Fernwood in Late Fall

Fernwood Hotel and Resort in Bushkill, Pa., was Styled to a Tee's third stop in our groundbreaking Pennsylvania Is a Swing State series. And by being last, the property got one lucky break and one not so lucky. We'll start with the unfortunate. My partner, Robert, developed a crick in his neck overnight and begged off playing a third round in three days. I'm not certain whether he was heeding caution to dodge more serious injury, or to prevent further lightening of his wallet. Regardless, missing his aesthetic sensibility is Fernwood's loss, almost as much as our readers.

On the positive side, however, after getting over the disappointment of being left to play alone, my mood immediately lifted at the prospect of playing for the third time in as many days, the first time that has happened in over a year. I reasoned: as well as I had been driving the ball lately I might be able to take advantage of Fernwood's shorter course. Without burying the lead, I was right, shooting 80, a score I'll take almost any day. Full disclosure here: I can honestly say my enjoyment of the course was not affected by heady play. Even if the result hadn't been so encouraging, Fernwood has features that still would have beckoned me for a return trip.

Here's one such example. The day I played was election Tuesday and I had to make it back to New York City at a decent hour to vote. I walked into Fernwood's golf shop already bracing myself for having to spend perfunctory time talking to a public relations professional or making small talk with the head pro, but, instead, Fernwood's PGA professional Rich Millard received me warmly, and, knowing I was in a bit of a rush, gave me some quick pointers about the course -- including something to the effect that the first few holes are very straightforward, and the real action starts at number 5 -- and then sent me on my way. So, pressed for time, I was loving this place already.

Like other courses reviewed on our site, I played from the tips (back tees). At Fernwood, however, that only stretched the distance to 6,174 yards. As forewarned, the first four holes were short and without the type of challenges usually protecting such holes. I started evenly enough, opening with four straight fours (two holes are par threes) but even with a two-par, two-bogey start I had the feeling that I could post a reasonable score. True to Millard's scouting report, Fernwood's fifth is where the course's character began to reveal itself, as the mountain layout took me up slopes where tilting fairways, sidehill lies and treacherous greens prevailed.

Shawnee: Teeing Up a New Identity

It's tempting to arrive at the Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort on the Delaware River, avail yourself of a self-guided tour -- that's a compliment, because it's a friendly, laid-back place -- and, after several hours or a few days, roll down the road, thinking that change must come slowly to such a peaceful, 98-year-old property.

Yes, Shawnee is a place that revels in a rich and storied past, with historic black-and-white golf photos (of the likes of Sam Snead, Dwight Eisenhower and Jackie Gleason, taken on its premises) lining the spacious hallways of its 80-room inn, but if you peek inside, lift the duvet, there's change afoot. In this case, appearances are about as deceptive as those A.W. Tillinghast-designed greens that left us scratching our heads after a day of golf at Shawnee.

What has been taking shape, just out of view, is the formation of a coherent vision and the initial steps to update a resort -- if not its 27 holes of golf -- that wants to retain its pastoral, by-the-lazy (but occasionally raging) river identity while making an inspired appeal to travelers (and golfers) who think they need to board a plane to find a fully amenitized, memorable destination.

"We all knew Shawnee was going to go through a renaissance," says Pete Kirkwood, 38, a member of the second generation of the family that has owned the resort since 1977. "We knew we had to scrape away the accretions of many years to discover the gem in the middle of the building. The question is, what would be the vocabulary, the vernacular, of the renaissance, the unifying principle that would make everything make sense together."

Kirkwood's sense of how Shawnee could move forward but stay connected to its past came as an epiphany, albeit one that was shaped over months and years by his own accidental architecture-and-design studies and his family's global migrations and travels.

Kirkwood and his wife, Liz, had lived in northern California, taking special note of the American Arts and Crafts-style homes in Berkeley. They traveled to southern California to see other houses, including iconic homes designed by Greene & Greene. As they did, Pete gained further appreciation for the Arts and Crafts design aesthetic, an offshoot of the British movement that flourished at the turn of the 20th century but still resonates a hundred years later what with its emphasis on craftsmanship and keeping with local landscape and natural surroundings.

Meanwhile, two generations of Kirkwoods had long traveled to the Far East and Pete's three brothers make their homes there. Those familial ties to the Pacific Rim as well as outright Asian design influences, Pete believed, could be incorporated into an Arts and Crafts aesthetic. And it would leave room for other complementary influences ranging from Gustav Stickley to Frank Lloyd Wright.

"Arts and Crafts is more than an aesthetic, it's a philosophy," says Kirkwood. "It's very much tied to nature."

