Toftrees Golf Resort

Toftrees is widely described as Pennsylvania's first planned community, developed primarily from the late 1960s into the early 1970s on roughly 1,500 acres of forest about three and a half miles west of Penn State University in Patton Township, Centre County (mailing address State College). Its organizing feature from the start was golf: an 18-hole course designed by nationally known architect Edmund "Ed" Ault opened in 1968-69, and the surrounding residential product -- townhouses, single-family homes, and apartments -- was built around it as a single, deliberately integrated development, rather than a golf course that happened to attract nearby subdivisions later. A resort hotel (currently managed by Shaner Hotel Group, with Marriott Golf managing the golf operation and programming) and an on-site restaurant, The Field, round out the resort side of the property.

The golf course itself, however, is public/daily-fee, not a private or gated club -- Golf Digest's 'Places to Play' has rated it 4.5 stars and named it one of Pennsylvania's best resort/public courses. An optional paid membership tier exists on top of daily-fee play (unlimited driving range and short-game access, pro-shop discounts, and dining discounts at The Field), but it is open to the general public rather than restricted to Toftrees residents, and no source found ties homeownership in any Toftrees neighborhood to membership eligibility or pricing. In February 2025 the resort announced a major course renovation led by architect Jim Nagle of Nagle Design Works, reportedly aiming for Toftrees to become one of the state's best public layouts, alongside reported plans for the hotel to join Marriott's Autograph Collection -- a real, current investment signal, though construction timing was not yet set as of the announcement.

The residential side of Toftrees is organized into several named associations built directly around the course: the Toftrees Homeowners Association (a 60-unit neighborhood) and the Woodledge Drive Cluster Association (61 attached townhome units sited in wooded surroundings within Toftrees) both sit inside the original planned community, and The Village at Penn State, an age-restricted retirement community with single-family homes, condos, and townhomes, sits along the golf course with its own community center, pool, and a walking path connecting directly to Penn State's Arboretum. Apartment product (e.g., Toftrees Apartments) also occupies part of the original planned footprint.