The toughest course in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro area is Pine Valley Golf Club Championship, at slope 155 — ahead of Trump National Golf Club Philadelphia at slope 153 and Commonwealth National Golf Club at slope 151.
All 117 courses in the area with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees are ranked below, along with 5 more lists: hardest from the tips, longest, widest tee spread, oldest, highest above sea level.
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD is a metro area as the U.S. Office of Management and Budget delineates it, crossing Delaware and Maryland and New Jersey and Pennsylvania — the boundary is theirs, not ours. Each list counts only the courses in the area that publish that figure, so the totals differ between them. Slope and course rating measure difficulty, not quality — nothing here ranks how good a course is.
Toughest test
— the top 25 of 117 courses with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees
The highest USGA slope rating published for any of the men’s tee sets. Slope rates difficulty for a bogey golfer relative to a scratch golfer — a rated figure issued by the golf association, not an opinion about the course. Men’s ratings only, because a tee is rated separately for men and for women and the two scales do not compare; a course rated only for women is not in the running rather than converted.
Hardest from the tips
— the top 25 of 114 courses with a USGA course rating for its men’s tees
The highest USGA course rating published for any of the men’s tee sets — the score a scratch golfer is expected to shoot. Men’s ratings only, for the same reason as slope: the men’s and women’s ratings of one tee are different measurements. It measures difficulty and nothing else; it is not a quality score and never orders these pages by how good a course is.
Longest
— the top 25 of 160 courses with a published scorecard
The longest tee set the course publishes, in yards from the tips. Compared against every course that publishes a scorecard — length is a measurement, not a verdict on the golf.
Widest tee spread
— the top 25 of 159 courses with two or more tee sets of different lengths
| # | Course | State | Widest tee spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Concord Country Club | PA | 3,660 yds between tees |
| 2 | Chesapeake Bay Golf Club at Rising Sun | MD | 3,657 yds between tees |
| 3 | Town Country Golf Links | NJ | 2,997 yds between tees |
| 4 | White Clay Creek Country Club at Delaware Park | DE | 2,581 yds between tees |
| 5 | Spring Ford Country Club | PA | 2,510 yds between tees |
| 6 | Trump National Golf Club Philadelphia | NJ | 2,397 yds between tees |
| 7 | Talamore Country Club | PA | 2,255 yds between tees |
| 7 | The Rivercrest Golf Club and Preserve | PA | 2,255 yds between tees |
| 9 | Back Creek Golf Club | DE | 2,228 yds between tees |
| 10 | Union League Liberty Hill | PA | 2,179 yds between tees |
| 11 | South at Wilmington Country Club | DE | 2,098 yds between tees |
| 12 | Laurel Creek Country Club | NJ | 2,068 yds between tees |
| 13 | Fieldstone Golf Club | DE | 2,056 yds between tees |
| 14 | White Manor Country Club | PA | 2,049 yds between tees |
| 15 | Centennial Toomey at Huntingdon Valley Country Club | PA | 2,041 yds between tees |
| 16 | Makefield Highlands Golf Club | PA | 1,993 yds between tees |
| 17 | Green Valley Country Club | PA | 1,982 yds between tees |
| 18 | Flynn Centennial at Huntingdon Valley Country Club | PA | 1,968 yds between tees |
| 19 | Centerton Golf Club | NJ | 1,945 yds between tees |
| 20 | Sunnybrook Golf Club | PA | 1,944 yds between tees |
| 21 | Glen Mills Golf Course | PA | 1,943 yds between tees |
| 22 | Medford Village Country Club | NJ | 1,932 yds between tees |
| 23 | South at Wilmington Country Club | DE | 1,923 yds between tees |
| 24 | Odessa National Golf Club | DE | 1,922 yds between tees |
| 25 | Commonwealth National Golf Club | PA | 1,916 yds between tees |
Yards between the longest and shortest published tee sets — how far the course moves to fit a different player. Courses publishing a single tee set are not in the running, because one set is an unmeasured spread rather than a narrow one.
Oldest
— the top 25 of 124 courses with an opening year
The year the course opened, as published. Ranked oldest first. An opening year is not a design credit and not a renovation date — a course that opened in 1921 and was rebuilt in 1998 still opened in 1921.
Highest above sea level
— the top 25 of 165 courses with a coordinate we could sample
| # | Course | State | Highest above sea level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Honeybrook Golf Club | PA | 670 ft |
| 2 | Moccasin Run Golf Course | PA | 606 ft |
| 3 | Wyncote Golf Club | PA | 562 ft |
| 4 | French Creek Golf Course | PA | 548 ft |
| 5 | Applecross Country Club | PA | 533 ft |
| 6 | North Course Golf Course at Stonewall Links | PA | 526 ft |
| 7 | Coatesville Country Club | PA | 491 ft |
| 8 | Old Course Golf Course at Stonewall Links | PA | 482 ft |
| 9 | Waynesborough Country Club | PA | 465 ft |
| 10 | St Davids Golf Club | PA | 463 ft |
| 11 | Kennett Square Golf Country Club | PA | 455 ft |
| 12 | Fox Hollow Golf Club | PA | 447 ft |
| 13 | Applebrook Golf Club | PA | 446 ft |
| 13 | White Manor Country Club | PA | 446 ft |
| 15 | Aronimink Golf Club | PA | 444 ft |
| 16 | Hersheys Mill Golf Club | PA | 437 ft |
| 17 | West Chester Golf Country Club | PA | 431 ft |
| 18 | Inniscrone Golf Club | PA | 415 ft |
| 19 | Concord Country Club | PA | 411 ft |
| 20 | Hartefeld National Golf Club | PA | 398 ft |
| 21 | Glen Mills Golf Course | PA | 391 ft |
| 22 | Chisel Creek Golf Club | PA | 390 ft |
| 23 | Indian Valley Country Club | PA | 386 ft |
| 24 | Whitford Country Club | PA | 384 ft |
| 25 | Fieldstone Golf Club | DE | 377 ft |
Height above sea level at the course’s own published coordinate, sampled from the USGS 3DEP elevation model. THIS IS A FIGURE WE DERIVED, not one the course publishes — anybody can re-query the same public dataset at the same coordinate and get the same number, but no scorecard states it. Because every course carries a coordinate, this is the only board here whose field is nearly the whole database rather than the courses that publish a particular figure. Elevation changes how far a ball carries; it says nothing about whether a course is good.