Returning to Shawnee about three and a half years ago, Pete experienced a "Eureka!" moment when he began to consider the sophisticated lifestyle preferences of travelers from Shawnee's core markets: New York and Philadelphia. "The zeitgeist is all about getting back to nature, simplicity, to being more honest about our relationship with the world."

So, with the vision and direction clear that a new aesthetic could be embraced, the resort's initial foray has been to design rooms, furniture and furnishings, which present a visitor with a cleaner, updated-but-still authentic Shawnee experience. Working with Amish craftsman in an off-the-grid factory in Ohio, the Kirkwoods began commissioning chairs, desks, sofas, bedsteads, ottomans and cabinetry -- about 20 pieces in all -- each with a proprietary ShawneeCraft logo and a structural sturdiness that recalls Stickley and California Mission. So far, they have furnished an 1,100-square-foot hospitality suite that overlooks river and golf course, two cottages and six suites (known as The Legacy Collection) including one in the inn.

The Poconos' Golf Trail, Day 1

My first destination on our Pocono Mountain golf trip  -- Woodloch Springs Golf Course in Hawley, PA -- really is just that: a destination.

Otherwise, barring in-laws who reside there or an interest in small towns or large lakes in northeastern Pennsylvania, there really is very little that would direct you to, or through, Hawley.

The Lake Wallenpaupack Chamber of Commerce may take some issue with my assessment but I offer it with qualified justification. While Hawley, Woodloch Pines Resort and Woodloch Springs Golf Course are in the Poconos, they're on the far northeast slope, an area sometimes called the Delaware Highlands. If you were much further north or east, you'd be in New York State and the southern Catskill Mountains.

That's part of the area's charm. Learning about golf destinations that are largely uncharted and off the well-worn path appeals totally to my sense of adventure. Besides, it's a great way to find value. Yet golfers are a funny breed. As much as they like discovering a new venue, if they're members of a club, or have access to very good courses, they're generally not going to go out of their way to a course they can't name-drop back to their golfing buddies. My guess is that the people who own first or second homes or vacation regularly at Woodloch Springs wouldn't be the slightest bit distressed by this news. In other words, they're in on the secret, so why would they share it with anyone else?

Secret and secluded Woodloch is. When our family itinerary called for some pre-Election Day volunteer work in the Stroudsburg area (please see "Pennsylvania Is a Swing State"), it meant that we had crossed into eastern Pennsylvania from northern New Jersey on Interstate 80. That left me an hour away and a drive of about 30 miles on Route 402 to get to Woodloch. While 402 is fairly straight, it is a two-lane mountain road right out of Coal Miner's Daughter, cut through pine forests and dotted along the way with tiny cabins, camps and high-mountain lakes.

Arriving from the south and ultimately on another very twisting two-lane road (Route 590) that winds from the west, as I did, means an additional eight-mile through-the-mountains climb up to Woodloch Pines, the sprawling vacation resort perched on tiny lake Teedyuskung that has grown amoeba-like since its founding by the Kiesendahl family fifty years ago. (Hey, Happy Anniversary. The golden celebration hits a high point the weekend of Nov. 14-16.) Woodloch Springs, which is three-quarters of a mile and one turn further/nearer than Woodloch Pines, was added as a golf course and planned residential community in 1988. As I grasp the steering wheel with two hands over that final stretch of road, I'm thinking of the children's rhyme: "Over the mountains and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go."

So here I was early on a cool-but-not-cold November Sunday morning, slightly disconnected in a geographical sense, not knowing where I was or quite what to expect when I got there, coffee long gone, and 30 minutes overdue for a bathroom pit stop when I came upon Woodloch Springs' setback gated entrance. Somewhat to my astonishment, I found myself both instantly impressed and, truth be told, transported. The steeply sloping terrain, the tree-covered ridges in the distance, the manicured berms and the lush green fairways -- cross-cut outfield-style -- peeking through colored maple and oak leaves reminded me instantly of the high-mountain areas of North Carolina. That would be places like Cashiers, Highlands and points southwest of Hendersonville, NC, with residential golf-course communities that are aggressively marketed up and down the Eastern Seaboard to second-home owners and affluent retirees.

Pennsylvania Is a Swing State

Styled to a Tee is setting out to play some golf in a pivotal swing state this weekend. It's serendipitous as a few family members plan to canvass neighborhoods in an effort to get out the vote.

Our focus -- brief as it is over a few-day span -- is golf in the northeast corner of Pennsylvania, the Poconos, the plateau and rugged hill country just west of the Delaware River, which separates Pennsylvania from New Jersey. At first blush, based on limited exposure, it's a vastly underrated golf destination. I say this for a few reasons, most highly empirical, not rising to the level of scientific.

