Thursday, May 02, 2002
Golf Course Spotlight
Snow Hill links golf and history
By Carey Hoffman
Enquirer contributor
Henry Ford once, reportedly, slept there. Walter Hagen once played there. Now the general public can tee it up at history-rich Snow Hill Country Club, which this year went from private to semi-private.
Snow Hill members will get early preference for tee times at the course southeast of Wilmington in Clinton County, but the public can call, beginning five days in advance, to make reservations from available tee times.
Snow Hill's move is another indication of the tightening golf marketplace. In the first two months of the policy, about 370 nonmembers have played the course.
They have been treated to country club conditions in a location true to the “country” portion of the title.
Snow Hill sits about eight miles outside of Wilmington, where State Routes 73 and 350 meet. History cites the old stone build ing that is now the clubhouse as a halfway house for the Underground Railroad, then as a stagecoach inn for travelers.
Snow Hill became a country club and, in 1924, opened the original nine-hole golf course.
Don McNeil, the 1941 club champion who still plays Snow Hill, was a 12-year-old caddy for the first foursome to play the course.
“At that time, it actually would have made for a better cornfield than golf course,” said McNeil.
Snow Hill remained nine holes until 1991, when it was expanded to its current 18-hole configuration. Cincinnati developer Denny Acomb, who designed Hickory Woods and Crooked Tree, integrated components of the existing nine with a series of new holes. The current Nos. 8, 9 and 10 holes are the three original holes left unchanged. Other new holes incorporate original greens.
Even though Snow Hill plays to just 6,449 yards from the back, it is no pushover. Four of the five par 3s are lengthy, and the first par 4 — the uphill, 442-yard No.4 with a fairway split longitudinally by a creek — must be included on any list of the area's toughest par 4s.
According to Snow Hill head pro and general manager Dave Stanton, in four area pro-ams held in recent years at the course, only four pros broke par of 70.
“If you miss a lot of our greens to the wrong side, it's almost impossible to get up and down,” Stanton said. “On the other hand, it's a very fair course if you don't try and get greedy.”
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