Pine Valley was founded in 1913 by a group of amateur golfers from
Philadelphia. They purchased of rolling, sandy ground deep in the pinelands of southern
New Jersey, and gave
George Arthur Crump, who knew the area from hunting expeditions, the opportunity to design the course. The site was challenging and the project became something of an obsession for Crump, who sold his hotel in Philadelphia and plowed his money into the course. Marshlands had to be drained and 22,000 tree stumps had to be pulled with special steam-winches and horse-drawn cables. This was all done at a time when many golf courses were still built with minimal earth moving, and the course was called "Crump's Folly" by some. This was Crump's first and only
golf course design, but he brought together celebrated architects such as
A.W. Tillinghast, Hugh Wilson, George C. Thomas Jr., Walter Travis, and
H.S. Colt to help him create the course. Crump set himself some idiosyncratic principles: no hole should be laid out parallel to the next; no more than two consecutive holes should play in the same direction; and players should not be able to see any hole other than the one they were playing. He also felt that a round of golf on his course should require a player to use every club in the bag. The first eleven holes opened unofficially in 1914. In 1918, when Crump died (reportedly penniless), four holes – #12, #13, #14, and #15 – were incomplete; they were finished in 1922. Pine Valley later spread to , of which remain virgin woodland. Since Crump's death, alterations have been made by several other leading golf course designers. The club also has a ten-hole short course designed by
Tom Fazio and Ernest Ransome III. In April 2021, the New Jersey Office of Attorney General's Division on Civil Rights filed a complaint claiming the club violated the law by banning women from becoming members, restricting access to women, and preventing women from owning homes on club land. A settlement was reached in May 2023, in which the club agreed to end discriminatory employment and housing practices, and educate their employees about the state's civil rights law. The club had already begun allowing women members during the investigation. In addition to these changes, the club also agreed to pay $100,000 to the Division on Civil Rights, and spend another $100,000 to create scholarships supporting the participation of women in golf. ==The Course==