Sixty years on the lake, three clubhouses lost to fire, one course that almost wasn't, and the season it earned its way back.
It started with fourteen weekenders who wanted a course of their own. Six decades later, it took one family to keep that course from disappearing.
Paupack Hills was founded in 1966 by fourteen local weekenders who wanted a course of their own. Five years later, in 1971, they opened nine holes on the south side of Lake Wallenpaupack.
They had hired George and Tom Fazio to design it, and by 1974 the back nine was in place and Paupack Hills was a full eighteen. For more than five decades it was the heart of the Tanglwood Lakes community, and one of the more memorable rounds in northeast Pennsylvania.
The clubhouse burned down three times across those years, the last in January 2022. Each time, the course kept playing.
Then in the fall of 2023, it stopped.
A Fazio design with holes overlooking two lakes was about to disappear. Maintenance ended, the previous owner walked away, and the property was being prepared to be stripped for parts.
Greg Johnson took on the full 137 acres in the spring of 2024: overgrown course, gutted buildings, no equipment, and seventy-five neighbors who'd already said yes.
In the spring of 2024, he and his family took on the 137-acre complex and everything that came with it. Roughly seventy-five neighbors backed the effort with lifetime memberships before the first mower turned over.
The property had grown over. The course had been gutted and stripped of every piece of equipment. Greg brought back the prior superintendent and the crew, and they got to work.
The first full season ran in 2025. Seventeen straight weekends of rain pushed the opening into May, and the course still delivered more than 15,000 rounds. Greens were reseeded. Fairways came back. Bunkers that had been neglected for years finally got the attention they had been missing.
On The Green, the bar and grille, reopened with it.
Seventeen wet weekends, a delayed May open, and the work of a crew who'd been here before. The score line speaks for itself.
What you find here today is a course that earned its way back. The Fazio routing is intact. The holes along Lake Wallenpaupack and Lake Tanglwood still play like the views were the whole point. The conditions are the work of people who care about getting this right.
Bring the property back. Greens reseeded, fairways recovered, bunkers given the attention they'd been missing for years.
Show up, every weekend. Fifteen thousand rounds. The bar and grille open again. The course remembered as a place you tell a friend to play.
Prepare to turn Paupack Hills into the lakeside resort destination the Lake Wallenpaupack area has been missing.
Each phase clears the room for the next. Together they turn the 137 acres into a year-round destination, not just a golf course with a grill.
A purpose-built Pro Shop goes in, with a golf-cart dealership attached. The maintenance operation moves out of the guest area and into its own dedicated facility.
That move clears the full 5,000 square feet of the building that currently houses On The Green, which sets up everything in Phase 2.
OTG takes over the full 5,000 sq ft, nearly three times the bar seating, plus a game floor and a private speakeasy room behind it.
Part of the space becomes a thirty-four-seat movie theater with recliners. Part becomes a teen third space, since there is nowhere around the lake right now where teenagers can actually hang out.
Ten to fourteen stay-and-play cottages go in between holes ten and eighteen, with views of Lake Tanglwood.
That is what turns a day at Paupack Hills into a weekend at Paupack Hills. And it's what turns the course into the resort the area has been missing.
A lakeside gazebo opens the property up for weddings and events. A fitness center and spa are part of the build.
The remaining racquetball courts get enclosed and converted into a year-round indoor sports facility, so the property doesn't shut down in November.
The 2022 fire took the original. The rebuild brings it back, clubhouse, full restaurant, and proper event space, sized to anchor everything else that will have been built around it by then.
This phase is the last on purpose. By the time it opens, the rest of the property has earned the size it needs to be.
The Fazio routing is intact. The holes along Lake Wallenpaupack and Lake Tanglwood still play like the views were the whole point. Tee sheet open daily, 6:30 AM to dusk.
We're only getting started, and there's a place in what comes next for anyone who wants in. Investor packets, partnership conversations, founder-member inquiries: all welcome.
The dedicated investor page is in the works. Until it's live, the easiest path is to tell us a little about you and what you're curious about. Greg will follow up directly.
