The nine-hole course of the Monterey Country Club is one of the oldest golf courses in the United States. The course stretches out below the peaks of 1,720 Mt. Dunlap and 1,365 Monterey Peak in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania and is less than one mile (1.6 km) from the Mason-Dixon Line and about 8 miles (13 km) away from Camp David.
The Monterey Country Club course, which is carved out of what was once a pre-historic glacier, now framed by Mount Dunlap and Monterey Peak, is one of the most scenic settings in the state of PA. Built before the 1890s, the Monterey CC course is one of the 10 oldest of the 15,000-plus courses in the US (the first opened in 1794 in Savannah, GA).
The course evokes the ambiance of another era when accuracy and position were highly prized in the game of golf. The 387-yd dogleg first hole, which crosses a brook, is the hardest. The most interesting hole may be the 5th with a Scottish-style mound that spans the entire width of the fairway in front of the green. The 7th hole has a daunting bowl green, rewarding a precise iron from its tee.
History has touched the course for more than a hundred years. In July 1863, the soldiers retreating from the Battle of Gettysburg fought the Monterey Skirmishes along the road that borders the first green. Later, across from this same green, a cottage of the Monterey Inn was the birthplace of the future Duchess of Windsor whose family, like so many prominent families and diplomats from Baltimore and Washington, spent summer weeks or months there. That Inn, along with the many large summer hotels that graced the mountainsides of this popular, turn-of-the-century resort area, burned down. Years later, however, the golf course has remained a favorite attraction, and President Eisenhower played the Monterey course when he visited Camp David.
