St. Martins began as a nine-hole layout in 1895 on Houston estate land, then quickly expanded to 18 holes in 1897 under Willie Tucker. By the time it hosted the U.S. Opens of 1907 and 1910, the course had already been tweaked by club members A.W. Tillinghast and George C. Thomas, Jr., who were active on the golf committee during the first decade’s iterative changes. Contemporary club histories describe the pre-war course as “highly regarded” for its natural and artificial hazards, reflecting continuous refinements rather than a single static plan.
As equipment and skill advanced, the club judged St. Martins “at risk of becoming outdated” and in 1914 retained Donald Ross to carry out a modernization program. The club’s heritage account characterizes Ross’s brief succinctly: add length, insert strategic hazards, and re-contour greens to stiffen a late-1890s layout for contemporary play. There is no surviving correspondence reproduced publicly, but the club’s summary places Ross’s work squarely in 1914 and treats it as a major renovation rather than a new build. Initial reaction was positive; yet, as the club later observed, repeated attempts to keep a 1890s course abreast of change could only go so far on leased ground.
The club decided to build anew on land it owned. In 1920–22 it commissioned Tillinghast to lay out a championship course at Flourtown (Wissahickon), after which St. Martins was reduced to nine holes to contain costs. The first hole across Hartwell Lane remained, but much of the original 18 became surplus to needs. Later, in 1963, the club surrendered three holes for housing and built today’s 4th–6th to maintain a cohesive nine; these holes are therefore post-Ross insertions by date and origin.
In 2013, the club renovated St. Martins under Keith Foster with superintendent Dan Meersman. Rather than a pure “Ross restoration,” the stated aim was a period-appropriate presentation that acknowledged the course’s layered lineage—Tillinghast and Thomas’s early stewardship, Ross’s 1914 upgrade, and the post-1963 routing realities—while recovering open vistas and sharpening simple, running contours on a compact walking course.
Unique design characteristics on this ground
Because St. Martins is now nine holes, the places to look for Ross’s hand are the pre-1963 corridors—in particular Nos. 1–3 and 7–9—which carried forward after the 18 was truncated. The club’s scorecard preserves the old hole names (“Hartwell,” “Valley Green,” “The Ditches,” “Old Sassafras,” “Hill Hole,” “The Inn”), and the yardage profile—short par-4s punctuated by a single short-iron par-3—speaks to a 1914 objective of defending par with green contour and placement rather than with raw length alone. The 9th (“The Inn,” 243 yds) occupies the finishing ground of the 1910 Open’s 18th, remembered as drivable even after that championship’s lengthening—evidence that the test at the finish has long depended on angle and landing control.
Two other holes encapsulate what Ross was asked to supply. No. 8 (“Hill Hole,” 326 yds) rises into the natural slope, a classic “use the hill” target where a low-running approach that lands short is repelled; the green’s position, not water or forced carries, is the defense. No. 7 (“Old Sassafras,” 368 yds), a modest two-shotter by yardage, becomes position-sensitive through its approach angle, a pattern that aligns with the club’s description of Ross’s 1914 work emphasizing strategic hazards and contoured greens over earthmoving. The first, “Hartwell” (355 yds), is a historic curiosity and strategic tone-setter: since 1895 it has played across Hartwell Lane from the clubhouse to a green on the far side, so the opening iron or fairway wood has always demanded both direction and nervy tempo.
Not every feature on today’s card traces to Ross. The current 4th–6th occupy corridors created in 1963 when residential lots claimed three earlier holes; Foster’s 2013 work gave these replacements a period dress—grassed-down surrounds, modest sand forms, and tidy green pads—so the set reads cohesively, but they should be understood as non-Ross ground integrated into a Ross-influenced ensemble.
Historical significance
St. Martins is one of the earliest championship hosts in American golf. The 1907 U.S. Open was contested here in sweltering conditions; Donald Ross himself finished T-10 while his brother Alec Ross won at 302. The 1910 U.S. Open returned and produced a dramatic three-way tie settled by Alex Smith’s 71 in a playoff; contemporary accounts noted that many professionals drove the 18th (today’s 9th) despite lengthening—an anecdote that still animates play on the present closing hole. These two championships place St. Martins among a small cohort of clubs to host multiple U.S. Opens before World War I.
