By Sean Fawcett
If you’re looking for a great little golfing getaway where you can get to play in the very footsteps of some of the game’s greatest champions, try teeing it up and shooting for the flags at The Poconos golf courses of Shawnee-on-the-Delaware, Wolf Hollow and Great Bear Golf Club.
A fantastic, and famous, place to do things like hiking, camping, boating and river rafting, The Eastern Pennsylvania region right on, and along, the beautiful Delaware River, Shawnee, Wolf Hollow(also known as Water Gap Golf Club) and Jack Nicklaus’ Great Bear GC provide players and golf enthusiasts from near and far and around the world with some of the very best golf in some of the most scenic and idyllic settings that any golfer of any age and would be sure to enjoy and remember and want to go back and play again and again and again.
Perhaps the most picturesque course in the whole, and legendary, Delaware River and Water Gap Region is the iconic Shawnee-on-the-Delaware. Host of the 1938 PGA Championship won by Paul Runyan over Sam Snead, Shawnee opened in 1911 with the first 18 holes of its now 27 designed by World Golf Hall of Fame architect A.W. Tillinghast, architect of Winged Foot and Baltusrol. Shawnee’s undulating greens and lush fairways and the historic Shawnee Inn was, many say, the very place where the idea of a professional golf tour, the PGA, were originally planned. A totally unique and wonderful island golf course, and the first course designed by Tillinghast, resort owner CC Worthington hosted a professional tournament in 1911 which then after became The Shawnee Open which became one of the first events after the PGA was formally founded. Two-time defending US Open Champion John J. McDermott from Philadelphia and Atlantic City Country Club, America’s first native-born US Open champion, won the Shawnee Open in 1913. Band leader Fred Waring, a world-famous entertainer, purchased the Buckwood Inn in 1943 and renamed it The Shawnee Inn. Waring brought in celebrities to vacation at and perform like Bob Hope and Lucille Ball and the game’s best players to play and compete at including a young Arnold Palmer who, as it would turn out would meet his first, and long-time, wife Winnie Walzer, whose family were members of Shawnee, at the club. Adding to the already incredible legacy at Shawnee, Palmer’s fellow Hall of Famer, and multiple US Open champion Hale Irwin, won the 1967 NCAA Championship held at Shawnee.
Shawnee offers many great Stay-and-Play packages including overnight accommodations, a full breakfast and 18 holes of golf on Shawnee Inn’s 27 hole golf course year-round.
Shawnee’s downriver neighbor, located just a short walk from the Appalachian Trail and just a few miles off Route 80, the mountainous Water Gap Golf Club, or Wolf Hollow, is another great place to play some great golf where some of golf’s greatest players ever to play also played. Walking the fairways of Wolf Hollow, opened nearly a hundred years ago(1922), you can almost feel the spirit of maybe the game’s greatest, and most entertaining, professionals, Walter Hagan. Hagan, third all-time in major championship wins to only Jack Nicklaus’ 18 and Tiger Woods’ 15, won the 1927 Eastern Open, one the professional tour’s top stops in the PGA’s early days of
the 1920’s which Water Gap Golf Club hosted from 1926 to 1928. Players today get to test their mettle, and accuracy, as they shoot for the short, and postage-stamped, 120 yard par 3 4th hole which Hagen, winner of 11 major championship tournaments, nearly threw away his ’27 Eastern Open triumph by over-shooting the green and then taking an almost inconceivable 11 on. Playing from an elevated tee to an elevated green with nearly 50 foot drops over and to the left, precision is the name of the game at the tricky little 4th, nick-named Hagen’s Folly ever since, is a shot-makers dream.
“Hagen is one of the biggest legends of our game,” said Wolf Hollow head PGA professional Bill Lee. “ It’s amazing that he played here and won here.”
Known for its hilly terrain, classic old-school style greens and resort clubhouse, Wolf Hollow is a must-play golf course for golfers who like to be challenged and love golf and its history.
And if history and great golf is your pleasure, then playing Great Bear Golf Club, designed by the game’s greatest major champion, and maybe the greatest player who ever lived, Jack Nicklaus, is a terrific treat, as well. One of The Golden Bear’s favorite designs, Great Bear GC integrates three lakes, several streams, and wetlands, with bridges and rolling terrain that is fun-to-play for golfers of all abilities. Playing a shade under 5,000yards from the front tees, and only about 6,100 to 6,500 from the middle tees(blue and gold), Great Bear Golf Club is a fun and player friendly track that’s ideal for any golfer of any ability. Rated a Top 8 Best Golf Course in Pennsylvania by GOLFWEEK magazine, and a Top 100 Women Friendly course in the country by GOLF FOR WOMEN magazine, with onvenient and affordable Stay-and-Play packages, Great Bear Golf Club, located in Stroudsburg, Pa, is, without-a-doubt, a great golf destination for everyone.10en Friendly Courses in the Country – Golf for GolfLink.com
“Only one golf course architect could do justice to the natural beauty at Great Bear Golf Club – the one known worldwide as The Golden Bear, Jack Nicklaus. His 18-hole championship design demonstrates why he’s been considered the master of his game for decades. Nicklaus has taken the natural advantages of the site and worked harmoniously with them to create a course that, besides it’s play, is an experience in itself. Integrating the three lakes, several streams, wetlands, small bridges and rolling terrain, Nicklaus has created a course that presents itself differently to golfers of varying skill. For the experienced player, the course offers interesting challenges and pro tees that will bring out your strongest game. Yet it’s also designed to be a course with the ultimate in playability, ensuring enjoyable round after round, revealing its intricacies and craftsmanship the more you play it. Great Bear is destined to be one of the Golden Bear’s great ones.”
There are dozens of terrific, and maybe more famous, golfing meccas around the country to go and play, but if you want to play some of the most scenic, and serene, golf where legends like Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Walter Hagen played, then the Delaware Water Gap Region in Eastern Pennsylvania is a place the place for you.
By Sean Fawcett
