Poconos: An Easy, East Coast Golf Getaway
Evan Rothman
05/15/09 - 09:49 AM EDT
Golfers pant over the thought of a vacation to the Pinehurst Resort or the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. But for many of us, the new economic realities mean staying closer to home.
With that in mind, my wife and I recently visited Pennsylvania's
Pocono Mountains for a quick getaway. This four-county region, situated halfway between New York and Philadelphia, offers 35
golf resorts.
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| The Country Club at Woodloch Springs in the Poconos in Pennsylvania is a short hop from New York City. |
We stayed near Milford, an artsy town on the Poconos' northeastern edge, which put us within a 45-minute drive of the
Woodloch Resort in Hawley and the
Skytop Lodge in Skytop. Golfers obsessed with newness, brand names and history might want to try the two-year-old Jack Frost National Golf Club, the Jack Nicklaus-designed Great Bear Golf & Country Club or the Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort, which offers a layout by architect A.W. Tillinghast.
The Woodloch Springs golf course, designed by the wonderfully named Rocky Roquemore, offers a fun layout that's fit for experts and casual players. At about 6,500 yards from the back tees, it's not the longest test. The fairways are generous and the rough is manageable. Golf architecture aficionados might quibble with the unusual set of par 5s, which force layups off the tee.
The resort considers itself "family friendly," which too often means frayed around the edges. Not so at Woodloch. It's casual, but features up-to-date amenities and plenty of activities, from bocce to evening shows in its nightclub. Families should stay at Woodloch Pines. Golf buddies in town for the weekend should rent a home on the course.
The resort offers unlimited golf on weekdays, a deal that many courses have introduced this year to drive more traffic to the tee. Public play is limited and must be booked four days in advance.
If you need a splurge, try the recently renovated
Hotel Fauchere in Milford. If you can only afford half a splurge, its Bar Louis makes an excellent burger and fries. It's the perfect lunch stop before an afternoon of antique shopping in Port Jervis, 15 minutes back across the New York border.
Dating back to the 1920s, the imposing Skytop looks like a grand dame hotel on the order of the Biltmore House in Asheville, N.C. You can stay in the Main Lodge, a stately stone structure or in one of the resort's more relaxed cottages. For golfers intent on rolling out of bed onto the first tee, there's also the Inn adjacent to the course. In any case, you get three meals a day with your room. Gentlemen, remember to wear a jacket for dinner in the Windsor Dining Room and Lake View Restaurant.
The Skytop's old-school golf course was built in the 1920s by Robert White, the first president of the PGA of America. At 6,600 yards from the tips, its layout is nuanced and natural, with small greens that demand a neat, imaginative short game. With fewer executives talking business over golf, the course was blissfully open midweek.
We were home in the Hudson Valley within two hours, a half-hour later than those returning to downtown Manhattan.
