Featured in Golf Business Magazine, a publication of the National Golf Course Owners Association (NGCOA), Hi-Level Golf Course is a third-generation family-owned business located in rural Western Pennsylvania, and built on the former oil boom town of Fern City, Pennsylvania. After 60 years in continuous ownership by the Hess family, the course retains its historic charm and design, while keeping up with the newest golf innovations. Hi-Level is one of the few courses in Pennsylvania to feature Golf Boards and FlingGolf, and last year they offered the more fitness-oriented players a complete Soccer Golf Course. Hi-Level has been described as "laid-back," "well-maintained", "user-friendly", "the best greens in Eastern U.S.", and was the first public 18-hole golf course in Clarion County. The course was constructed on the site of Fern City, an oil boom town with a population of 600 in 1885. In 1954, Edward Hess, a prominent oil and gas producer, and the current owners’ grandfather, purchased several tracts of rugged land. His main reason for the purchase was to improve the land in order to explore possible remaining oil reserves. Although not a golfer himself, Hess wanted to find out if others would enjoy playing the game on the newly developed land. (And his doubting brother-in-law bet him $5 that he couldn't.) A postcard from Dexter Press in 1955 read, "HESS FARM, owned by a Hess since it was State Land. A flowing well was discovered in 1883. The land was not under cultivation for thirty years prior to purchase by Ed E. Hess, who in nine months has completely restored it to its original beauty and productivity."
