“Man, these greens are tough.”
“They only get better from here.”
We were two holes into Philadelphia Cricket Club's Wissahickon Course and already the A.W. Tillinghast design was showing its character. Off the tee, it was open. The approaches weren’t daunting either. But once you got up to the green, the true charm (and challenge) of the course came into play.
The PGA Tour signature event Truist Championship makes a one-year pitstop at Philly Cricket this week. Golf fans unfamiliar with Wissahickon will be treated to a classic golden age gem with a rich history as the home course of many legendary course architects from the Philadelphia school of design, including Tillinghast, George Crump (Pine Valley) and George Thomas (Riviera, Los Angeles Country Club).
For the players, many of whom have never played the course, the biggest challenge is around the greens.
“Everyone’s going to be chasing the greens,” said Joie Chitwood, the Executive Director of the 2025 Truist Championship, whom I had the above exchange with when we played together. “It’s nice to inject a little variability into it.”
Like most Tillinghast designs, the greens at Philly Cricket are bold. Most slope back to front. The ball turns hard around the hole. Mastering pace and break will be key.
Unlike other Tillinghast designs fans may know, like Winged Foot and Bethpage Black, the rough is not particularly severe at Philly Cricket. Wayward tee shots won’t be a massive penalty. The rough has been cut to three inches.
Hit in the wrong place around the green, however, and pay the consequences. You don’t want to be short-sighted this week.
“There’s a lot of unique shot values here,“ said Stewart Moore, the PGA Tour's vice president of championship management. “You have to be on the right side of the hole.”
Philly Cricket is hosting the Truist because Quail Hollow, the traditional site of the event, is hosting the PGA Championship next week. Next year the Truist will return to Quail Hollow.
But this week fans will get a rare glimpse of a course that’s gotten a lot of buzz since it was restored by Keith Foster in 2014. Long overshadowed by nearby neighboring Merion Golf Club, Aronimink Golf Club and Pine Valley, Wissahickon is ready for its close-up.
Much of the excitement can be found around the greens, though that’s not the only defining feature.
Like many famous Tillinghast designs, the bunkering around Philly Cricket is dynamic. The “Great Hazard” on the par-5, 7th features 13 bunkers in the middle of the fairway. Tillinghast convinced Crump to incorporate the design on the 7th hole at Pine Valley and then added it at Wissahickon. It won’t be in play for the pros going for the green in two, but it will be featured heavily in coverage as a beautiful aesthetic that amateurs must maneuver.
Many pin placements will be placed close to the bunkers around the greens. One of the great decisions during the renovation was expanding the greens with runoffs toward the bunkers. Imprecise shots will settle there.
The PGA rerouted the course this week so the finishing holes include many of the course's best.
The 122-yard postage stamp par 3, normally the 3rd hole, will be the pro’s 14th. Then they move to the risk-reward par-5 “Great Hazard” hole before a 215-yard par 3, a 498-yard par 4 and a 517-yard par 4 closer.
The course will measure just over 7,100 yards and play as a par 70. That’s short for the pros, but the greens and the players' unfamiliarity with them should be an equalizer.
“Some of these signature events, there’s a traditional Sunday pin placement and the players know the course well,” Chitwood said. “Here, you're going to go to a new course. Guys are going to see it on Monday and have three days to prepare for a course that 99% have never played before. It’s nice to inject a little variability into it.”
Nowhere is that variability more prominent than on the greens.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as This Will Be the Defining Factor as Philly Cricket Club Hosts Its First PGA Tour Event.