Member Clubs

Saucon Valley Country Club

Course Information
Club Type: Private
Founded:1920
Architect:Grace Course - H.B. Strong & Maxwell-Saucon, Gordons- Grace & Weyhill
General Information
Address: 2050 Saucon Valley Road
Bethlehem, PA  18015
Phone:(610) 758-7177
Fax:(610) 758-7140
Website:www.sauconvalleycc.org
Email:cschuyler@sauconvalleycc.org
Club Contacts
  Golf Professional:   Michael J. Wood   (610) 758-7177 
  Club Manager:   Dean Will   (610) 758-7155 
  General Manager:   Kimberly Warren   (610) 758-7150 
  Superintendent:   James J. Roney Jr   (610) 217-9456 
Club Events
2021 Thurs, October 14  GAP Philadelphia Challenge Matches   
2020 Oct 15  GAP Philadelphia Challenge Matches 
2019 Oct 7  GAP Women’s Spring Scramble   
Click Here to show all

view larger map
Course Yardage & Ratings
Handicap Conversion Charts:  [Mens]  [Womens]

BLACK TEESFront 9Back 9Grace Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  37.3 133  36.6  144 73.9 139 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 543534444365344354443672
 Yards 578413230536164387447400426358152719733833817353844443644434357016
 HCP 3791711151135 41612141828610  
BLACK/BLUE TEESFront 9Back 9Grace Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  37.0 131  36.2  143 73.2 137 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 543534444365344354443672
 Yards 558412210542166363445398410350451519734234015054142543740533526856
 HCP 3791711151135 41612141828610  
BLUE TEESFront 9Back 9Grace Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  36.5 129  35.8  138 72.3 134 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 543534444365344354443672
 Yards 555402208516152349422382407339350717632132615152842340840732476640
 HCP 3791711151135 41612141828610  
BLUE/WHITE TEESFront 9Back 9Grace Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  36.2 128  35.6  137 71.8 133 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 543534444365344354443672
 Yards 558384180525153363398382387333051516532332814453140041039032066536
 HCP 3791711151135 41612141828610  
WHITE TEESFront 9Back 9Grace Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  35.5 127  34.9  136 70.4 132 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 543534444365344354443672
 Yards 508386178494137336401365385319048216128132014551939337439130666256
 HCP 3791711151135 41612141828610  
GREEN TEESFront 9Back 9Grace Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  33.9 126  33.6  131 67.5 129 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 543534444365344354443672
 Yards 488358123456129277370319325284541213125131413547437935231927675612
 HCP 3791711151135 41612141828610  
FORWARD TEESFront 9Back 9Grace Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  31.7 119  31.8  124 63.5 122 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 543534444365344354443672
 Yards 401256125347120240283298271234141413220021213840630228427023584699
 HCP 3791711151135 41612141828610  
WHITE/GREEN TEESFront 9Back 9Grace Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  35.0 127  34.1  132 69.1 130 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 543534444365344354443672
 Yards 508358123494137336370365385307641216128132013547439337431928695945
 HCP 3791711151135 41612141828610  
BLACK/BLUE TEESFront 9Back 9Old Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  37.5 138  36.2  137 73.7 138 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 544345443364344354443571
 Yards 558426374159416582430429215358938717241233819261543442234533176906
 HCP 7391117151315 10186141628412  
BLACK TEESFront 9Back 9Old Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  38.0 140  36.5  139 74.5 140 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 544345443364344354443571
 Yards 561475366159481564459425215370538517044433418861550441133933907095
 HCP 7391117151315 10186141628412  
BLUE TEESFront 9Back 9Old Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  37.0 136  36.0  132 73.0 134 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 544345443364344354443571
 Yards 561433366159414564430388179349438517043333418855643741133932536747
 HCP 7391117151315 10186141628412  
BLUE/WHITE TEESFront 9Back 9Old Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  36.5 135  35.4  131 71.9 133 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 544345443364344354443571
 Yards 530426345159416539430387157338937117241233817754438039734531366525
 HCP 7391117151315 10186141628412  
WHITE TEESFront 9Back 9Old Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  36.1 133  34.9  124 71.0 129 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 544345443364344354443571
 Yards 532419347142392520409364157328237414741032317153939438432130636345
 HCP 7391117151315 10186141628412  
WHITE/GREEN TEESFront 9Back 9Old Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  35.1 130  33.5  119 68.6 125 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 544345443364344354443571
 Yards 501375345140396438350365157306737113438832611746138032825727625829
 HCP 7391117151315 10186141628412  
GREEN TEESFront 9Back 9Old Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  34.8 124  33.2  118 68.0 121 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 544345443364344354443571
 Yards 501375322121377444380352137300935413437131611746535732825726995708
 HCP 7391117151315 10186141628412  
GOLD TEESFront 9Back 9Old Course
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  33.4 118  32.1  114 65.5 116 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 544345443364344354443571
 Yards 466345246121345432345303104270731211835825611744931532821524685175
 HCP 7391117151315 10186141628412  
BLUE/WHITE TEESFront 9Back 9Weyhill
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  36.6 131  36.3  135 72.9 133 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 434435445364454343453672
 Yards 395183415370177516430400498338439341451539317641914536552933496733
 HCP 7173151311195 41021216188146  
WHITE/GREEN TEESFront 9Back 9Weyhill
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  35.4 129  34.9  133 70.3 131 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 434435445364454343453672
 Yards 378147371370157466377365498312938335751536217034014534945030716200
 HCP 7173151311195 41021216188146  
GREEN/GOLD TEESFront 9Back 9Weyhill
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  34.0 121  33.7  125 67.7 123 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 434435445364454343453672
 Yards 356145320334116416363356406281233235744535214929013333941228095621
 HCP 7173151311195 41021216188146  
GOLD TEESFront 9Back 9Weyhill
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  33.4 118  33.0  118 66.4 118 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 434435445364454343453672
 Yards 28513332032011241635034640626883323014453408529013331041226485336
 HCP 7173151311195 41021216188146  
BLUE TEESFront 9Back 9Weyhill
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  37.4 130  37.0  135 74.4 133 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 434435445364454343453672
 Yards 395183449410201587404385536355044041456939320441914536358535327082
 HCP 7173151311195 41021216188146  
WHITE TEESFront 9Back 9Weyhill
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  35.9 128  35.4  134 71.3 131 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 434435445364454343453672
 Yards 378160415368167516363360498322539336850936217036113334952931746399
 HCP 7173151311195 41021216188146  
GREEN TEESFront 9Back 9Weyhill
RatingSlopeRatingSlopeRatingSlope
  Men  34.7 123  34.2  127 68.9 125 
 HOLE123456789OUT101112131415161718INTOTAL
 Par 434435445364454343453672
 Yards 356145371320116466350346488295838335744534014934013331045029075865
 HCP 7173151311195 41021216188146  
History
In the instances of DuPont Country Club and McCall Field, the clubs were founded by the companies. Not so in the case of Saucon Valley Country Club, though it is safe to say that Bethlehem Steel’s interest in it, from the beginning, was a very real one.
In 1920, 16 Bethlehem business leaders, including a core group from Bethlehem Steel Corporation, acquired 205 acres of farmland lying along the Saucon Creek, five miles south of the city. Helping to kindle the interest of prospective members was an exhibition match in mid-September at nearby Northampton Country Club that pitted Harry Vardon and Ted Ray against Chick Evans and Eugene G. Grace. Vardon, Ray, and Evans were household names in the world of golf. Grace, on the other hand, was a local amateur who played very close to par and who was, moreover, president of Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Golfing novices on hand that day could marvel at Ray’s explosive power, Vardon’s astonishing accuracy, and Evans’s brilliant iron play. They might also well envision joining the new country club their friends were talking about, the one Mr. Grace was going to make sure would be second to none.

