Originally published November 6, 2005

The first time I played Raven's Claw Golf Club in Pottstown, the area's newest mid-priced and semi-private course, it was obvious it had potential but it wasn't ready yet.

That was hardly a tough call. This was last spring, when the need to generate cash flow had forced the owners - a trio of investors that includes course designer Ed Shearon - to invite golfers to "preview" the dozen holes that were open.

Not that anybody asked me, but it seemed to me that they were still rushing things with the July 1 grand opening. After two more stealth visits in late summer and early fall, I thought Raven's Claw still was not ready for prime time.

But it's ready now. Last week, when I played Raven's Claw with Shearon for the first time since our preview in May, the course was green, much more grown in, even lush in places. There's no comparison with the greens.

For the first time, it was easy to dwell on what is right and good about Raven's Claw, rather than where the fairways are spotty and thin, the young greens too shaggy, or the views beyond the course too cluttered with scraggly mounds of bulldozed earth and downed trees.

Now, with precious few weeks left in the golf season in the Northeast, it's finally possible to ignore the few remaining young-course annoyances and appreciate Raven's Claw: its variety of holes, its test of your game (70.6 rating/125 slope), and its potential to assume a place among a handful of the best daily fee courses in the area.

It's also priced right. Although prime rates will be $65 next year, for now Raven's Claw costs $50 on weekends (with cart) and $40 weekdays.

Carved out of farmland within view of the Limerick nuclear towers, the property provided Shearon with an appealing canvas of rolling terrain, wooded areas, streams, and environmentally protected areas perfect for challenging carries off the tee.

And Shearon, who grew a summer job in college cutting grass into a multimillion-dollar landscape and golf-course company, demonstrates he is getting better with each project.

"What I was trying to do was give the experience of the classic Philadelphia courses, like Philly Cricket or Rolling Green, to guys who don't ever get a chance to play those courses," Shearon said.

That's a noble aspiration, but I think it is a mistake to compare a young, built-on-a-budget ($6 million) course like Raven's Claw to two of the subtle masterpieces in a city full of great courses. Why risk disappointing golfers when there is no need?

As a student of the classic architects, Shearon, himself a single-digit handicapper, enjoys the challenge of forcing you to mull the risk versus the reward of hole after hole.