Buck Hill Falls Golf Club

Robert White, the first PGA of America president, laid out Buck Hill Falls’ initial nine holes in 1907, giving the resort community a compact mountainside loop along open slopes above the creek. By 1918 the Buck Hill Falls Company had engaged Donald Ross “to study and present a plan to increase [the course] to 27 holes,” initiating the expansion that would become the club’s Blue and White nines. The club’s own course dossier dates the construction of Ross’s two nines to 1922, a date the club underscored by celebrating the centennial of the “Donald Ross courses” in 2022.

Contemporary local press later recalled a 1921 completion for the “final nine,” but the club’s present materials—and the 2022 centennial framing—support 1922 as the operative opening year for Ross’s 18.

No documentary evidence has surfaced that Ross returned for additional phases after completion of the Blue and White nines. Instead, in 1928 Buck Hill Falls re-engaged Robert White to revise his earlier Red nine, integrating the original loop with the two newer Ross nines to create the current 27-hole complex. The club’s “Little Known Facts” page and a 2007 local feature both attribute the 1928 Red-nine revision to White.

Unique Design Characteristics

The Blue nine preserves several Ross hallmarks as they are expressed on this terrain. The club highlights Blue No. 7, a downhill par three that plays “over a massive hump and across a deep swale” to a green that demands precise distance control from an exposed tee—an arrangement that uses the site’s natural puckers to create a mid-iron test without resorting to artificial severity. The long par-five Blue No. 4 works near the historic Swarthmore Gazebo, rising and falling over natural undulations before a demanding approach into a green site perched to shed indifferent shots, a pattern repeated across the nine with elevated tees and tops-set greens.

On the White nine, the club singles out White No. 9—a 199-yard, downhill finish over a sunken valley to a green that visually “floats” beyond the chasm. The hole’s long-iron demand and angle into a green set just beyond trouble are consistent with period photographs and descriptions at Buck Hill Falls and elsewhere in Ross’s 1920s work; here, the form arises from the valley lip rather than from built-up fill, reinforcing the club’s emphasis on terrain-led design. White No. 3, a 580-yard par five that twice crosses Buck Hill Creek, contrasts with the brawnier parkland stretch by making water management and lay-up angles central, a sequencing decision that injects variety within the White nine’s routing.

Because the Red nine is not a Ross creation and was revised in 1928 by White, the clearest surviving examples of Ross’s hand are found on the Blue and White loops. The club’s own hole notes, coupled with its recent restoration choices, point to Blue 7 and White 9 as signature expressions of the Ross-era architecture at Buck Hill Falls today.

Historical Significance

Within Ross’s body of Pennsylvania work, Buck Hill Falls is notable as a two-nine expansion appended to an existing non-Ross course to create a 27-hole resort complex. The project brought a recognizable Ross 18 into the Poconos during the early-1920s resort-building wave, complementing the region’s contemporaneous hotel courses. While Buck Hill Falls has not figured prominently in national rankings, the club’s own curated history and the regional golf association’s materials consistently attribute the Blue and White nines to Ross and treat the combined 18 as the club’s competitive course of record. The club marked the 2022 centennial of those nines with a celebratory restoration program, underscoring the significance of the Ross component in its institutional memory.

Current Condition / Integrity

The routing of the Blue and White nines remains consistent with Ross’s 1920s expansion and is now the focus of a documented restoration program. According to the club, “the 18 holes were fully restored” for the 2022 centennial “with the help of [architect] Rees Jones, golf historian Andrew Mutch, and NMP Golf Construction,” a multi-year, ~$2 million effort. Rees Jones’s office describes its role as developing a Restoration Master Plan “for each nine to help guide the club,” and NMP notes specific scopes—bunker work (fairway and greenside), green-complex work, and limited tee work—which together imply targeted architectural and agronomic interventions rather than wholesale re-routing. While the club’s pages do not publish a hole-by-hole restoration log, the combined sources indicate an intent to recover Ross’s bunker forms, green edges and surrounds, and strategic sightlines, alongside infrastructure upgrades.

The Red nine—traced to Robert White and revised in 1928—has not yet been the focus of the same level of restoration, though the club indicates that “improvements are ongoing… to include our 9-hole Robert White course.” As a result, the present integrity of the Ross work is strongest across the Blue/White 18, which also serves as the club’s principal competitive combination. Yardage data published by the Pennsylvania Golf Association show the Blue tees on the Blue/White combination at 6,497 yards (par 72), with alternate combinations (e.g., Red/White and Blue/Red) ranging shorter; these listings, together with the club’s scorecard summaries, reinforce the Blue/White 18 as the representative expression of Buck Hill Falls golf today.

Sources & Notes

Buck Hill Falls — “Our Course” (Blue/White/Red nines with hole descriptions; “Year built: 1907 – Red; 1922 – Blue & White”; architects and per-hole notes, including Blue 7, White 3 and White 9).

Buck Hill Falls — “Little Known Facts” (club timeline noting 1918 engagement of Donald Ross to plan expansion to 27 holes).

Buck Hill Falls — “Golf” page (facility overview, practice amenities, and 2022 centennial restoration statement naming Rees Jones, Andrew Mutch, and NMP Golf Construction, with ~$2 million budget and indication that additional improvements will include the Robert White nine).

Pennsylvania Golf Association — Club yardage/ratings for Buck Hill Falls (combination tee yardages including Blue/White at 6,497 yards from Blue tees; contact listings and narrative summary of White 1907 and Ross expansion “nearly 25 years later”).

Rees Jones, Inc. — Project note for Buck Hill Falls (designer working with the club on a Restoration Master Plan for each nine).

NMP Golf — Project page for Buck Hill Falls (scope: renovations to fairway and greenside bunkers, green complex and limited tee work; architect attribution to Rees Jones, Inc.).

Pocono Record (Aug. 2007) — “Hole of the Week: No. 9 White” (local feature recalling Ross’s “final nine” as completed in 1921 and Robert White’s 1928 revision of the original nine). Use with caution as a secondary recollection; conflicts modestly with club’s 1922 centennial dating.