The Club at Shannondell

Tight… too much money for the course. Very strange and confusing layout… too many doglegs. Course was in poor shape. Not recommending. Many other courses w/​in 10 miles that are a MUCH BETTER VALUE.

This review is for the pool and dining options offered while swimming. I actually belonged to this club one summer and a guest twice this year. Honestly, I would give more stars if it lived up to its own billing. Namely, Waitress service at the pool and a snack bar. How cool would it be to partake of the 5-​star club dining they advertise at the pool and not have to lug food here every visit?
They do have waitress service at the pool and their is a snack bar. But neither are adequately staffed for the approximately 200 people you can see here on a weekend. Lines at the snack bar where you really only ever have one or two teens working and a third milking it, oftentimes exceed 30 minutes. I have had to stand in line 30 minutes just for a soda or ice cream sandwich. I give up! So, I never use the snack bar anymore. A meal would come from the country club itself if you could find a waitress to order. Every 30 minutes or so you see one pop their head out of the air conditioned club and then one will come out. The first person that sees them grabs them, their order is taken and then she disappears inside until that order is ready to be delivered. So the remaining over 100 people are left without waitress service. And this is such a shame because the clubs food is awesome! The menu is innovative and well done and the chef is to be commended. The salads here are 5-​Star too.
I would order every time I go and so would my friends but if you aren’t allowed to go into the club to order and are told to wait for an outside waitress we get discouraged. For the remainder of 2014 and thus far in 2015 we just bring our own lunch and snacks now. I wish they knew how much business they lose not having enough waitstaff or not properly managing them. With my crew, They are easily losing $ 150 per person/​year.
Now for the pool. No complaints. Its beautiful. Plenty to do for young kids including toddlers and a nice area for the adults. Its every well maintained and a joy to swim in. They provide nice lounge chairs and umbrellas are set up between 2 to 3 chairs. The shower and rest room areas are great too. 5 or more showers with plenty of hot water. Changing areas and bathroom stalls are clean.
If you don’t mind packing your lunch I would encourage you to come here if you get the chance. It’s a huge, beautiful pool for all ages on nice country club grounds with plenty of free parking.

There were ups and downs but overall this was an acceptable golfing experience. Not bad, pretty good actually. I want to give a 4^th star but for now it’s A-​OK.
PROS: affordable (cheap), new electric carts (no kerosene), the ranger was keeping the pace moving, warmup green for chipping and putting, nice trees and nature, actually quite a few porta johns hidden by the cart paths,
CONS: no driving range, real tight layout (2 holes sharing the same tee box happens twice) combined with lots of doglegs. One green was completely under repair. It happens this early in the season, so they tell me.

One of the worst courses in Philly — its more of a chip and putt type of course — save your money unless you have more than you need

Two things REALLY stand out about this course — very short and NOTHING BUT DOGLEGS! I can take one or two doglegs a course but Jesus Christ, they have like 8 – 10 of them. Driver stays in the bag or your ball goes onto another fairway.
Wont be back. If you’re in the area, better off at Westover where you can use something besides a 6 iron out of the tee box.

The pool is great… I didn’t golf. But the way they have their servers set up is really weird. There are 4 – 6 servers running around the pool and taking orders. They don’t work in sections and it seems like a free for all. I only notice because I’ve been in the f&b industry a long time. We were sitting at a table next to where they seem to organize their service and it was chaos. The servers were confused to what a «double» was. They would have food, checks, and drinks stacked on their table trying to figure out where they all went. I wish I worked here so I could help them out. Where’s the supervisor? Can I apply for the job? It seems like a great place to work!

These reviews are pretty accurate. This course is EXTREMELY short. Shockingly short. Theres a hole they call a par 5 that you can hit 3 iron-​wedge into which is a joke barely 400 yards. The course is in very good shape, can’t complain about the condition or the pro-​shop/​amentities which are top notch but I’ve never seen a course with holes built so crowded together. There are a number of holes where you don’t even know which fairway you’re supposed to be aiming at. Groups are hitting into each other all day, a shot ten yards off target might put you directly in someone else’s line. Also, if you’re a long hitter it’s beneficial to actually purposely play some holes on the wrong angle (ie into someone else’s fairway) to have a better shot at the green. I was on the green in 2 on 2 par 5’s because I hit driver purposely onto an adjacent fairway to cut the angle of the hole. Another big complaint of this course is that absolutely not one of the hole diagrams or yardage markers is even close to correct. There are doglegs with 90 degree angles which are drawn as straight holes on the scorecard. There isn’t one directional yardage on the entire course (235 to the water, 220 to the end of the fairway, etc.) so if you don’t play here much you’ll find yourself hitting good shots that aren’t really what the hole calls for. The 150 sticks on each hole are way short, I don’t know if they’re trying to bolster the actual yardage of the course because it’s so short but don’t believe any marker or anything written/​drawn on the scorecard. On an empty afternoon this course is worth playing but stay away on a crowded weekend.

