Walnut Lane Golf Club

Overview: Walnut Lane Golf Club is an 18-hole executive-length public course at 800 Walnut Lane in Philadelphia’s Roxborough neighborhood. Set within Wissahickon Valley Park, the course offers a compact urban round among wooded slopes and parkland. Its shorter holes make it a useful place to develop approach play and course management, while the changing terrain keeps the routing more varied than its modest length suggests. The public club is also home to First Tee Greater Philadelphia, linking daily golf with junior development in the city.

History: Walnut Lane opened in 1940 as a municipal golf course and was designed by Alex Findlay as part of a Works Progress Administration project. The WPA transformed parkland into a public golf destination during a period of major federal investment in civic works. The course has continued to serve Philadelphia golfers through its city setting and accessible 18-hole format. Its exact address in Roxborough matches the directory target, and its long public history is central to its identity.

Did You Know? Walnut Lane’s course land sits within Wissahickon Valley Park, connecting city golf with one of Philadelphia’s best-known green corridors. The short executive routing still asks players to manage tree-lined holes and elevation changes, rewarding control into greens over raw length. The course is also home to First Tee Greater Philadelphia, whose programs use golf to teach life skills to young people, adding an educational thread to a public course that has served the neighborhood for generations.