Pete Dye is an elite name in golf course architecture. He has built hundreds of the most scenic, and some would say most difficult, courses in the world. The list of his signature designs includes Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, site of The Players Championship; the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island, SC., site of the '91 Ryder Cup matches; and The Straits Course at Whistling Straits, set to host the 2004 PGA Championship.
Nemacolin Woodlands Resort can boast yet another Pete Dye creation,
Mystic Rock,
named after the natural rock outcropping visible on this course set in the beautiful Laurel Highland Mountains in southwestern Pennsylvania. Mystic Rock has all the Dye trademarks of greatness and confounding obstacles - dramatic elevation changes and imaginatively designed holes shaped around water and rocks and among mature hardwood forests.
Mystic Rock is the signature course of this Laurel Highland Mountain resort named after a Delaware Indian chief who carved a trail through the mountains near here. The trail, which now forms part of state Route 40, was later used by George Washington during the French and Indian Wars.
In the 19th Century, the Laurel Highlands became the fashionable retreat of wealthy Pittsburghers including the famous retail Kaufmann family, which commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build Fallingwater as an escape from the city. The unique cantilevered house with a stream running through it is close to the resort.
A fish and hunting preserve before it became a resort, Nemacolin Woodlands under lumber industrialist Joseph A. Hardy Sr. was expanded in the late 1980's and 1990's to include a large conference center, a 125-room chateau-style hotel, an equestrian center with outdoor and indoor rings, a lake with fishing and other marine activities, a 55,000-square-foot shopping arcade, and a "Kidz Club" facility and a full-service spa. Accommodations also include a lodge and rental properties with golf views.
The resort has 36 holes. In addition to the Dye Course, the
Links Course
is a windswept Scottish style layout that also incorporates mountain vistas.
Located north of Cumberland, Md., off State Route 40, the resort is served by a private airfield close by. Landing reservations may be made through the resort's security department. 
Virginia Golf
