Philadelphia's finest private club since 1901
Founded in 1901, Bala Golf Club has a long and storied history. The roots of the Bala Golf Club reach back to the spring of 1893 when club founders George Reach and Charles Hickman watched a well-dressed foursome play the links at the original Philadelphia Country Club. Inspired to start their own club, the two men partnered with a group of prominent Philadelphians to purchase a plot of farmland just inside the city limits on Belmont Avenue, a location that was easily accessible by trolley or train. They decided to build their course on the site, roughly halfway between the original homes of Philadelphia Country Club and Overbrook Country Club.
An invitation to the Opening Day ceremony of the Bala Clubhouse in May, 1901.
Over the years, many of the original golf clubs that lined City Avenue succumbed to the pressures of the burgeoning city and withdrew to the secluded comfort of the surrounding counties. The prestigious Philadelphia Country Club was originally located on the site of the old Adam's Mark Hotel, and when they moved to their new home in Gladwyne in 1939, Bala Golf Club "inherited" many of their greens, which are still used by our Members today.
The course began as an extention of a few informal holes Hickman laid out in a cow pasture across the street from his family home on Bryn Mawr Avenue. Hickman secured a sublease from the Christ Church Hospital to build a full nine-hole layout, which provided the foundling Club and its members with a 2,747-yard layout with a par of 35 1/2. Although the original course was highly regarded, the pressure to go to an 18-hole course convinced the membership to act. In 1922, William S. Flynn, a noted golf course architect and member of the Philadelphia School of Golf Architecture, was hired to renovate the course. Flynn was challenged to expand the original nine-hole routing to eighteen holes and fit it all on the existing acreage. The course that our members play today is a testament to Flynn's brilliance as a designer and his ability to find the best green sites on a property and route a course around them.
A check from a new member in December, 1902 for $12.50 ($10 Initiation Fee and $2.50 annual dues)
In addition to its place in the rich history of Philadelphia golf course architecture, Bala Golf Club was the proud host of the 1952 U.S. Women's Open (won by Louise Suggs), and was the home of renowned U.S. Amateur champion and nine-time Walker Cup team member, Jay Sigel, who honed his skills navigating Flynn’s masterpiece as a teenager.
The 1952 Women's Open was the seventh edition of the event and the first to be held in Pennsylvania. Bala Golf Club is one of a handful of Philadelphia-area courses that have had the privilege of hosting the U.S. Women’s Open, the others being Atlantic City CC (1948, 1965, and 1975), Moselem Springs (1968), Rolling Green (1976), and Lancaster CC (2015 and 2024).
The victory marked Suggs’ second U.S. Women’s Open victory—the first coming in 1949 at the former Prince George’s Country Club in Landover, Md.—and at the time her record-breaking score of 70-69-70-75—284 was the lowest ever made by a woman over 72 holes in a major competition. Marlene Bauer and Betty Jamison tied for second at 15-over 291. Marilyn Smith posted a tournament-best score of 67 in the second round, which Bauer matched in the third round.
For such difficult scoring, the course measured only 5,460 yards, and par was 69. The event’s purse totaled $7,500.