After the Philadelphia Cricket Club, MSR Golf designed this delightful course with, again, beautiful two-tone fairways, winding creeks, cart paths and elevation changes but, this time, big ponds and small lakes (with fountains) bring different challenges, as you will find out with the four-hole stretch to start the front 9, along with a few tough finishing holes.
Right off the bat, water comes into play, with the nice dogleg right par-4 1st hole, with a downhill tee shot flying over a small creek crossing the fairway and a slightly-elevated green, followed by the dogleg left par-4 2nd, with the sound of a freight train, potentially disturbing you as you tee off, and with another creek, across the fairway, midway, making your tee shot tricky, distance-wise, before hitting your approach to an elevated and undulating green.
The following dogleg left par-5 3rd hole is quite pretty, with two small ponds (to the left of the tee box) and a second shot flying above an elongated lake (to the left) to reach the elevated green for a potential eagle, just like the risky dogleg right par-4 4th, with a tee shot flying above a creek winding its way then (on the right) all the way across the fairway, midway, making you think twice about your tee shot before hitting an easier shot toward the green.
If on the dogleg right par-5 6th hole, uphill all the way, you won’t be able to reach the green on your second shot, you should still have a birdie opportunity, just like on the par-4 7th and 8th holes, despite their elevated greens, or the long par-3 9th, with its downhill slope and blind tee shot toward the green.
The back 9 starts with the dogleg right par-4 10th hole, uphill all the way and along the road (on the left), and is followed by the par-3 11th, with a blind tee shot toward the green, and two straight par-4s, the 12th, with an undulating fairway sloping from right to left, and the 13th, with a tee shot over a creek, across the fairway, and a blind second shot toward the elevated green.
The finishing stretch, however, is quite challenging with the dogleg right par-5 14th hole, having an undulating fairway, sloping from right to left, and a slightly-elevated green, hidden by trees (on the right) but reachable with a second shot over a creek, flowing across the fairway, followed by the long par-5 17th, with a downhill tee shot landing onto an undulating fairway (this time, sloping from left to right), and with a blind second shot to get close to its slightly-elevated green, and the pretty par-4 18th, with a serpentine creek splitting the fairway diagonally, midway, and an uphill approach to the elevated green.
Overall, this Philadelphia CC Militia Hill course has a more modern look, well-rendered by MSR Golf, but that does not mean it is any easier or more difficult than the Philadelphia Cricket Club, which is why you should definitely give it a shot.
Why ? Simply because since the Philadelphia Cricket Club is the only club in the United States with a different golf course constructed in each of the last three centuries, chances are none of us will be around in the next century should they decide to create a new one !