Raven Golf Club

Raven Golf Club at Snowshoe Mountain

Elevate Your Next Golf Trip

By Brian Weis

Situated in the valley of the Allegheny Mountain Range, The Raven Golf Club at Snowshoe is a true mountain course offering spectacular views with elevation changes on some holes measuring over 200 feet from tee to green. The award-winning Gary Player designed course is a resort friendly course. Ed Galford, VP of Operations echoed that statement on the first tee. "Gary Player built the course with the resort player in mind. The greens are big ranging from 6000-7000 square feet. Four tee boxes were used to accommodate all abilities. The most golfer friendly feature is the mounding lining the edges of the holes. All mounds were designed to push errant balls back into play and onto the fairways.

The mountainside gem flows effortlessly through the hills and valleys of the surrounding skill hill. "During construction, they moved less than 375,000 cubic yards of dirt. We like to think Gary designed the course and Mother Nature built it," chuckled Galford.

At an elevation of 4848 feet above sea level, Snowshoe Mountain Resort offers golf enthusiasts a mountaintop Village to enjoy throughout their visit. Featuring 1,400 comfortably appointed rooms, the Village is also home to numerous restaurants options and stunning sunsets.

Notable Holes

Hole # 3 - Play a club less on this 127 yard par-3. The green drops 12 stories to an oval green.

Hole #4 - The fourth hole features the most dramatic elevation drop. The best advice Galford gave was to let you playing partners tee off first to see how the wind and elevation will affect the ball. The fairway descends 250 feet below the tee and tee shots will average a hang time of 15-20 seconds.

Hole # 5 - The number 1 handicapped hole climbs back up the ridge. From the tee, you will have to negotiate a mature tree sprouting from the middle of the fairway 220 yards out. Pick a side that will position your second shot to layup in front of a stream cutting at base of the hill. Note there is more room to left. As an aside, from the tee box you have a distance view of the skill hill and mountain lodge. At that moment you are nearly 1600 feet below the mountain village

Hole #9 - A classic risk versus reward hole awaits at this drivable par four. Before reaching for a club, look for the stick as the hole features dual greens. Ed shared that in the inaugural round Gary Player called every shot before he hit it. "On this hole Gary called a green ball and stuck it close. He rimmed his eagle putt to which he announced a birdie is a great score on this hole," Ed recalled.

Hole #13 -Gordon McHugh, Head Pro claimed this as his favorite. "This hole is my favorite because double dog leg left par 5 that offers up some risk versus reward opportunities. If you bomb a driver you have a decision to make. If you think you can hit a 200 yard, all-carry shot over water you will get home in two. When I go for it, it feels like golf's version of kicking a field goal," smiled Gordon.

Trust me, the safer play is to bail out to the right and give yourself an angle for your third shot.

Recent Accolades

Golf Week Magazine 2010: #2 Course in the State of West Virginia, "Best Courses You Can Play"
Golf Week Magazine 2009: "#2 Course in the State of West Virginia"

Golf Digest 2008/2009: 4.5 Star Rating (5 Stars possible)

Golf Week Magazine 2007: "18th Best Resort Course in the Nation"

Golf Week Magazine 2006:"Ranked #1 Public Access Course in West Virginia" - Fifth straight year receiving this number one ranking

Golf Week Magazine 2006:"Ranked #17 in the Top 40 Resort Courses in America"

Golf Week Magazine 2006: "Ranked #84 in the Top 100 Modern Golf Courses in US"

Washington Golf Monthly 2006:"One of the 100 Must Play Golf Courses in the Mid-Atlantic"

Travel & Leisure Golf: Rated in the Top 25 of the "Best 100 Courses to Play Under $100"

How To Get There

Snowshoe Mountain is located in rural West Virginia. As far as getting there, GPS units are not always the most reliable source for turn-by-turn directions. In addition, some of the roads in the area are not properly mapped. It is recommended to input the longitude and latitude coordinates, rather than using a street address.

Useful Coordinates
Inn at Snow Shoe
38.4159 North
80.0366 West

Mountain Top Check-In
38.4018 North
79.9936 West

While the road to the resort is winding and weaving, it is absolutely worth the drive.

The Skinny

4 Tees: 7045, 6397, 5976 and 4363 yards
Slope/Rating: 142/75.5
Season: May-October

Raven Golf Club at Snowshoe Mountain

10 Snowshoe Drive
Snowshoe, West Virginia 26209
304-572-6500
snowshoemtn.com

Photo Gallery

Revised: 05/31/2012 - Article Viewed 34,252 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.