The PGA Aronimink course is so beautiful it is among the 10 best courses in Philadelphia

It’s a fairway, GAP*-style, that’s what Aronimink Golf Club’s course is firmly one of the top 10 courses in greater Philadelphia. Yes, how wonderful are the lessons of Donald Ross, Newtown Square, Pa.,. The 108th PGA Championship will be played there this week.

(*Golf Association of Philadelphia, founded 1897.)

For further proof of Aronimink’s superior standing, I would like to bring in an expert, Doug Borgerson. Borgerson is the district manager of nearby West Conshohocken, where there is a Marriott, home to many players staying this week. But Borgerson’s expertise in this project is not in balancing the municipal budget. It’s from his side hustle, as the boys’ golf coach at the elite Episcopal Academy, just down the road from Aronimink and closed this week for the tournament. Borgerson has the right job if you’re looking to play courses you wouldn’t otherwise inhale.

I know this field myself. In the late 1980s, I was a member of the Philadelphia Newspapermen’s Golf Association, and it was through PNGA that I first got to play Merion West’s premier course. (Lee Trevino won the US Open at its sister course, Merion East, which is also beautiful.) Merion West has three holes called Oh Sh*t Corner, named after Herbert Warren Wind.

This corner of the course includes No. 6, a downhill 120-yard par-3; No. 7, 280 par-4 where your target is the only ball you started with; and No. 8, a 240-yard par-4 on top of a suburban hill. Some of the area’s high schools play their events at Merion West. It’s complete. Herb Wind, you may know, he did write a sentence Amen Corner in that Augusta moment. The same Herb Wind once told me that the US has three major golf capitals: Chicago, New York and Philadelphia.

Golf is a staple of Philadelphia’s sports culture, along with squash, court tennis (don’t ask) and (of course) the Flyers. Many high schools have girls’ and boys’ golf teams, many clubs have thriving caddy programs, and there is excellent community golf and private club golf for almost every budget. Borgerson, who has lived in and around Philadelphia for all of his 47 years, knows all this well. Between his training and his hobbies, he has played golf all over in the region. I asked him to name his top 10 Philadelphia courses. It was a struggle, he reached 10. Without further ado:

Doug Borgerson’s Top-10 Greater Philadelphia Courses with Random Commentary

1. Pine Valley, opened in 1919, designed by George Crump, et al.

“It’s more British than anything British,” said Nick Faldo. Good, in an Old Spice way.

2. Merion Golf Club, East Course, 1912, Hugh Wilson.

Justin Rose, 2013 US Open winner and member, plays it every year. Lee Trevino, on winning the Open there in 1971: “I just fell in love with a girl named Merion and I don’t even know her last name.” It is paced like few other courses, starting with six holes of drama, followed by six holes of comedy and ending with six holes of tragedy.

3. Huntingdon Valley, 1928, William Flynn.

“It’s a series of golf courses that don’t play the same way, day in and day out,” said Borgerson, a former member there.

4. Rolling Green, 1926, William Flynn.

When the US Open was played at Rolling Green in 1976, Sandra Palmer and JoAnne Carner tied for eighth over 72 holes. Carner won the 18-hole playoff in par – Monday’s 76. Tough. And it’s good.

5. Philadelphia Cricket Club, Wissahickon Course, 1922, AW Tillinghast.

(Full disclosure: I’m a member.) My fifth Borgerson course is the first, my favorite course in Philadelphia: the quirky, well-decorated, mysterious green-theatre, where-you-can-get-your-foul-ball-and-a-good-call-home setting, on a crowned porch overlooking the winding 18th hole separated by a bifurcated fairway.

6. Aronimink, 1926, Donald Ross.

“It’s a big ballpark,” Borgerson said. It’s big in every way and big enough for the PGA Championship or any other event. Gary Player won the ’62 PGA there. A course in good condition, with a rich membership. The club had a nice swimming pool. The club moved to build an outdoor event space. Country star Luke Bryan played there one night.

7. Saucon Valley, Weyhill Course, 1966, William Gordon, David Gordon.

Just 50 miles as the eagle flies from the Liberty Bell in downtown Philadelphia, Philadelphia’s most beautiful and often overlooked course was once the hideout of Bethlehem Steel executives. “My favorite of the three courses at Saucon,” Borgerson said, and all three courses at Saucon Valley Country Club are really good. “It’s amazing.”

8. Applebrook, 2001, Gil Hanse.

Borgerson says: “My homework, but I liked it before I joined. It reminds us of something Herb Wind once said: You’d sooner insult a man’s wife than his family. Or (as the phrase is translated today) you might insult a man’s life partner sooner than his home course. It’s playful and playful.”

9. Atlantic City, 1897, John Reid and many others since him, including Tom Doak.

It’s windy, it’s beautiful. “You have to hit every shot,” Borgerson said. In 1901, Walter Travis, from Australia, defeated Walter Egan, an American, in the US Amateur. Battle of Walters. People still talk about it, along with the grillroom floor covered in spike marks.

10. Gulph Mills, 1919, Donald Ross.

This has been said before and will be said again: “You know the Duke brothers, Randolph and Mortimer Duke of the trading firm Duke & Duke, featured in the classic Philadelphia movie ‘Trading Places’.? They will be members of Merion, of course. But they were going to play their golf at Gulph Mills.” It’s incredibly charming, start to finish, with a letter from Bob Jones to members hanging on the clubhouse wall, inviting the brothers to take a private train south to check out his new course, in Augusta, Ga., in case anyone is looking for a winter club to join.

“Good list,” Borgerson said when he finished. “But what about Jeffersonville?”

“Jeffersonville!” said the coach, and more followed. A real muni, owned by West Norriton Township. Borgerson often sings about Jeffersonville to the West Norriton Township manager. Borgerson says that if he could play Jeffersonville – Donald Ross, 1931 – uninhibited (uncrowded and slow), he would put it in his top 5.

We go on and on, and around and around.

We also talked about Merion West; St. Martins with nine holes at the Cricket Club; LuLu Country Club courses; Producers; Whitemarsh; Philadelphia Country Club; Wilmington, or one of its subjects; Stonewall, or one of its subjects. Somehow, one of the best was not raised – Lancaster. Lancaster!

Doug Borgerson could be working the PGA this week. His club, Applebrook, drives the 9th hole, a 600-yard par-5, where a lot can go wrong. But Borgerson doesn’t work for the event. There is no way. You want look. He wants to hang out, see the movement in the course he knows well. The boys are coming to town. They played a very good course. One of our best things.

Did I mention Llanerch? Oh, it’s special. Dow Finsterwald won the 1958 PGA Championship there, the first in stroke play, and people still talk about that. Some people really are.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.