DAY TRIPPIN’
Neshaminy Valley Is A Family Affair Charlie Schneider’s Dream Of A Public Course Continues To Thrive In Bucks County By Tom McNichol, Contributing Writer
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harlie Schneider had accomplished just about all he could as a club pro in the Philadelphia Section PGA. He had qualified for 10 PGA Championships and three U.S. Opens, competing against the greatest players in the game in the 1940s and 1950s. He had been the head pro at Concord Country Club and led the pro shop at LuLu Country Club for 20 years. He won the Philadelphia Section Championship four times and was a runnerup in the Pennsylvania Open. But Charlie Schneider wasn’t finished in the game of golf, not by a long shot. Teaming up with sons Charlie Jr., George, Herman and Fred, Charlie Schneider left his mark on the game in a much more tangible way. Charlie Schneider and his sons built Neshaminy Valley Golf Club, 6,014 yards from the tips, in a little corner of Jamison in Warwick Township, Bucks County where the Neshaminy Creek winds its way through the property. It was a public golf course, open for anyone to play. But Charlie Schneider also envisioned Neshaminy Valley as something that would belong to the Schneider family, a way to give back to the game and to his family. Fifty years later that vision is still very much alive. On a warm Tuesday afternoon in August, golfers arriving in the Neshaminy Valley pro shop are greeted by Nancy Thomas, a daughter of George Schneider and a granddaughter of Charlie Schneider. Other days, it might be one of Thomas’ brothers,
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tri-state golfer | Fall 2021
George or Jim Schneider, who is the president of the club. Nancy Thomas and George and Jim Schneider are also on Neshaminy Valley’s board of directors, as are other members of the Schneider family and their friends. If you’re looking for a family atmosphere as part of your public golf experience, you’ll certainly get that at Neshaminy Valley. “This is a family operation,” Thomas said. “It’s casual and a friendly atmosphere.” The weekend of July 16 and 17, they celebrated at Neshaminy Valley like it was 1971, when Charlie Schneider and his sons unveiled their new golf course. Charlie Schneider “We had a two-day weeks in the early days of the coronavirus tournament and we got some special hats and shirts, even some pandemic in 2020 when courses were closed. logoed golf balls, made up,” Nancy Thomas When it quickly became apparent that golf said. “We have a small membership, but was one of the few activities that people we’re primarily a daily-fee course. Between could do safely, golfers, those new to the our members and our regulars, we had a game and those who had always played and even a few who hadn’t picked up a club in a nice turnout.” Like public golf courses throughout while, flocked to the golf course. Somehow, the pandemic that had shut Pennsylvania, there was an anxious six
