Why Youngstown Belongs on Your Next Buddies Trip: A Penn-Ohio Golf Trail Primer

Tell a golf buddy you're booking a trip to Youngstown and watch the eyebrow go up. Tell him the package includes a Donald Ross design, a Pete Dye track, a private former LPGA stop, a 12,000 square foot mansion sleeping the whole crew, and a casino with live thoroughbreds eight minutes from the first tee, and the eyebrow comes back down. This is one of those destinations veteran golf travelers know about and quietly book every year while everyone else flies past it on the way somewhere flashier.

The Mahoning Valley sits at the heart of the Penn-Ohio Golf Trail, an under-the-radar network that stretches across Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania with more than 50 courses, five historic mansions, and 20 hotels woven into stay-and-play packages. The Youngstown, Warren, and Sharon corridor is the home base, and it's where most of the courses and all four original mansions are clustered. Land at Pittsburgh International, drive an hour, and you barely need your car again for three days.

Where to Play

Start with the heavyweights and work your way down the lineup.

Avalon Lakes is the headliner. A Pete Dye parkland design that's consistently ranked in the top 100 by multiple golf course publications, and a former LPGA host along with its sister course Avalon Squaw Creek. Dye in full parkland mode is different from the railroad-tie Dye most of us grew up cursing at on TV, but the man's fingerprints are still all over it. Bring extra sleeves.

Mill Creek Park is the value play that hits above its weight. Two 18-hole Donald Ross courses on a single municipal property, host site for the American Junior Golf Association. Two Ross courses, public access, in a city park. Think about that for a second. You will pay more for one Ross round at most resorts than you will pay for both of these and lunch.

Olde Stonewall is technically over the Pennsylvania border, but every Trail itinerary worth booking ends up there. Rated Pennsylvania's number one public course and ranked among the top 50 public courses by Golf Digest, with a low country front nine and a back nine that has serious elevation changes. The clubhouse looks like someone airlifted a Scottish castle into Western PA. It is not subtle. It is not trying to be.

Other names that earn their tee times: Tam O'Shanter, Pine Grove, Green Meadows, Spring Valley, and Stone Crest in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, with Firestone Farms, Kennsington, Mill Creek North and South, and Reserve Run on the Ohio side. Reserve Run, a Barry Sarafin design, has been hailed as one of the top public golf courses in Ohio. Kennsington, by Brian Huntley, blends natural terrain with a real test off the back tees.

If your group can swing the private side, the Trail has an ace card: it holds exclusive booking rights at members-only clubs you cannot otherwise touch. Youngstown CC has hosted a Western Open. Trumbull CC and Avalon Buhl are traditional private club designs. Glenmoor CC and Shady Hollow CC in Canton round out the country club roster. Youngstown Country Club itself is the deep cut. Designed in 1898 by Walter Travis and redesigned by Donald Ross in 1924, it's defined by gently rolling hills, a meandering creek, and tree-lined fairways. A 1924 Ross routing in playable condition is a rare animal anywhere. Getting access to one through a stay-and-play package is borderline absurd.

Where to Stay

Here is where Youngstown separates itself from the pack.

The historic mansions are the headline act and you should not pass them up if your group is six or larger. Built for the wealthy steel families of the early 20th century, the four mansions sleep up to 30 golfers each, with large gathering rooms, big screen TVs, pool tables, game rooms, full kitchens, and breakfast served right at the house. The Campbell mansion sits across from Youngstown Country Club and at twelve thousand square feet is the largest home on the Trail. The Tod was built on the estate of the Stambaugh and Tod families. You sleep where a steel baron used to host bourbon nights, you wake up to coffee and bacon already going, and you walk to the van. There is no version of this that exists in Scottsdale, Pinehurst, or anywhere else.

Couples or smaller groups, take a different angle. The DoubleTree by Hilton Youngstown Downtown sits in the beautifully restored historic Stambaugh Building right downtown, with Bistro 1907 inside the hotel. The Stambaugh originally opened in 1907 as the home of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, sat empty for decades, and reopened in May 2018 as the first downtown Youngstown hotel in roughly 40 years. The top-floor ballroom has 13-foot ceilings, Palladian windows, and views from 12 stories up. It is the move for couples, anniversary trips, or any group that wants the city instead of the suburbs. The Grand Resort at Avalon also offers on-site lodging directly paired with the Avalon courses if you want a full resort feel.

