Hershey Country Club West (Hershey, PA)

I played Hershey CC West almost twenty years ago, and on my recent trip to Philliadelphia, I stopped by to have a look-see. When I first played here, I did because the West course is just draped in history. Henry Picard was the first club professional. He won the '38 Masters and '39 PGA. Then Ben Hogan became the head professional. His stature in the game needs no mentioning as he is often touted as one of the top five players of all time. The West course played host to the '40 PGA championship won by Byron Nelson over Sam Snead. It has also hosted several Hershey Opens and Keystone Opens. 

The West was designed by Maurice McCarthy in 1930. One of McCarthy's best features was how he routed it thru the town and how it plays in between the factory, the Hershey Mansion, and the park. Having read a little bit of the course history, it's most certain that some of these areas were busy with people watching or going about their business. 

I remember a few things bout the course. It has five par fives. All of them are pretty strong length wise, the best one, and the hole I liked the best, was the 501 yard 15th.

I loved how it was reachable

In two shots. The green sat up high on the hill, and the second shot really needed to be hit hard to carry there. It's also the shortest of the three shotters, but it could dispense a wide variety of scores. The other four are much longer, typically in the 550ish range, but players tend to leave playable third shots since the holes are not really reachable. 

Another thing I remembered was how there were three 354 yard par fours. I felt this was kinda odd. Only the third hole was somewhat interesting. The green was small and tough to hit. The other two were no big deal. 

Two holes that I remember to this day looked just the way I recalled them. The par three fifth has the Hershey mansion in the background. 

It's just a beautiful hole and is one of the spots where back in the day folks would be watching the player hit the ball. 

The seventh was the other, and I vividly recall hitting the ball across the creek, and hitting seven iron into the green. 

The West course really fueled my passion for the game, and seeking out more classic golf courses. 

I went on golfclubatlas and read Jim Sherma's photo tour (these are his photos). It was a pleasure to rehash in my head all the fun I had here. I do find it a total shame that Hershey Parkview course was turned into a parking lot! Parkview was at one time one of the best  public courses in the country. It also gives a mindset how out of touch Hershey CC management is. It was expensive when I played it twenty years ago, and now it is beyond acceptable. (It's nearly as much as Pasatiempo) Regardless of price, it's still a wonderful old classic course. I give it a 6 (very good rating). 

(Golfweek has Hershey CC West as the #4 best public in PA)