Philadelphia Cricket Club: Wissahickon
Played Philly Cricket in 2015. When most people talk about the Big Three in the Philly area, they are talking about Pine Valley, Merion and Aronimink. I love them all but I think Cricket edges Aronimink by a nose by being more fun to play. While the top two in Philly were designed by one-and-doners (Crump and Wilson respectively), Aronimink and Cricket were designed by golf architecture royalty, Ross and Tilly respectively. In fact, Tilly was a member at Cricket and his ashes were sprinkled in a creek on the property. Personally, I would prefer my ashes sprinkled on a green or fairway, I spent far too many of my living days being in creeks and ponds, but I digress.
There really is an awe factor playing Cricket. History: Cricket is the oldest country club in the country. Conditioning: Impeccable. The members, staff, caddies: All are great. Clubhouse: Classic. So why don’t I rank Cricket even higher? I don’t have a good answer for that. It’s a little under the golf magazine radar so maybe I’m influenced by the fact that it’s not a national top 100. Any way you cut it though, this is a great course.
To the course. The Fried Egg does a phenomenal job in writing up Cricket and provides four seasons worth of images of every hole. So visit there if you want a really good walk-through. Stay here if you want to see a silly video of computer-animated people playing cricket to the Benny Hill theme on a two-minute loop.
Cricket really is ridiculous. Have you ever tried to watch it? I honestly tried but I don’t get it. It’s like a combination of lawn bowling and Break the Golden Gate. But I digress.
No doubt, 18 is my favorite hole on Cricket – it’s a 450-yard par four, slight dogleg right that ends up at the clubhouse. Two is a great downhill par-four where you only need a nine or wedge in but the men’s locker room is a Kareem Abdul Jabbar or two from the right side of the green. There’s an old elevated railroad track bed that cuts through the course and nine and eleven play on either side of it. Love the variety of the par threes here. Was actually one over par through five here until taking a seven on one of the short and easier par-fours on the course. In all hit an 87 which is good for me and this course is definitely no pushover.
I played here with my buddies Karen, Whitey and our host John. It’s funny, Karen and I worked together starting back in the late 90’s and she’s a member at Commonwealth with me. She takes the game far more seriously than me and has worked her way to be a + player and one of the top senior women amateurs in Philly. She happened to be friends with our host who also worked with my friend Whitey. Small world, but made for a fun round.
Cricket has three courses, each built in a different century and each in different towns, though Militia Hill and Wissahickon are adjacent, just across the township line of Flourtown and Plymouth Meeting. The immediate area is a little private golfing mecca with some of Philly’s great private courses all located within about a seven mile radius – the two Crickets, Sunnybrook across the street from Militia Hill, Ace Club, Whitemarsh, to a lesser degree Green Valley, Philly Country Club and Gulph Mills are across the Schuykill and the Oreland trio of Manny’s, Lulu and North Hills are pretty close by with Manny’s being an unheralded great club.
If you’re coming to the area with the connections to play here, then stay here. No need to go into the city as there are some great little towns out in the close-in Western Suburbs. Conshy is right there. Coyote Crossing is great Mexican and the Boathouse has great wings. Magerks is in Fort Washington and is a great bar with a nice outside area. If you’re going that way, book Ristorante San Marco – great Italian with the world’s number two bronzino (bested only by Angelini’s in West Hollywood). I know, that’s high praise for a tiny restaurant in Ambler but trust me. King of Prussia is close by too and any and every restaurant chain in the world can be found there. They have a great Capital Grille and if you don’t want the chains, try Savona. UPDATE: San Marco closed as of 2021. The Blue Bell Inn is a good option though.
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