Beer of the Week

The beer: Snallygaster Peach Mango Cream Ale

Brewed by: Berkeley Springs Brewing Company, Berkeley Springs, West Virginia

Description (from the can): "This fruit-infused cream ale has the juicy sweetness of a peach and the citric tartness of a mango ... watch out for Snally!"

Would I buy it again?: I'm not quite sure how I feel about this one. On the one hand, I actually think the peach-mango combo works pretty well. On the other, this beer was completely incapable of maintaining a head, and it doesn't quite feel fully carbonated. We're talking about a pretty small brewery here, and this does feel a bit amateurish. Decent, but I feel like a bigger, more established brewery could do better. 

Review: Omni Bedford Springs Resort (Part 2)

It's time to take a look at the back nine at Bedford Springs, go here to see the front.

The tenth hole is about as short a par 3 you'll see on any full-size golf course, coming in at a miniscule 124 yards, and it's an event from start to finish. The golf course has been very flat for the past few holes, and when you finish the ninth, the walk to the tenth is up a long, spiraling path ascending up a 50-foot hill. From the tee, you're greeted with a little wedge over a deep valley to a green on the other side, with massive falloffs both short and right. Going long isn't much better, since you'll be left with an incredibly delicate downhill chip to a green that slopes pretty significantly from back to front. So even if you hit the green, it's not necessarily an easy two putt. So yes, this hole is really short, but that doesn't mean it's easy.

The tenth hole. Missing short or right would be a very bad idea.

The tenth green.

The eleventh hole is by far the longest par 4 at Bedford Springs at 465 yards, but it does play pretty far downhill, which does mitigate the length somewhat. It's a pretty wide fairway, with the only real trouble being the road about 10-15 yards right. So feel free to pull the driver and get as far as you can. The second shot will be a short or mid iron into a fairly small green closely guarded by two bunkers. This is a long hole, but it's not really that tough.

The eleventh hole.

Approaching the eleventh hole.

The eleventh green.

The twelfth hole is 410 yards, making it the second longest par 4 at Bedford Springs. This course doesn't have very long par 4s despite being almost 6,800 yards from the back tees. The hole is pretty much dead flat, and there's O.B. right and two fairway bunkers left. The second shot is a wedge or short iron to a green guarded by a series of mounds right and bunkers left and long. 

The twelfth hole.

Approaching the twelfth green.

The twelfth green.

The thirteenth hole is 615 yards, and yes, this is the longest hole on the course. Finally. The hole is flat, just like the previous hole, and the road continues down the entire right side, so it's constantly in your mind. The tendency is going to be to bail out left on this dogleg right, lengthening a hole that really doesn't need to be any longer. Provided you hit two solid shots, the third will be a wedge or short iron into a green with a fair amount of back to front slope and protected by three bunkers. 

The thirteenth hole, with the resort in the background.

Approaching the thirteenth green.

Not only does Bedford Springs have one par 3 under 150 yards, it actually has two: the tenth and the fourteenth. This is slightly longer than the tenth at 135 yards, but it plays significantly downhill. This hole is quite a bit easier as well, despite the abundance of hazards. There's water short and four bunkers going around the back of the green, but it's still less threatening then the big hill on the tenth. The green is flatter as well. I do like the hole, and it's nice to have a little wedge off of the tee after slogging through the thirteenth.

The fourteenth hole.

The fourteenth green.

The fifteenth hole is a 360 yard par 4 with one defining feature: a big tree right where you'd want to aim your drive. I suppose the stronger hitters could try to go over, but for most, you'll either have to go right and leave a very long second – you could easily have 150 yards or more – or slot a long fade in between the lone tree and the line of trees by the fairway and leave a more reasonable wedge. A cluster of three bunkers behind the lone tree further complicates matters. The second shot is to a bunkerless, undulating green. I'm not sure about that tree, I imagine it's a polarizing feature among regulars, but I'll say this, it definitely makes the hole more memorable.

The fifteenth hole.

Approaching the fifteenth green.

The fifteenth green.

The sixteenth hole is the fourth and final really long par 5 at Bedford Springs, coming in at 593 yards. The fairway slopes from left to right, and there's O.B. left. It's not too threatening, and in general the drive is pretty open. The second shot is more challenging. You'll be naturally drawn away from the road and the big fairway bunkers, but if you stray right of the fairway at all, your third shot will be blocked out by a small group of trees. And the space between the trees and the road isn't super generous either. Provided you do get into a good lay-up position, the third shot is to a fairly narrow green with a bunker left and two bunkers and a steep dropoff right.

The sixteenth hole.

Approaching the sixteenth green.

The sixteenth green.

I'm not sure if the seventeenth hole (and the eighteenth) are restorations of former holes or entirely new, but I do know that they weren't around 15 years ago. This was the driving range, which has been moved out beyond the fifteenth green where a hole (or maybe two) used to be. While at 175 yards it's a bit shorter than a typical Redan, it does play pretty similarly to one. There's the deep front left bunkers, a green sloping gently from right to left, and a distinct benefit to hitting a draw off of the tee. It's not a shining example, but it's still a good hole.

The seventeenth hole.

The seventeenth green.

The eighteenth hole is the sort of finishing hole I like. At 355 yards, it's not overly punishing and it's definitely reasonable to finish with a birdie. However, it requires some thought and consideration. The fairway meanders between three bunkers left and one right, and long hitters need to be wary of the cross bunkers about 300 yards from the tee. The prudent play for many is to lay up on the tee short of the right bunker, but that will leave a tougher second shot with a poor angle over a greenside bunker. The green is elevated and reasonably flat with a dropoff right. Precision is the most important thing on this hole, and if you hit two patient shots, you can definitely end with a birdie.

