Deer Valley Golf Course, Hummelstown, PA

Young course with lots of potential when the trees start to grow. Wide fairways, tough grass bunkers are much more challenging than sand. Inexpensive so far, nice staff, but needs a snack bar badly. Very popular with the seniors, usually packed, but can walk on as a single.

This is my first review. My first time playing Deer Valley as well. I am a resident of Philadelphia, with much family & friends in the Lebanon area where I visit often; so this was an exciting new course for us to try out yesterday. We had a group of 8, and only one of us had played it before (thank god, we needed the knowledge!)

Deer Valley has A LOT of potential. It's obvious that this is a new course from the second you pull in - the parking lot is not finished, the carts are ancient (obviously purchased second-hand), and all the trees everywhere are little babies. But once they begin to pick up steam and the trees grow, and the money rolls in, I would imagine this course will become more and more attractive.

My biggest complaint, (which is contradictory to everyone else who posted, so maybe I caught them on a bad day), was the condition of the fairways and rough. They look good, don't get me wrong. Everything looks nice and neat, but the grass was extremely long (despite being freshly cut), and we found it difficult to find balls that were otherwise fine shots...balls that were just off the fairway and into the rough, and every person in my foursome would end up driving around in circles looking for balls that should have been easily spotted from a hundred yards away.

The greens were difficult to read, as some were slower, some were faster, and some rolled true. It was a bit misty and cloudy, and I would imagine they would be more understandable in nice weather. These minor complaints became major as the round went on, and every hole was the same. A very well-made course that is not very well-maintained is incredibly disappointing to me.

As far as the layout - this is where all the potential lies. For now, while the trees are still young, the course will remain very forgiving, as sliced/hooked shots that would be horrendous on many courses could still leave the shooter with a nice look at the green as it is WIDE open. So, for now it is technically an easy course. The actual layout itself, however, is quite difficult & unique - lots of challenging turns and dog legs, lots of tee boxes where the green is not even remotely visible, neat little sand traps made of grass and not sand, etc. On the dog leg holes (no shortage of them), the course tries to guide the players by sticking pins on top of hills to show you where to aim. These are not carefully planned, however, and sometimes they can be inaccurate if you hit a long ball. Furthermore, their attempts at the red, white, blue markers for 100, 150, 200 yard shots are mediocre at best...some holes are non-existent, others are just difficult to find. I do not believe that any holes had the blue 200 yard marker.

Long story short, they built themselves a potentially amazing course with a kind staff, a comfortable location with decent scenery, great beer selection, a cool clubhouse, holes that are challenging in a very unique way, and a great layout. They do, however, need to step their game up when it comes to maintenance & marking, and eventually when the money piles build up, new carts, brighter plant-life, more food, bigger staff, etc. It is understandable how/why they come up short in these areas as a newer course...but as a paying customer I would expect them to make constant improvements year in & year out, or it will stay right where it is at today - a decent course that has yet to live up to its abilities.

Thanks for reading! Hit 'em straight!