Pocono Manor Inn & GR
Pocono Manor, PA
East Course, 1902 Donald Ross
Championship 6565, 72.0, 118, 72
Men's 6304, 70.1, 116, 72
Fees: ~$38 + cart Wknd.
West Course, 1963 George Fazio
Championship 7003, 72.0, 117' 72
Men's 6716, 71.0, 114, 72
'08 Golf packages ran about $375 per person per night, including room, greens fees, breakfast, and dinner.
Per Larry, the East is tight with small greens and worth playing.
T&L Golf Review: East Course
Pocono Manor Golf Resort & Spa
Pocono Manor, PA
One thing Ross courses have that Pete Dye's and Tom Fazio's cannot have, at least not now, is decades of history. This is true even when a course is not as well preserved as the Sagamore or the Panorama. For example, Pocono Manor's East course, opened in 1919, is showing signs of neglect. There are mounds and grassy depressions along the fairways that were once sand bunkers. Several yards from the smallish greens, it's easy to spot contours that Ross intended to be part of the putting surfaces. Greens have a tendency to shrink over time due to careless mowing, and those areas are no longer in play.
I went to Pocono Manor because of its history, which I heard about from its head pro, Greg Wall. His father, Art Wall Jr., won the Masters in 1959 using his unique ten-finger grip. At the peak of his career, in the fifties and sixties, Art Wall Jr. represented Pocono Manor as a touring pro. A lot of the greats of that era played here. The course can still be seen on cable reruns of the old All-Star Golf series, featuring players like Sam Snead, Tommy Bolt and Cary Middlecoff.
Pocono Manor has eccentric holes that show how wedded Ross was to maximizing available land. He built each one, he wrote, so it "wastes none of the ground at my disposal and takes advantage of every possibility I can see."
That thinking produced some short holes here that would most likely not be built today. The third is a 194-yard blind par three, with a green in a depression twenty feet below the level of the tee. But the seventh is even odder, a seventy-seven-yard par three. The tee towers over a tiny green set behind a creek. It's like tossing a ball into a well.
"You have to hit it like it's a thirty-five-yard shot," Greg explained to me. "A lot of people swing for seventy-seven yards and wind up in the woods behind the green."
I followed his example and took half a swing with my lob wedge. The ball arced away, dropped forever, and finally landed on the putting surface with an audible splat. I made an easy two-putt par.
"I remember one time when I was a kid, Dad and Arnold Palmer played an exhibition here," Greg recalled as we walked off the green. "Palmer hit it into the creek, messed around a little and made five."
It's not often you can hit an easy lob and go two shots up on the King.
POCONO MANOR EAST: 800-233-8150, www.poconomanor.com. Yardage: 6,565. Par: 72. Slope: 118. Greens Fees: $30–$40.
Where To Stay: The classic Pocono Manor Resort somewhat resembles a scaled-down version of the The Shining's Overlook Hotel. '08 summer room rates ran as high as $320 per night.
A November 2007 article in Philadelphia Magazine outlines the beginnings of a new breed of Poconos resort with the arrival of Mt. Airy Casino Resort. Described as "Borgata-among-the-trees", and built with fieldstone, rich woods, terrazzo tile, and glass, this 200 room upscale hotel (with plans for another 200 rooms, plus home sites and townhomes) may be a windfall for the area. But nearly gone are the quaint days of a quick drive to the Pocono Mountains for a weekend of hiking and romping in champagne-glass-shaped tubs (the only ones left around here are at Caesars Poconos, and can you believe they run $450/night?!). These days, the popularity of the area has resulted in "urban crawl" complete with a population explosion of New York commuters and retirees, traffic jams, spiraling taxes, increasing homogenization, plus gang activities like drugs, robbery, and drive-by shootings, and even a terrorist cell.
Your kids will love the indoor water park at Great Wolf Lodge (www.greatwolflodge.com). Acres of 84 degree wet fun all year round, and ski packages available at nearby Camelback Mountain. '08 standard rooms start at $279/night (2 night min plus $15 pp for waterpark access). Romantic whirlpool fireplace suites @ $379/night. Top-of-the-line Great Bear Suites @ $500/night. Although, my buddy Dave N. says it's not quite worth the money, not a great value and the water park isn't quite as big as they make it look on the website.
Golf.com Review: This resort features 2 regulation 18 hole courses. Listed on the National Historic Register of Historic Places, this resort provides countless scenic vistas of the surrounding countryside. Both courses are situated on a heavily-wooded mountain top and are home to an abundance of wild life, such as deer and wild turkey. According to "GOLF Magazine," both courses are "traditional inland layouts" that feature a densely wooded terrain and extremely small and well-sloped greens surrounded by grass bunkers. The East Course, built in 1902, is the older and more demanding design. This course has been the site of both Senior and LPGA Tour events. The West Course plays longer, but since it was built on flatter terrain, it is considered by locals as more forgiving. Shot accuracy is essential off the tees on both courses because the fairways are tree lined.