Food service in the original clubhouse at Saucon Valley, a 200-year-old farmhouse, was cafeteria style.
Saucon Valley was to be a family club. The entrance fee was pegged at $100, with annual club dues of $50 and golf dues of $25. No charge of any kind was made for "the wife, unmarried daughters, and minor sons."
During the autumn of that year, especially on weekends, it was not uncommon to see members and their families laboring mightily to transform what had been an operating farm into a country club. There were contests to see who could pick up the most stones from the projected fairways. Pigsties had to be dismantled, as did the big barn. Chicken coops and corn cribs had to be taken down, but carefully—they could be sold. The wagon shed became the locker house (ladies upstairs, men downstairs). The old spring house and milk dispenser found new life as the golf shop. And the 200-year-old farmhouse was converted into a clubhouse, the most noticeable improvement being the addition of large porches. Food service was cafeteria-style. As the 1922 club handbook made clear, "Members and their guests shall have the privilege of eating their meals any place in the house or on the Grounds of the Club, but members so doing must return all trays, dishes, etc. to the service counter."
The original plans called for a nine-hole course, but this was not what Eugene Grace had in mind. It was one thing to make do with the farmhouse and to prevail upon three contractors to donate the cement for the swimming pool, but there would be no stinting on the golf course.
Herbert Strong, an Englishman who had recently remodeled Inwood, in Far Rockaway, Long Island, where Bob Jones would win his first U.S. Open, in 1923, was selected by Grace to design the course. Strong routed the eighteen through the cornfields and the wheat fields, over the grazing land and the acreage planted in clover. On five of the holes, including the final three, he brought the Saucon Creek prominently into play.
The course opened in 1922 to immediate acclaim. Even the uninitiated—and the majority of Saucon members were certainly that—could sense that this was an excellent design, a succession of diverse golf holes that amply rewarded well-struck shots, yet were not so penal as to discourage the novice. So sound and satisfying was the Strong design that only relatively minor revisions would be made to it in the years to come.
The new club had an 18-hole course of which it could be proud. But, as was the case at the DuPont Country Club, this was only the beginning. The coming decades would see the expansion of the club on such a scale—and with such extraordinary care and taste—that it would become a venue for five USGA championships and would provide its ever-increasing membership with a wealth of sporting facilities and social amenities matched by only a handful of country clubs in all the world.

[ Back to Listing ]

MY GAP LOCKER LOGIN  |  REGISTER
SECTION LINKS
 Rules of Golf
 About GAP
 Handicapping
 Tournament Schedule
 BMW GTM Home
 Junior Program
 Platt Caddie Scholarship
 Presidents’ Council
 Breakfast Seminars
 
GAP
About GAP
Contact Us
Executive Committee
GAP Chat
Meetings
Login/Register
Join/Renew Membership		TOURNAMENTS
AGA/GAP Tournaments
GAP Central Tournaments
GAP Central Series
Outing Central
Tournament Schedule
Exemptions
Rules
Play Ready Pledge
Association Policies		HANDICAPPING
Establish/Renew Your Handicap
Post a Score
Member Course & Slope Ratings		OUR CLUBS
How to Join GAP
Member Club Benefits
Member Clubs
Individual Member Benefits		OTHER PROGRAMS
Youth Programs
Member Play Days
Platt Caddie Scholarship
PLAY Golf		CONNECT
GAP Magazine
The GAP App
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
Copyright © 2021 The Golf Association of Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.
Developed by AppNet Solutions