March 14, 2005

BARNESVILLE, PA — The Carl Spackler Open knows entertainment.  There are many reasons why Mountain Valley is the best tournament experience in the state of Pennsylvania.  Below is an excellent article written by Larry O'Rourke of Golf Course News regarding Mountain Valley's Madness on the Mountain Friday Night Happy Hour.  

The article was written just after the 2004 Carl Spackler Open.  The 2005 optional 4-man scramble is scheduled to conclude between 7:00PM and 8:00PM on June 10.  The clubhouse party runs from 7:00PM to 10:00PM.

By Larry O'Rourke 6/24/2004 Source: Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.)

Bill Quinn received a cell phone call from his fiance in Connecticut while out on the No. 4 tee box of Mountain Valley's Maple Course.

"I told her I'd get back to her when we got to the clubhouse," Quinn said.

By the time Quinn got to Maple's finishing hole, the par-3 No. 9 that finishes in front of the clubhouse deck, that pledge to return the phone call was as shaky as the birdie putt that missed and left him to settle for bogey.

"We heard the bass from the music out around No. 7 tee box, and when we got to the eighth green we knew something was going on up ahead," said Quinn, a Lansdale-area native who lives in New Preston, Conn., and played Mountain Valley with long-time friends from the Lehigh Valley.

"Now, I can't call my fiancee from here [the clubhouse]," Quinn said. "She'd never believe I was at a golf course."

Quinn spoke on a recent Friday at Mountain Valley, the 27-hole facility south of Mahanoy City and west of Barnesville in Schuylkill County.

And what Quinn spoke of was Mountain Valley bills as "Madness on the Mountain." The Friday evening Happy Hour gatherings, in their third year, attract several hundred partyers and leave golfers finishing with more than the usual sets of eyes peering down on the action on Maple No. 9 and Pine No. 9.

"They told us when we checked in at the pro shop that there would be a happy hour going on when we finished, but we didn't expect this," Quinn said, motioning to a canopy under which a deejay was spinning tunes.

Mountain Valley's regular players know what to expect.

"It's a lot different, because usually you look up and see one or two people on the deck," former Panther Valley High golf coach Ted Collins said after finishing up his round. "It's a lot more people, and you know some of them are watching. I didn't look up, but I knew they were there.

"It's turned into quite a spectacle up here. I remember coming here in 1975 to play on a Friday or Saturday evening, and I'd be the only person here."

In recent years, Mountain Valley expanded to 27 holes and constructed the chalet-style clubhouse that sits on the highest piece on the golf course.

Mountain Valley general manager Ken Huebner said the happy hour became so popular the clubhouse deck was expanded from 3,000 square feet to 5,000. A deck was even added to the second floor.

And on Friday evenings from Memorial Day to Labor Day, partyers show up in such great numbers that a one-person-in, one-person-out policy often has to be enforced at the front door.

"The crowd ranges from 21 [years old] up to people in their 60s and 70s," Huebner said. "And we haven't heard a negative thing about it from the golfers."

Steve Wolfe of Williams Township made the drive to Mountain Valley along with a couple of Easton-area friends after hearing of the Friday happy hours.

"We get off the interstate, drive past cemeteries and old coal holes, and I'm like, "Where are we going?" Wolfe said. "But then you get here, and it's definitely a great time."

Although many of the partyers appear oblivious to the amateur golfers finishing play roughly 100 yards away on Pine's No. 9 and even closer on the Maple's No. 9, some check out the action.

"This is my first time at the Happy Hour, but I've played here before," Scott Brennan of Orwigsburg said while watching a foursome finish play. "With the crowd here, you'd want to do better on this hole than any other. I've teed off here before [on Maple No. 1] and I knew a couple of people were watching from the deck. But now [during Friday happy hour], it's got to feel like everybody's watching."

Megan Kurzinsky of Barnesville helps pay for her education at Kutztown University by working as a waitress at Mountain Valley during the week, and on Fridays as the bartender on the edge of the deck nearest to Maple No. 9.

"I know those guys," Kurzinsky said while waving to a threesome that was finishing their afternoon of golf. "I just wave. I don't yell. I don't think anybody really [heckles] the golfers because they never complain."

But Kurzinsky said there is no way she would play before the Madness on the Mountain gallery.

"Oh, no," Kurzinsky said. "Golf is fun. We go out there every now and then. But I'm not that good that I'd play in front of people. Maybe when I get better."

Meanwhile, Quinn thought better of calling his fiance from the clubhouse.

"I went over there," Quinn said, motioning to the driving range on the other side of the clubhouse. "It was a little quieter."