community's cottagers, non-resident members and the Buck Hill Falls Company, which also brought in current agronomy and technology. Rees Jones, Inc. lists Buck Hill Falls as a restoration it has been working on since 2019, with Bryce Swanson as co-designer, preparing a restoration master plan for each of the three nines. Neither the club nor the firm has published a hole-by-hole account of what the work changed.

The club says improvements are continuing and will extend to White's Red nine. Outside the golf course, the community's Inn, built in 1901 and rebuilt in stone in 1926, closed in 1990 and was demolished in 2016; its site is now a grassy field.

Uncertainties

• Ross's dates. The club dates the White and Blue nines to 1922, yet its golf page and the Pennsylvania Golf Association both say Ross came "nearly 25 years" after 1907. The Ross Society directory gives "1922 - 1931" without explanation; foretee.com says a second nine opened in 1914 and Ross's nine in 1921; and a Golf Club Atlas contributor placed Ross's work in 1918–1920. This listing follows the club's 1922.

• Who built what. The club credits Ross with 18 holes, while foretee's account (a second nine in 1914, Ross's in 1921) would make him the author of only one new nine. The club's account is followed.

• Later work by Robert White. A Golf Club Atlas contributor credits White with work at Buck Hill in 1926, and an earlier club page dated a White revision of the Red nine to 1928; neither could be confirmed from a primary source.

Sources & Notes

1. Buck Hill Falls, Our Course, https://www.buckhillfalls.com/public/golf/our-course (years built per nine, architects, nine descriptions, White Nos. 2 and 9, Blue Nos. 4 and 7)

2. Buck Hill Falls, Golf, https://www.buckhillfalls.com/public/golf (1907 White nine, "nearly 25 years later" Ross, 2022 centennial, $2 million restoration with Rees Jones, Andrew Mutch and NMP, Red nine improvements, practice facilities)

3. Buck Hill Falls, History, https://www.buckhillfalls.com/public/buck-hill-falls/history (Griscom and the Quaker founding, golf 1907, the Inn 1901-2016)

4. Pennsylvania Golf Association, Buck Hill Golf Club, https://pagolf.org/clubs.asp?cid=200 (ratings and yardages for all combinations, including White/Blue 6,509 from the Blue tees; club history)

5. Donald Ross Society and the Tufts Archives, Directory of Golf Courses Designed by Donald J. Ross (Jan 2026 revision), https://www.rosssociety.org/resources/Documents/Ross%20Course%20List/Final%20Ross%20Directory%20of%20Courses%20Jan%202026%20website.pdf (18 Ross holes, new 1922-1931, Tufts information on file, not on the 1930 list, semi-private)

6. Rees Jones, Inc., Buck Hill Falls, https://reesjonesinc.com/?p=698 (restoration ongoing since 2019, co-designer Bryce Swanson, master plan for each nine)

7. Golf Club Atlas forum, "Pocono Manor - Donald Ross documentation??" (Mike Cirba, July 24, 2007), https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,30463.0.html (Ross at Buck Hill 1918-1920; White work in 1926)

8. foretee.com, Buck Hill Falls Golf Club, https://foretee.com/courses/pennsylvania/buck-hill-falls/usa/buck-hill-falls-golf-club/12419 (1914 second nine and 1921 Ross nine, as an alternative account)

9. Greens Visited scorecard (Blue tees) and course-tour aerials (PEMA Orthoimagery Cycle 2, 2021-2023, via PASDA, https://www.pasda.psu.edu) for card shape, hole yardages and what is on the ground today.