Within Ross’s body of work, St. Martins is significant as a 1914 modernization of a 1890s U.S. Open venue rather than a clean-sheet design. It shows him working in Philadelphia’s crucible, a place where Tillinghast and Thomas were already experimenting on paper and on the ground. That interplay—club members iterating, then Ross formalizing length, hazards, and greens—makes St. Martins a compact case study of how a pre-1900 course was updated for modern play just before clubs fled to larger, owner-controlled sites. The club itself underlines that a new course on owned land (Wissahickon) proved the durable solution, with St. Martins subsequently pared to nine.
The course also has a living-history role in the present day. After the 2013 renovation, St. Martins became a favored stage for period-equipment competitions, including the World Hickory Match Play Invitational (2014–2016) and the 2017 National Hickory Championship, events that leveraged the walkability, open sightlines, and subtler green complexes of this ground.
Current condition / integrity
Today’s St. Martins plays nine holes, par 35, 2,617 yards from the principal tees, with a shorter “Short Course” option. The routing is an historical composite: Nos. 1–3 and 7–9 preserve corridors dating to the early 20th century (and thus carry the clearest echoes of Ross’s 1914 green-and-hazard program), while Nos. 4–6 date to 1963 but have been finished to a period aesthetic. The 2013 renovation by Keith Foster and the agronomy team reopened long views, favored short-grass surrounds over built-up mounding, and presented greens that play firm and true at modest speeds—choices that align with the club’s goal of expressing 125 years of layered history rather than privileging a single author.
The first hole across Hartwell Lane remains a defining artifact—“the oldest continuously played golf hole in the region,” according to the club—while the ninth’s link to the old 18th is underscored by the 1910 accounts of players driving the green. Naming conventions on the scorecard (e.g., “The Ditches,” “Hill Hole”) preserve traces of original features even where corridors shifted; the club notes that the original “Ditches” ran parallel to Hartwell Lane where houses now stand, but remnants of drainage channels remain visible. The result is a course whose Ross DNA is most legible in target placement and green contour rather than in a untouched sequence of holes.
Sources & Notes
Philadelphia Cricket Club, “The History of Golf at PCC — Part 1: 125 Years of Golf at St. Martins.” (club heritage PDF summarizing 1895 nine; 1897 18 by Willie Tucker; Tillinghast/Thomas committee activity; 1914 retention of Donald Ross to add length, hazards, and contoured greens; reduction to nine after 1922 Wissahickon; 1963 new 4th–6th; 2013 renovation by Keith Foster/Dan Meersman; first hole across Hartwell Lane since 1895; “Ditches” note).
Philadelphia Cricket Club, “The History of Golf at PCC — Part 2: U.S. Opens of 1907 and 1910.” (1907 Open with Alec Ross winner and Donald Ross T-10; 1910 Open playoff won by Alex Smith; comment that professionals drove the 18th—today’s 9th—despite added length).
Philadelphia Cricket Club — Golf page. (Overview of St. Martins history; club statement that the course is a top short course; practice offerings and location context).
Hickory golf event records. (World Hickory Match Play Invitationals 2014–16 at St. Martins; 2017 National Hickory Championship results and venue).
Uncertainties / disputed points
• Extent of Ross’s on-the-ground adjustments by hole (1914): The club’s published history clearly states Ross’s scope (length, strategic hazards, contoured greens) but does not reproduce hole-specific plans. Attributing particular interior contours to Ross at individual holes requires inference from survivals and later renovations; this entry confines such attributions to corridors known to pre-date 1963 and to the club’s own general description of the work.
• Proportion of pre-1914 features in today’s nine: The club confirms 4–6 are 1963 replacements and that 1–3 and 7–9 preserve earlier ground. Claims that “most” holes play exactly as in 1910 appear in secondary sources but are not stated by the club; accordingly, this entry emphasizes lineage rather than identity-by-inch.