![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Aerial_cropped.jpg\")
An aerial view of Waynesborough Country Club in Easttown. (Photo courtesy of Waynesborough Country Club)<\/p>\nMALVERN \u2013 The term Mainline has been around ever since the Pennsylvania Railroad opened a major line from Philadelphia to Malvern in 1832. It helped develop a rural respite for affluent city-dwellers, so when some of the country\u2019s earliest golf clubs began to spring up in the region in the late 1800s, it only seemed natural.<\/p>\n
Founded in 1890, Philadelphia Country Club was one of the original six members of the United States Golf Association. Merion Golf Club was established six years later, followed closely by St. Davids Golf Club (1897) in Chester County.<\/p>\n
Thus began a golf tradition that continues to this day, and has been building steadily ever since. According to multiple sources at Mainline courses, business really picked up following the Covid-19 pandemic, and it wasn\u2019t just a temporary surge.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo put it into perspective, prior to Covid, most of the courses around here average about 17,000-18,000 rounds a year,\u201d said Mike Krick, the Director of Golf at White Manor Country Club near Malvern. \u201cNow we are all averaging a bit over 30,000. We are six years removed from Covid and we are still seeing a big jump in play.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if you talk to just about every golf pro around here, and they will say that the tee sheet is full.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the most celebrated golf venues in the world are located west of Philadelphia and south of the Schuylkill River, instantly recognizable in golf circles across the globe by uttering a single word \u2013 \u2018Merion\u2019 or \u2018Aronimink,\u2019 for example. It is, and has been, a hotbed of the game for well over a century.<\/p>\n
\u201cMainline golf is synonymous with some of the top-quality private golf experiences you can find anywhere,\u201d said Dave McNabb, head golf pro at Applebrook Golf Club near Malvern. \u201cThere is a long history of golf here \u2013 long established, historic clubs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are mainly traditional-style golf courses. This area lends itself to elevation changes, tree-lined fairways \u2013 although some have gotten rid of a lot of trees \u2013 and some great green complexes from (architects) like William Flynn (Philadelphia Country Club, Rolling Green), Hugh Wilson (Merion), and Donald Ross. Many of the greats of the game played here, and studied here.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was another golf course boom in the Mainline immediately following World War I, with the emergence of Tredyffrin Country Club in Paoli (1918), along with Llanerch Country Club and nearby McCall Golf Club, both in 1919. Tredyffrin only lasted about 25 years, but by the break of the Second World War, other iconic clubs were established, including the aforementioned Aronimink Golf Club, designed by legendary course architect Donald Ross, which debuted at its current location in 1928.<\/p>\n
During the 1920s, Ross made his mark in the area, also designing St. Davids Golf Club\u2019s current location in Wayne (1927), as well as teaming with underling Perry Maxwell to layout the Pennsylvania Railroad Country Club in 1928 near Frazer. It later became Chester Valley Golf Club, and hosted the Senior PGA Tour\u2019s Bell Atlantic Classic a dozen times from 1985-97. Lee Trevino, who won it in 1992, often called Chester Valley \u201ca hidden gem.\u201d<\/p>\n
An aerial view of Waynesborough Country Club in Easttown. (Photo courtesy of Waynesborough Country Club)<\/p>\n
The PGA Championship\u2019s first-ever stroke-play tournament in 1958 happened at Llanerch near Haverford. And Rolling Green Golf Club was the site for the 1976 U.S. Women\u2019s Open (won by JoAnne Carner) and the 2016 U.S. Women\u2019s Amateur.<\/p>\n
Other than a few exceptions \u2013 like Downingtown Country Club and Paxson Hollow Golf Club near Media \u2013 all of the Mainline courses are upscale private clubs.<\/p>\n
When you have such a concentration of renowned golf venues in one area, it\u2019s only natural that entities like the USGA, PGA and LPGA would want to come here to stage its events. Mainline courses have played host to a bunch, including professional major championships and elite amateur tournaments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many great tests of golf around here and it goes to show it doesn\u2019t need to be 7,500 yards to be able to stand up to the best,\u201d McNabb said. \u201cA lot of it depends on the conditions, but by and large I think you could put these places up against pretty much any course anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
The East Course at Merion in Ardmore is routinely ranked among the world\u2019s best, and has hosted a record 20 USGA championship tournaments since opening in 1914. Constructed on just 126 acres, it was the site of the U.S. Amateur where Bobby Jones captured the Grand Slam in 1930.<\/p>\n
