The Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort is a resort located in the village of Shawnee on Delaware in Smithfield Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania, east of Stroudsburg. In 1994 Fodor's identified the Shawnee Inn as the only resort on the banks of the Delaware River.
The hotel opened in 1911 as the Buckwood Inn and was built by Charles Campbell Worthington, formerly head of the Worthington Pump and Machinery Corporation. In 1943 bandleader Fred Waring purchased the resort, renamed it the Shawnee Inn, and broadcast his radio shows from there.
The Shawnee Inn was one of the first golfing resorts, and comedian Jackie Gleason often played there. In 1912 Worthington invited professional golfers to compete on the course, and this led to the foundation of the PGA of America. After trying unsuccessfully to keep the fairways in shape by grazing sheep on them, Worthington designed the gang mower with three moving wheels. He launched the Shawnee Mower Factory to manufacture it.
The golf course has hosted the Shawnee Open from 1912. It was a fixture on the early PGA Tour from 1916 to 1937 and hosted the PGA Championship in 1938, in which 1934 champion Paul Runyan defeated then Shawnee "touring pro" Sam Snead 8&7 in the 36-hole final. In 1967, Hale Irwin won the NCAA Championship on the course for the University of Colorado.
The course is located on an island in the middle of the Delaware River, across from Hardwick Township, New Jersey, on land on which once sat Fort Dupuy, a French & Indian War fortification built on the farm of Nicholas Dupuy.
The course was designed by renowned architect A. W. Tillinghast, who also designed Winged Foot Golf Club, Baltusrol, Newport Country Club, Ridgewood Country Club, and Bethpage Black.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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