The golf community has seen a rebirth of sorts in Huntingdon County as the original Standing Stone Golf Course has recently re-opened under the name of Raystown Golf Resort.

New owner Casey McGraw, who also owns and operates McGraw Contracting in Huntingdon, and his wife, Mercedes, have been hard at work on the course and surrounding facilities since purchasing the property in March.

“I’ve been familiar with the course all my life,” McGraw said. “It’s a real gem. After seeing more of it when the property came up for sale, my wife and I fell in love with the place. We really didn’t want to see it get plowed under and disappear.”

In recent years, course conditions at Standing Stone had begun to suffer though some improvements had been made to the clubhouse and facilities under prior ownership.

When McGraw purchased the course earlier this spring, he knew he had a lot of work ahead of him.

While having a degree in engineering from Penn State and experience in running a successful construction business were helpful, learning about turf management and the other intricacies of running a golf course were very new.

“I decided to jump right in and learn as much as I could on-line,” McGraw said. “I researched information on agronomy and how to care for the greens. I also used other AI tools and reached out for advice wherever I could find it.”

It didn’t take long for the highly-motivated McGraw to start making a difference at the newly-dubbed Raystown Golf Resort.

With ready-access to equipment from his contracting business and his newfound turf knowledge, McGraw was able to quickly improve the condition of the club’s greens in dramatic fashion.

“Right now, our greens are fast and smooth. They’re really healthy,” McGraw said. “We got off to a later start on the fairways, but that’s our next project. I expect to have them turning around soon.”

At initial purchase, McGraw’s plans involved scaling the course down to nine-holes and constructing housing units around the perimeter. Those plans quickly changed when he saw the potential for a stay-and-play golf resort.

The property will now retain the original 18-holes of golf with a focus as a “destination course.”

Current plans call for luxury cabins to be built adjacent to the 18th fairway along Standing Stone Creek and beyond.

While there’s still plenty of work to be done, visitors to the course today will see a marked difference from conditions they may have seen just last year.

In addition to the golf course improvements, the property has seen multiple upgrades to the clubhouse, new paving of the cart paths and parking lot and extensive landscaping work throughout.

Though the grand opening for the course was held just two weeks ago, McGraw has plans for many more improvements to the property.

He also gives plenty of credit for the work already done to his wife, who oversees the clubhouse and pro shop facilities, Scott Eichelberger, who serves as director of golf, and the many members of his construction company.

Though new to the golf industry, McGraw has made impressive strides so far in getting this golf course moving in the right direction.

Re-opening the layout, originally designed by renowned architect Geoffrey Cornish in the early 1970s, has been no easy feat.

“I look at this project as a great underdog story, being able to bring this course back from the edge of disappearing,” McGraw said. “It’s been a lot of work so far, but it really means a lot to me.”