I’ve played there about 4 times now so far. The holes are on top of each other but the greens are well taken care of. You also can’t beat 40 bucks for 18 and a cart. You just can’t. The holes are also relatively narrow so be wary of that but, all in all, I think its a great little course that’s close enough for me and the price is just right.

Everything said so far about Shannondell is true. you can pull out the driver and bomb it but you’re really only going to end up 65 – 100 yards away on your par-​4s if you have surgical precision. I’d rather hit a 4 – 5 Iron and a full wedge or 9 but that is just my game.
The greens are in great shape and the fairways are well manicured — never a rough lie.
I do find that the starters and pro shop staff can be pretty rude sometimes. They have a mens league that goes off at 4pm during the week and they treated me like it was life or death that I get out and tee off before 3:44. Once, they tried to turn me away which is dumb because this mens league is only like 5 – 8 groups. I asked if there was any way I could sneak off the back and the pro shop guy made a huge huff and puff about it, made me walk out to see the starter and ask his permission.

I’m not going to lie, I drove out to Shannondell because they were offering a $ 38 round on what seemed to be interesting course. I was mildly disappointed with the round, but it took me a while to put my finger on why. Its actually a nice course, aesthetically its in good shape and despite recent aeration of the greens it played well.
I just couldn’t get over the constant 6 iron off the tee, 3 iron off fairway/​rough lay out of the vast majority of the holes. You also seem to be constantly hitting at or around other groups (on tee boxes, greens, etc) because the doglegs tend to bend around the beginning or end of other holes. Its nerve-​wracking for everyone involved. There wasn’t really anyone out there when I played, and I still felt like I was hitting at/​getting hit at on several occasions.
If you haven’t played this course before, go with someone who has. Between the odd mix of clubs you have to hit off the tees and the near constant confusion as to where your next hole is, you’ll save yourself a lot of frustration.
Its not bad, considering the price, but I’m not sure I’d advocate going there if I had another option.

The course is in good shape but a little over priced because its close to Philly. I played a month ago and had a good day but the club house staff is not very nice and the pro is very arrgogate and not friendly! I just left an outing on nov 3^rd and he was so rude to us. We had 120 golfers and it was freezing but we were there and you think they would be happy to have the business. That pro is not a nice guy I would say something worse but ill kep it pg!!!

The Club at Shannondell is a public course but you wouldn’t know it by the way they operate it.
The course is always in great shape because they close when there’s a drop of rain. If they didn’t close, your DEFINITELY on the paths. The pace is usually slow at prime hours. Don’t be surprised by this, they are chiefly an amenity of the Senior Living Community across the street.
They have electric carts which is very nice.
Like everyone else said, this course is full of doglegs and it plays short. Fun though because the greens are always in nice shape and decent white sand bunkers. Plus they have nice cuts.
No driving range. Putting green is far away from the first tee but you can drive a cart over.
Great for outings, they have an excellent banquet hall.
Holes are right on top of each other so watch out for errant shots. Certainly the type of course you could have a career day on.

The course has a lot of dog legs but the condition is very good. The condition of the greens are the best around. After all the play they get, you are hard pressed to find a ball mark or a defect on the green, they are that good.
The bar and restaurant are excellent. In fact, we play there a lot just to go and have a nice meal afterwards.
Sundays now have a prime rib sandwich that is worth the trip for that alone.

I have golfed here two times. They are one of the golf courses that use the Golfnow website so you can get some decent rates by using the site. Anywhere from $ 15-​$ 25. Typical cost is $ 36 to ride during the week. Ok. I’m done plugging
I went last week and even after all the scorching weather the course was in very good shape. No burned greens, no dried up tee boxes and the greens were quite soft. Maybe even a little too soft. There was a lot of standing water in the bunkers though.
This is not a long course. Pulling your driver out of the bag is only happening about 3 times. Its a change of pace playing a little more conservative but I actually did get a little bored with the course. Everything is a dogleg. I would say 12 holes uses the same formula. 150 – 200 yards off the tee, turn right /​left. Hit another 150 yards.
I did almost get hit by a ball from a guy on a tee box about 100 yards away. The word «fore» was not used so I found that to be a little dumb on that players part. Say something if a ball is flying at someone, especially when they are in earshot.
Overall its a nice course, especially if you are playing with a high handicapper that feels intimidated by bigger courses. Its open enough where they can spray it and the greens are not brutally difficult.
I will defiantly go back on a day when I want to work on my iron play and get a fairly fast and cheap round in.

I photographed a golf outing at the Club at Shannondell about two years ago.
This public, 18-​hole golf course[1] is bordered by quite a few residences, so be careful not to send any balls outside their fences, as I doubt their neighbors would appreciate unannounced gifts. I rode around in a golf cart for a little, then spent most of my time walking the course, admiring the scenery, and — of course — avoiding errant golf balls. Fore!
Got the urge to golf? Check out the Club at Shannondell.
[1] According to their site, the Club also has an outdoor, Olympic-​class swimming pool, in case you’re looking for one.