Reading Country Club

Reading Country Club occupies rolling terrain in Berks County, Pennsylvania, where the club was established in the early twentieth century. The course reflects the work of two architects from golf's formative era in America: Alex Findlay, a Scottish professional who laid out numerous courses in the Northeast during the 1890s and early 1900s, and Hugh Wilson, best known for designing Merion Golf Club's East Course outside Philadelphia. Wilson's involvement likely came during a later redesign or refinement, bringing his understanding of strategic golf architecture to the property. The routing takes advantage of natural elevation changes characteristic of southeastern Pennsylvania, with holes moving across hillsides and through wooded corridors. The design emphasizes placement over distance, requiring golfers to navigate angles and consider ground contours rather than simply overpower the layout. Green complexes feature the kind of subtle internal movement and strategic bunkering that defined better courses from this period, rewarding approach shots that account for pin position and surrounding hazards. Reading Country Club has served as a competitive venue for regional amateur events and has maintained its place in the Pennsylvania golf community for over a century. The club represents a period when American course architecture was maturing beyond simple imitation of Scottish links, adapting strategic principles to inland American landscapes. The combination of Findlay's early routing instincts and Wilson's architectural refinement gives the course a layered design history typical of established clubs in the Mid-Atlantic region.