Merion Golf Club Among Nation's 10 Best Courses: Golf Digest

ARDMORE, PA — With temperatures getting warmer in the Philadelphia region, many golfers are hitting the links for a few rounds. And lucky for Philadelphia-area golfers, Golf Digester says a course in the region is among the nation's best.

Golf Magazine recently released its list of the 100 best golf courses in each region of the United States.

Merion Golf Club was listed as the sixth-best course in the nation.

Below are Golf Digest panelist comments on the Ardmore club:

Without stunning backdrops, Merion (East) has the bones that any golf course could ask for. Exudes sporty and everything is “pure golf.” A design that is as good a test as any, while lacking the length of other courses, with its complex greens.

Every shot matters at Merion. The yardage on the scorecard is simply a distraction, and not an indication of the test on every shot. A miss, on any shot, results in significant penalty.

Simply the best course for variety with the flow of short and long holes, doglegs and straight holes, uphill and downhill. Just a spectacular inland course.

See Golf Digest's full assessment of the club here.

The course was designed by Hugh Wilson in 1912.

Below are the top 10 courses in the nation:

1. Pine Valley — Pine Valley, New Jersey (George Crump/H.S. Colt, 1918)
2. Augusta National — Augusta, Georgia (Alister MacKenzie/Bobby Jones, 1933)
3. Cyprus Point — Virginia Beach, Virginia (Alister MacKenzie/Robert Hunter, 1929)
4. Shinnecock Hills — Southampton, New Y (Howard Toomey/William Flynn, 1931)
5. Oakmont — Oakmont, Pa. (Henry Fownes, 1903)
6. Merion — Ardmore, Pa. (Hugh Wilson, 1912)
7. National Golf Links of America — Southampton, N.Y. (C.B. Macdonald, 1911)
8. Pebble Beach — Pebble Beach, California (Jack Neville/Douglas Grant, 1919)
9. Fishers Island — Fishers Island, N.Y. (Seth Raynor, 1926)
10. Sand Hills — Mullen, Nebraska (Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw, 1995)

See the full list online here.