Oglebay Speidel Course (Wheeling, WV)

Robert Trent Jones designed Speidel in 1969.  It's a beautiful piece of property in the hills of Wheeling, West Virginia, yet it's also a very difficult piece of property too. 

(The 452 yard first hole is a stout opener.)

Speidel is a typical "hard par, easy bogey" course as the holes go up and down the hills. The greens are canted and sloped. It's just a classic looking golf course! 

Three of the par threes are drop shot holes. The fourth is the best known as the green is fronted by a pond. 

(Many flowering trees frame the holes at Oglebay.) 

The eleventh is just as beautiful except the green is fitted into the hill with a large bunker fronting it. Fifteen is much shorter downhill shot, but the green is trickier to hit close to the flag. 

The meat of the course is the par fours. Four of them are over 450 yards. The third is 452 and uphill, a beast of a hole to make par on. 

(420 yard sixth plays downhill across a sideslope.) 

The last three holes are all long four pars that demand big drives and long irons. Eighteen is the best of the bunch as the hole doglegs left around a valley. The long hitter needs to choose how much to cut off while the shorter player can use the slope to propel his ball past the turn. 

With the ball above your feet, the player can turn the ball off the front right bunker and hit the middle of the green. At 462 yards, it's the longest par four on the course. 

The par fives are the weakness here, and Jones tried to use them to connect the toughest parts of the property. The fifth is virtually a boomerang that looks like turn four at the Daytona 500! It basically plays in a bowl of a hill. Eight has that same issue except it's the second shot, and the green has a very severe slope. Granted it's just two holes, but they definitely weigh the course down. 

The beauty of Oglebay is undisputed. Being between Pittsburgh, Columbus and Cleveland, many people come here for a relaxing vacation or weekend. For better golfers, the Speidel is a challenging course and is worth a play. I think its a 4 (above average). Unfortunately, this is my second Jones course, and fun is not a word I would use. (Tanglewood Park NC) 

Still, the course held the LPGA for over a decade, a testament to it's beauty and brawn.