Very good friends of ours are about to up sticks and move lock, stock and golf clubs from Bonnie Scotland to sunny Pennsylvania. (Don't ask - something to do with an opportunity of a lifetime...!)

They will actually be living in some kind of golfing community-thing (something Lakes or other...)

My Q is:
When and if the FBD and La Nancy visit our chums, are there any decent/interesting golf venues in the vicinity I should keep in mind. Or do I just get in the car and drive straight to New Jersey?

cheers,
FBD.

Martin,

Your friend might find the following non-golf-related link useful.  

http://www.city-data.com/city/DuBois-Pennsylvania.html

As far as courses nearby...sheesh...perhaps Kyle is more familiar.

FBD

I spent a few weekends in nearby Clearfield in the early 70's, and "nowhere" is an understatement about the area.  Nice people though, and they play a game of darts based on baseball which will flummox you if you ever find your way into a drinking establishment......

DuBois leads itself much better to hiking/camping in the Allegheny National Forest than it does golf.  It's really tough to get there, as it's up in the mountains and is fairly isolated.

Just remember, it is pronounced 'Due.boys'. Seriously.

Drive I believe 30 to 40 minutes north of DuBois, PA (which is right off of interstate I-80) and play Elk County CC and St. Mary's CC for two classic Emmet courses that C&W listed as NLE, but which are in fact very much still in play.

St. Mary's CC (St. Mary's,PA) is on some wild terrain and has some wonderfull Emmet greens.  Elk County (Ridgway,PA) is more subdoued from a terrain standpoint, but still rolling.  A lot of the bunkering has been lost / grassed over.  Greens are a blast.

I don't know much about Dubois other than this single instance, and from the only person I've ever known from Dubois (Dubois G.C.) who said the course isn't much.

That person would be Don Erickson from the Dubois G.C. Maybe in the late 1980s I was playing in the state amateur at Lancaster C.C. and a friend of mine, Mark Shuman from Philly C.C. got paired up in a practice round with this guy, Don Erickson from the Dubois G.C.

After that practice round Mark said two things to me;

1/ He said; "This guy I just played a practice round with, Don Erickson, from the Dubois G.C. said his club was so cheap they refused to pay the $250 to join the Pennsylvania Golf Association. Therefore Don Erickson couldn't play in the state amateur. So Don paid the membership fee for the entire club and entered his first Pennsylvania State Amateur Championship at Lancaster C.C."

2/ Mark said; "I will absolutely guarantee you that Don Erickson is going to win this state amateur here at Lancaster C.C."

And damned if Don Erickson didn't do exactly that. So I got to know him and I sort of recall him saying that he couldn't really see anyone walking across the street to play the Dubois G.C.

Mapquest will tell you that DuBois is 79 miles from Latrobe, Pa., home of Latrobe CC, the course Palmer grew up playing. I grew up in Pittsburgh and never played it, but it's on my list for before I die. No one will tell you it's a great course, but it's Arnie's course, and the layout supposedly hasn't changed much.

Pittsburgh of course has Oakmont, but I love Fox Chapel--which I played as a kid--a fabulous Raynor layout, though it's not the Stern Test of Golf that Oakmont is. Fox Chapel got great reviews as host of Curtis Cup a few years ago.

If you like golf history as I do, and are traveling east to New Jersey at some point, try Hershey. I also favor Eagles Mere Country Club--truly in the middle of nowhere--an old Flynn layout that was once a resort course for a bunch of hotels, and now a private club. It's Flynn light, not a great course but a slice of time that has not changed much. Don't try Eagles Mere before June--the weather in the mountains is too chancy in April and May, and don't expect great golf. Do expect a charming older course in a beautiful setting.

Pennsylvania has other excellent private courses, mostly near Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Bethlehem, many of which are noted in GCA files.

Enjoy your trip.

If you go to this link: http://www.wpga.org/membership/course_map.html

You can click on the link on the right that says, "Show All Clubs" and see all WPGA member clubs.  Dubois is at the Interstate 80 logo right in the middle of the map.  These are only the clubs that are members of the WPGA, there are plenty more clubs in Western PA, but I'm not going to the trouble of figuring out their  longitudes and latitudes for the map, besides, why should I help them if they don't join us. (Kyle, notice that Penn State's courses aren't on the map!!!)

Clicking on one of the pushpins give you the name of the club.  If you clear the pushpins by pushing "Clear the map" you can run your mouse over specific courses listed below that and they will appear on the map.  Clicking on the club names on the right will give you information about them.  You can center the map on a specific location by doubleclicking it.  Zoom in and turn on Satellite for images.

Enjoy.

Kyle,

Actually, they are members of the North Central PA GA.

FBD,  I obviously concur completely with Mr. Pazin's comments.  If you can come to see one of us, you better see both.

Kyle,

The WPGA officiates at the Rutherford every year and teaches rules workshops to the golf teams, but the administration at PSU won't join the WPGA because they make a little more money off the students by joining the NCPAGA.  Oh well.

They are the Appalachian Mountains, the Ridge and Valley of the Poconos, the northern most part of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the northern section of the Piedmont Plateau.  These formations help keep Philadelphia sunny and clear and pushes all the junky air to New Jersey and New York  

FBD,  I obviously concur completely with Mr. Pazin's comments.  If you can come to see one of us, you better see both.

Kyle,

The WPGA officiates at the Rutherford every year and teaches rules workshops to the golf teams, but the administration at PSU won't join the WPGA because they make a little more money off the students by joining the NCPAGA.  Oh well.

Maybe we've met, PGM students help with the scoring and officiating at the Rutherford.