The first is that while New Yorkers are proud of where they live, that pride is rivaled closely by feelings about where they weekend. (Notice the use of "weekend" as a verb; similar to "race" but way more competitive.) And the hierarchy of weekend destinations goes something like this:

    1. The east end of Long Island (the Hamptons, Amagansett, Montauk, the North Fork, etc. There's a hierarchy within the hierarchy, but that's for other blogs and realtors to sort out.)

    2. The Hudson Valley

    3. The Berkshires

    4. Bucks County

    5. The Jersey Shore

    6. (tie) The Catskills/Poconos

And yet if I were setting out to play golf and didn't belong to a club or have a standing invitation, I'd almost rank them in inverse order for being golf friendly. That's possibly a bold statement and I'd welcome responses and input from regional visitor bureaus. (I'd welcome feedback from my partner, Rico Williams, but like winter itself, that's inevitable and will arrive soon enough.) If you're going to write that a region with Shinnecock, Maidstone, National Golf Links, Sebonack and several others couldn't possibly be last on any golf list, please include the tee time (or lifetime) when I might see the inside of any of these.

Meanwhile, the website, www.800poconos.com, lists 36 facilities. Though not all are resorts or daily fee and no combination rivals the Murderer's Row listed above, it appears the vast majority welcome the public, at rates that would accommodate a variety of budgets.

Further, my limited experience of playing golf in the Poconos includes an outing at Skytop Lodge. While the phrase "hidden gem" is overused in most golf travel correspondence, Skytop (in Skytop, PA, population 87) would seem the very embodiment. Unheralded and, in my experience, virtually unknown to other golf-crazed Gothamites, I came upon it several years ago, quite by accident. The lodge is historic, the accommodations old world, the grounds expansive, and the golf course lush, picturesque, memorable and challenging.

A few years later I returned for a two-night stay, but with two young children I didn't have the chance to play the golf course for a second time. It being a late fall weekend -- in fact, I think it was Halloween three years ago -- we were able to sample the wide range of family activities, both indoor and outdoor. With an in-season room rate of about $550 a night (including all meals), Skytop would rank comfortably with The Equinox and Woodstock Inn of Southern Vermont and Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, N.Y.

So, we're headed back to the region, if not to Skytop this time. As we like to say at Styled to a Tee, see you down the road. -- Robert Lohrer

The Seaview Review

When the subject is destination spas, the northeastern United States doesn't jump immediately to mind. In the past decade, however, resort-quality spas have been proliferating in the region.

From time to time, Styled to a Tee will review golf and spa properties, especially those within two hours of New York City. The thinking, inspired by some personal circumstances, is that if part of the family (no gender bias here) is inexplicably not smitten with the glorious game of golf, then she can certainly be coaxed into a massage (more on that later) or one of the more exotic treatments prevalent at high-end spas.

The Seaview Marriott Resort and Spa is one such establishment. The resort, in Galloway, N.J., about 10 minutes from Atlantic City, covers 670 acres and boasts 36 holes of golf, six all-weather tennis courts, indoor and outdoor pool facilities, volleyball and basketball courts, and nature walking/jogging trails. It's no small wonder they added an Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa in 2000 to round out their offerings and promote relaxation.

So the weekend of the Ryder Cup found me up Saturday morning at 7 a.m. -- earlier than anyone should be rising unless you're playing golf -- and that was my plan but I was still grumpy. I felt I had gotten the short end of the stick when the brain trust at Styled to a Tee (Robert and I) had unwittingly chosen this date back in August and I was nominated to go because of something to do with his kids...and as I contemplated the two-hour drive to my destination near Atlantic City, I -- meaning my body, soul and mind -- would have preferred to be lodged in front of a television set rooting the Americans to victory at Valhalla (Did you count the amount of "I's" in that run-on sentence? It's always about me, me, me!).

All of that changed when I arrived at the resort. The receptionist, Lauren, greeted me with a 200-watt smile followed by a simple line: “How can I help you...checking in?” Nothing more, nothing less, but spoken with a kindness and sincerity that seem in short supply around bustling hotel reception desks these days.

The Seaview, with its white-pillared portico, four-floored Cape Cod look, rates as one of the "grand dame" resort hotels, dating from 1914. With wings and extensions spreading out in back, it has 278 rooms, 19 suites, 26 meeting rooms, and 27,000 square feet of total meeting space. Three brides could be given away here on a Saturday and a golfer might never know it.