Love of the game fuels Hickory Heights owner

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Reconfiguring Hickory Heights Golf Club came easy to Sam Depe III when he bought the place in 2009. After spending 28 years as the head pro at South Hills Country Club, he knew how to get the course back in shape: knock down trees, fill in fairway bunkers, that sort of thing, what he called “a massive project.”

“I knew the golf side, but I wasn’t familiar with the restaurant side,” Depe said. “That was a big awakening.”

In November, Depe, a PGA member for 36 years, will receive the organization’s Deacon Palmer award at the PGA’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas. Named after Arnold Palmer’s father, the award recognizes a PGA pro who displayed integrity and character to overcome a major obstacle.

“You get an award associated with any Palmer, you’re overwhelmed,” Depe said. “Arnold Palmer was my favorite. I was very honored, especially a national award.”

For Depe, the obstacle came in 1998. He had just won a tournament in Fox Chapel and was driving home on Route 28 when his BMW careened off the road, hit a utility pole and flipped three times. He lost one of his legs in the crash; doctors amputated the other. Twice in the next five days he went into cardiac arrest and at one point he fell into a coma. Playing golf, the game that made up his livelihood, was taken from him.

“I don’t feel sorry about not being able to play,” Depe, 68, said. “I gave it a shot and it really wasn’t much fun. I wasn’t able to hit the ball very far and it was too much of a different game. I don’t miss it at all, honestly. I miss being with my friends and going here, going there, playing golf. Miss the golf trips. But I really don’t miss playing that much.”

Less than a year after the accident, Depe returned to South Hills, but owning a course intrigued him. After purchasing Hickory Heights, in South Fayette, he turned to friends in the restaurant industry to learn what needed to be done to the pub and banquet space.

“I've been through about three chefs so far [one of them was Scott Templeton, Mario Lemieux’s former personal chef] and I kind of used them as a sounding board for the menu and everything like that,” Depe said. “The golf’s the fun part.”

Depe doesn’t give many lessons