Pocono News Section

Golf Course Reopens Two Years After Shut Down

Golf Course Reopens Two Years After Shut Down - Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 4:31PM EST

Reported by: Laurie Monteforte
Thursday, Apr 30, 2009 @ 04:31pm EST
PARADISE TOWNSHIP, MONROE COUNTY - A Pocono tourism icon is back in business. The Mount Airy Casino Resort reopened the Mount Airy Golf Club Thursday. It's been closed for two years.

John Misiora was the first to tee off. For him hearing the clack of club on ball is like hearing his family say "welcome home." He explained, "This is the first course I ever played when I actually started playing golf like 15 years ago."

Two years ago John and his friend Jerry Gibbs had to say goodbye to the greens. Jerry said, "We were a little sad I guess."

Mount Airy's developer shut the course down to focus on building the Casino Resort. But Thursday it reopened. John and Jerry drove an hour to be the first to drive the ball. "It's my favorite golf course in the whole Pennsylvania area." Gibbs said, "fun. Real fun. Real fun."

The course's new PGA Golf Pro expects thousands of more people like John and Jerry will tee off there. Randy Vaskis said, "e feel that Mount Airy is going to be the championship golf course that it used to be."

Mount Airy hasn't made many changes to the golf course. The only difference you might notice is they've moved about trees. That makes it look nicer and makes the course a little easier for resort guests. But not too easy. John said, "There is no easy hole here. Every hole is different. The golf course makes you think on every shot." Vaskis added, "It's a challenging golf course. You never play it the same."

While you may never play it the same way, golfers like John say it's always fun to tee off at a special place in Pocono history.

Vaskis said there are plans to bring some pro am tournaments and PGA events to the resort.