Elkview’s organization dates to 1919, when the club formed in the lake district north of Carbondale. The Pennsylvania Golf Association’s club listing marks 1919 as the year Elkview “opened for business,” situating the project in Ross’s heavy Pennsylvania period.
Secondary evidence places Ross on site in the early 1920s; a long-running thread of research among Ross historians points to an initial appearance around 1919–20 and to subsequent involvement by Ross’s construction foreman J.B. McGovern. That same body of work cites a circa-1930 phase in which the course stood as a complete 18.
A 2014 Pocono Turfgrass Association account—based on club lore shared for a superintendent meeting at Elkview—adds local names to the origin story (land donated by James Johnson of the Johnson & Johnson family; financing help from the Hemleright and Niles families), asserts that nine holes opened in 1923, and then advances a competing claim that Robert Trent Jones designed the “other nine” in the 1950s.
Because those assertions depart from other Ross-focused research (and are not accompanied by primary citations), they should be treated as provisional until checked against club minute books, construction invoices, or drawing sets.
What can be said with confidence is that (1) the club, as founded in 1919, pursued a Ross plan; (2) play commenced on at least a partial course in the early 1920s; and (3) by the early Depression years, 18 holes existed on the present site, with McGovern likely supervising work on at least part of the build. Definitive answers to sequencing—how many holes were grassed by 1923, how many were added c.1930, and whether any 1950s work supplanted earlier holes—await inspection of the club’s plan files and any Ross sheets or field notes held either by the club or the Tufts Archives.
Unique Design Characteristics
Elkview’s hallmark today is the way its greens and fairway cants ask players to control trajectory and spin rather than simply yardage. The club’s own hole-by-hole guide identifies No. 12 as the longest-playing par 3, with “many swales in the surface” and a prevailing cross-wind; a right-side bunker pinches the target. That description aligns with what golfers see: a full-shot demand into an articulated surface where a near-miss funnels into testing recoveries.
Another demanding par 3 appears at No. 16, a downhill one-shotter that plays “just over 200 yards” with bunkers bracketing the green and surrounding trees framing the shot; putts here break in subtle ways that are hard to read. While the club’s web text contains a typographical error in the yardage string, the intent is clear—this is a long-iron/hybrid par 3 of consequence, not a breather.
Among the two-shotters, No. 15 is the purest example of Elkview’s putting-surface character: a green “sloping severely from right to left,” fronted by a drop-off and guarded by a left bunker—so steep in places that above-the-hole positions can bleed into sand. The approach is compounded by a fairway that “slopes from right to left” and a corridor of trees squeezing line and spin. The hole’s hazards and fall-offs create the sort of short-grass exactitude that, on this site, reads as a through-line from the course’s original intent.
In the three-shot category, Nos. 14 and 17 reveal how topography and green entrances remain central to scoring. The 14th is a short par 5 where carrying a central hill generates a go/no-go second; a small front bunker with a “deep lip” sits precisely where a lay-up will flirt with a half-wedge over sand to a surface that “slopes away,” a placement that keeps modern length honest. By contrast, the 17th’s approach is teased by a swale “just short of the green,” a classic optical gambit that alters depth perception and punishes distance control, especially to front pins.
Even the finisher, a mid-length par 4 that the club notes “can play up to 420,” exhibits the site’s recurring theme of sidehill lies and exacting green access. A mound roughly 130 yards short of the putting surface can gather tee balls on the fairway’s right-to-left slope, complicating a second to a green where front and right-side pins are exacting.
Based on the present mix of green sites, fall-offs, and the way diagonal fairway slopes feed into green-entrance defenses, the clearest surviving “feel” of the original design ideas is found at Nos. 12, 15 and 17—holes whose interior contours and short-grass surrounds still produce the recovery-first golf commonly associated with Elkview’s earliest plan set.
Historical Significance
Within Ross’s Pennsylvania work, Elkview occupies the northeastern corner of the state, part of a cluster of 1910s–30s designs and remodels stretching from the Poconos and Scranton area west toward Philadelphia. Although Elkview has not been a venue for national championships, it has maintained a steady competitive profile: the Golf Association of Philadelphia has staged Open Qualifying at Elkview in 2022 and 2024, utilizing yardages around 6,672 yards for those events, and the club has figured repeatedly in the AGA/GAP “Coal Scuttle” team series, including Senior titles. This tournament usage underscores that the routing and greens complexes adapt to extended teeing grounds while preserving scoring interest at everyday yardages.
Current Condition / Integrity
The club’s official scorecard shows par 72 at 6,555 yards from the back tees, with forward sets at approximately 6,176 and 5,340. The posted course ratings cluster in the low-70s with slopes in the mid-120s, consistent with small-target, elevation-swing golf. A 2014 superintendent’s newsletter reported an ongoing program “to return the course to the original Ross design with tree removal and bunker design,” including a three-phase bunker project and comprehensive green-drainage work; at that time, Elkview maintained roughly three acres of poa greens and about 20 acres of mixed bent/poa fairways. Those works—tree management, bunker recapture, and subsurface drainage—have generally sharpened the course’s historic playing values without materially altering routing.
Practice facilities today include a driving range plus putting and chipping greens, and the club runs a full service pro shop with instruction for members. Dining spaces—grill room, bar, main dining room, and patios—are active hubs of club life, but do not affect the integrity of the course corridor.
What remains uncertain is the precise authorship of every hole as it exists today. Some Ross researchers argue that Ross and McGovern completed the 18 by circa 1930, implying high original integrity in the routing; a local account contends that nine holes were added by Robert Trent Jones in the 1950s, which, if verified, would mean those corridors and green sites represent a mid-century overlay. Until primary evidence—original drawings, construction contracts, board minutes, or period aerials—is assembled and reconciled, it is prudent to describe Elkview as a Ross course with later phases whose authorship and scope require confirmation.
Sources & Notes
Pennsylvania Golf Association, “Elkview Country Club” (club listing noting Ross authorship and 1919 opening).
Elkview Country Club — official site: home page, scorecard, course tour, and contact pages (current facilities, membership status, hole descriptions, and measurements).
Pocono Turfgrass Association, Chips & Putts, July 2014 (Elkview host-course feature with origin story, 1923 nine-hole opening claim, 1950s RTJ claim, and notes on tree/bunker/green drainage initiatives and turf composition).
Tyler Rae Design, “Donald Ross” project chronology (notes Elk View CC, PA with J.B. McGovern as construction supervisor; c. 1930 activity—secondary compilation).
GolfClubAtlas forum, “Reunderstanding Ross” thread (research posts referencing Ross’s arrival c. 1919/20 and an 18-hole course new in 1930; mentions a June 1931 Golf Illustrated article—secondary/tertiary, image links embedded).
GAP/AGA competitions: GAP Open Qualifying at Elkview in 2022 and 2024; Senior Coal Scuttle team coverage illustrating ongoing competitive use.