For everyone else, the Trail has 20 hotels scattered around the area, including options in Boardman just off I-680 and clean easy-access spots right off I-80. Pick by which courses you booked and the van time stays under 20 minutes most days.

What to Do Along the Way

This is where the trip becomes a trip.

Start with food, because Youngstown is a food town and anyone who tells you otherwise has not eaten here. Try the Brier Hill pizza. That is not a suggestion, it is the entry fee. Brier Hill is the Youngstown style: square cut, sweet tomato sauce, romano cheese, green peppers on top, very little mozzarella. It does not look like the pizza you grew up on and that is the point. Belleria in Hubbard, Sunrise in Warren, and Franky's in Warren are all easy stops. The Trail itself points buddies to Station Square Ristorante on Belmont Avenue for Italian, The Chophouse in Warren for steaks, Aqua Pazzo in Boardman for upscale Italian, Salvatore's in Warren for the red sauce night your crew talks about for a year, Cockeye BBQ in Warren if someone wants ribs and a beer, and Coach's Burger Bar on Belmont when nobody can agree on anything fancier. If you cross over into Pennsylvania, Combine Brothers in Hermitage and Muscarella's in Sharpsville are the local picks.

For after dinner, you have options. Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course is the Mahoning Valley's gaming and entertainment headquarters, a mile-long dirt thoroughbred track and trackside dining with more than 1,100 video lottery terminals. Live thoroughbred racing runs October through April with simulcast year-round. Ohio law keeps tables and poker out of racinos, so it is slots and ponies, but it is a clean modern room and an easy weeknight win-or-lose-some after the round. October-through-April crew, this is your live racing window. Plan around it.

Past Times Arcade is the curveball nobody expects. Over 400 pinball machines and more than 200 classic arcade games, spanning nearly a century of production. Take four guys, give them quarters, and lose an hour and a half to a Williams pinball table from 1991. Tell me that is not a great night.

Mill Creek MetroPark covers more than 2,658 acres with 20 miles of drives and 45 miles of trails if anyone in the group needs to walk off the prior night. For drinks with a view, Charbenay's on the River sits on the bank of the Mahoning River in historic downtown Warren, with a deep wine list, signature cocktails, and bottled beer for the holdouts. Buhl Park over in the Shenango Valley is worth a side trip and contains, in a fact you will absolutely fact-check before believing, the only free golf course in the world.

Rained out? The Bunker has 10 simulator bays loaded with the most famous courses on the planet, an indoor putting green, a full restaurant and bar, and PGA Pro John Diana on site for lessons if anyone in the group is willing to admit they need one. The Trail can book it ahead of time. RoboGolfPro is on the way.

The drinking trail is no joke either. Paladin Brewing in Austintown was the first 15-barrel brew system in the area and now serves food alongside the beer. Penguin City Brewing has the local pride angle covered. For wine, Mastropietro runs a Tuscan-style tasting room with live music most weekends, Halliday's sits on Lake Milton with boat docks, The Vineyards at Pine Lake has a chef-driven menu, and L'uva Bella runs a wood-fired pizza oven imported from Italy. Western Reserve Distillers, Red Eagle, and a half-dozen others handle the brown water side.

And one Youngstown rule: do not leave town without stopping at Handel's. Local consensus is that it is the best ice cream on the planet, and the planet has not really mounted a counter-argument. Eight bucks and a chocolate peanut butter cone is the cheapest victory of the trip.

The Pitch

Youngstown is not pretending to be Bandon, Pinehurst, or Sea Island. It does not need to. What it offers is a Donald Ross municipal twofer, a Pete Dye top-100, a private 1924 Ross routing accessible through a package, a steel-baron mansion to sleep in, a casino down the road, a downtown that is quietly back on its feet, and a slice of Brier Hill pizza you will think about on the drive home. Pine Lakes Resorts handles the booking on the Trail, and one phone call sets up the courses, the lodging, and the schedule. 877-534-6789.

Book it. Bring extra sleeves. Tip the caddie at Youngstown CC.