Two decades later, Ben Hogan prevailed in the U.S. Open at Merion just 16 months after nearly dying in a head-on collision with a bus. On the 72nd hole, Hogan hit an iconic 1-iron into the wind to help get into a three-man playoff. Sports Illustrated\u2019s Hy Peskin\u2019s photograph of the shot, taken from behind during Hogan\u2019s follow-through, is among the most famous pictures in not just golf, but in all of sports. There is a plaque on the course to commemorate the moment.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Open returned to Merion in 1971 (Lee Trevino topped Jack Nicklaus in a playoff), 1981 (David Graham won it) and in 2013, where England\u2019s Justin Rose prevailed with a winning score of 1-over-par. It is slated to host the U.S. Open in 2030, 2040 and 2050, and the 2026 U.S. Amateur in August.<\/p>\n
\u201cAcre for acre, (Merion) may be the best test of golf in the world,\u201d Nicklaus once said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMerion is, obviously, one of a kind,\u201d McNabb added.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia Country Club opened its Spring Mill Course in 1927, and a dozen years later it hosted the 1939 U.S. Open. Located in Gladwyne, PCC was also the venue for the 2003 U.S. Women\u2019s Amateur.<\/p>\n
Like Merion, Aronimink has played host to multiple major championships, as well as a slew of other USGA and PGA events. Just months before his death in 1948, Donald Ross said: \u201cI intended to make this my masterpiece, but not until today did I realize I built better than I knew.\u201d The quote is inscribed on a plaque near the first tee.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe PGA Championship at Aronimink kind of shined a light on how great golf is in this area, how challenging it can be, and hopefully set the area for events wanting to return more than every eight to 10 years,\u201d McNabb said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGolf courses here are held in high regard, and it\u2019s pretty stiff competition when you are talking about Merion and Aronimink right here in our backyard,\u201d added Adam Brigham, Director of Golf at Waynesborough Country Club in Easttown.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_3574-1.jpeg\")
A look at White Manor Country Club in Malvern. (Photo courtesy of White Manor Country Club)<\/p>\n
Aronimink in Newtown Square was the backdrop for two PGA Championships starting with Gary Player\u2019s victory in 1962, and concluding this spring when Aaron Rai won the 2026 PGA with a four-round score of 9-under. Aronimink has become a semi-regular stop on the PGA Tour, also hosting the 2010 and 2011 AT&T National and the 2018 BMW Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all saw how well Aronimink stood up at the PGA Championship,\u201d said Krick, who resides in Downingtown. \u201cHistorically, the winners finish around 14- to 16-under-par. They certainly didn\u2019t walk all over Aronimink back in May.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go back to the architects who did the original designs in this area, and even the re-designs, they are private clubs for members. The tour pros tend to eat up the resort golf courses, with wide fairways and bigger greens.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the 1950s and 60s, even more iconic clubs appeared along the Mainline, including Overbrook Country Club and Radnor Valley Country Club near Villanova in the early 50s, Whitford Country Club near Exton in 1955, and White Manor in 1962. White Manor has the distinction of playing host to events featuring the LPGA (McDonalds Classic from 1981-86), the PGA Senior Tour\u2019s (now Champions Tour) Bell Atlantic Classic in\u00a0 1991, and the Tylenol Kids\u2019 Classic (1988-90, 93), a two-day charity tournament featuring several dozen PGA Tour stars.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are one of the very few properties that can say we\u2019ve hosted an LPGA Tour event, PGA Tour players and a Champions Tour event,\u201d Krick said.<\/p>\n
Waynesborough was founded in the mid-1960s, has recently undergone a restoration, and was the host site for the PGA\u2019s SEI Pennsylvania Classic in 2000 and 2002.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The pandemic) saved golf in certain spots,\u201d Brigham pointed out. \u201cWe were never hurting for members, but our membership has gone from right around capacity to a hundred-plus on the waiting list. Based on current attribution, the list is roughly 10 years for golf.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur average rounds were between 19,000-20,000 rounds, and since the pandemic we are around 25,000 a year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The most recent to join the list of the Mainline\u2019s classic clubs was Applebrook. In 2001 it debuted to rave reviews and is notable as one of the first high-profile solo projects for a then-relatively unknown golf architect Gil Hanse, based in Malvern. The site was formerly terraced for industrial use, but Hanse carved and shaped it into the first of his many classics to come.<\/p>\n
Like so many in the region, Applebrook has experienced a golf resurgence in the last five years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great sign for the health of the sport,\u201d McNabb said. \u201cI attribute it to the exposure Covid gave to golf. It\u2019s one of the few things that you could do when we were locked up in our houses for months on end.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just kind of built on itself, it snowballed and is continuing to today.\u201d<\/p>\n
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