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Mystic Rock is a real draw on a
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania golf vacation.
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This year's U.S. Open site, Oakmont Country Club, isn't the only golf venue worthy of inspiring a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania golf vacation. About 80 miles southeast of the city, in the Laurel Highlands region, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort is a great place to stay and play and, unlike Oakmont, you don't need to know a member to do it.
What you should know is which of its two golf courses to play, particularly if your Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania golf vacation will only include a couple of rounds. While the Links Course is the resort's original layout, its wide-open design lacks the drama, challenge and meticulous maintenance of the star attraction here, the Mystic Rock Course.
Nemacolin's founder, billionaire and 84 Lumber CEO Joe Hardy, commissioned Pete Dye to build the $19 million golf course, christened with a charity tournament featuring Tiger Woods and John Daly. Tiger got the best of the course and the field by shooting a 65.
The course was built for maximum effect on an old, private hunting preserve and it's a rousing layout with gargantuan sand traps (reportedly, the most Pete Dye has ever featured on one of his designs) plenty of water, stark plateaus and distinctive fields of boulders that line the target areas. The PGA Tour played the 84 Lumber Classic there from 2003-2006.
Although the course is expensive and sometimes exudes an artificial feel — all that sand and elaborate boulders patches are out of character for the surroundings — there is great variety and shaping to the holes. A boring course this is not.
If you decide to make Nemacolin's Mystic Rock a part of your Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania golf vacation, there are two things you should do ahead of time: practice your bunker shots and book your tee times well in advance. Mystic Rock receives ten times the amount of play that the Links Course does.
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