Butter Valley Golf Course, Barto, PA

Butter Valley is a great hidden course in the middle of nowhere. Due to its location the scenery is great and the family owned and run staff are super nice and down home friendly. It's also the reason that the course itself doesn't get overly pressured allowing for a nice relaxing round with few exceptions. Butter Valley is a pretty short course standing in at only 5900 yds. from the white and plays that way, but several holes are unique and most holes are fun to play. A really cool twist to this course is that a small airport landing strip actually runs in between two holes on the back 9 and is operable. If your lucky you will see a plane or two take off or land...really cool. This is also where there signature hole is, the 15th, a 600 yd. monster. The course is decently maintained, nothing spectacular, and the value of $24 to walk twilight weekend is very reasonable. They also have logo balls for the collector like myself, another plus. Just a great experience and would highly recommend checking this place out. Overall rating A.

I used to enjoy this course very much. It has a good variety of holes, nice views and was in good condition when I've played it in years past. However now (in July 2010) the fairways have completely burned out. It is clear that they do not water the fairways at all (except perhaps for the 18th which can be seen from the road). The greens and tee boxes were, if not great, at least passable. But the fairways were literally dead grass and even dirt. This was one of the worst conditions I've ever seen a golf course - far worse than other courses in the area which have been exposed to the same weather conditions. It reminded me of a cheap chip & putt. It was not worth $41 - I wish I had paid $60 to play a course that is better taken care of. I will never play this course again.