The eighteenth hole.

Approaching the eighteenth green.

The eighteenth green.

Let there be no question, Bedford Springs is a very good golf course, and the restoration has done a lot of good. It looked good and it played well, even in the middle of December. The course also has a very good set of par 3s, probably the best that I've ever played. It's worth seeing Bedford Springs just for those. The second is the worst of the five, and that's still a good hole. Then there's the fourth. There may come a day when I've played enough great golf courses that Bedford Springs' Volcano will fall off of my personal top 10 favorite holes, but I don't think that day will come anytime soon. It's long, it's ridiculous, it's incredibly difficult and punishing, and I love it. It's a hole with a sense of humor. Yes, it's insane, but whoever put the hole there knew that, and they did it anyway. They stuck a flag up at the top of a hill, put a tee an unreasonable distance away, and said: "Figure it out." Crucially though, they kept the hole simple and relatively hazard free. If there was any sort of water or long grass anywhere close to the green, it wouldn't work. It would be too punishing. If you triple it, it'll be because you took six shots, not because you dumped a golf ball in a pond or lost it in unreasonably high grass. 

Unfortunately, the same quality does not extend to the rest of the course. Not that they're bad, not by a long shot. However, Bedford Springs does occasionally suffer from the same issue as Cape Arundel, in that there's just too much space to miss. Despite being wedged into a narrow valley, the property is pretty flat (the par 3s are an exception, which is probably why they're so good), and it's also very open. You have a ton of room to use driver and get away with wayward shots, since there's very little punishment for it. That leads me into my second issue: The length of the course is poorly balanced. Bedford Springs is 6,800 yards from the back tees, which is perfectly fine, but that length is reached in a weird way. Of the eight par 4s, only three are more than 360 yards, and only one is over 410. I like short par 4s, but aside from the first and maybe the last, there isn't anything terribly special about the ones here. Then there's the par 5s. Leaving aside the ninth, the other four average over 600 yards, which is a lot. And like I said before, there's not much to do on them other than hit the ball as far as possible. 

Now, if this course cost at most $50 to play, I'd be a lot more lenient with my criticism. Bedford Springs has a lot of good things going for it, and I do think it's a very good golf course. But I treat these high-tier courses with big greens fees a bit harsher, and for $150 or whatever they charge in season, Bedford Springs just doesn't offer enough to be worth that price. I think you should go and play it because the par 3s really are special, but don't go in the summer. November or April, that's when you should go.

Beer of the Week

The beer: Blue Stripe Kolsch

Brewed by: Axemann Brewery, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania

Description (from the website): "Blue Stripe beer is the flagship beer of Axemann Brewery - a bright and clear kolsch-style brew perfected for everyday excellence."

Would I buy it again?: Yes, I would. It's a tasty yet very drinkable beer, definitely better than Yuengling. It's definitely worth the extra cost. In addition, this brewery, if I remember correctly, is owned by a friend of a friend (maybe? I think I'm remembering that correctly) so that helps the cause. Not that it needed help. I wish it was available in places other than State College, I'd buy it all the time.

Review: Omni Bedford Springs Resort (Part 1)

December is generally not a conducive time to play golf in the Northeast. But warm days do happen, and let me tell you, nothing brings out the golfers like a 60 degree Saturday in December during a COVID lockdown. Either you accept your fate of a 5 hour round, or you get a little creative with your golf course choice. And that brings us to Bedford Springs, a golf course that makes a strong case for being the best public course in Pennsylvania. In season, a round here costs $150, but from November to the end of April, you can play it for a lot less. And so when a pleasant Saturday in December presented itself, Bedford Springs was the only course within 3 hours with open tee times.

One would assume that Bedford, Pennsylvania, is just another little town tucked away in the mountains, and that the golf course there would be nothing special. But Bedford Springs is definitely not your average golf course, and Bedford Springs Resort is not your average hotel. Back around 1800, the springs outside of town were discovered to have high mineral content, and back then, mineral springs were thought to have healing powers. A doctor bought the land containing the springs and built bathing facilities there, and thus the resort was born. It flourished over the next 100 or so years, with the main building growing to rather prodigious size. 

It was only natural for golf to emerge at such a lavish, upscale resort, and it did so in 1895 courtesy of Spencer Oldham. That's not a name anyone would recognize, but 20 years later the golf course at Bedford Springs was brought down from 18 to 9 holes and redesigned by one A.W. Tillinghast. I'm not sure what prompted the reduction, but it didn't last long, as the course was redesigned again and brought back to a full 18 by Donald Ross. You don't see the Tillinghast/Ross combo too often.

As time went on, the hotel became less about the springs and more of a nice resort along the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It weathered the Depression and the Second World War well enough, but things took a turn for the worse in the 1980s, and the resort closed its doors in 1986. The golf course continued on, but it suffered from neglect, just like so many other old Golden Age courses. I actually played Bedford Springs twice in the early 2000s in junior golf tournaments, at the tail end of the resort's 20-year abandoned period, and even 11-year-old me could tell there was something interesting going on with the course beyond the poor maintenance. It just needed some love, and it would soon get it. The golf course was renovated in 2008, courtesy of Ron Pritchard, alongside the reopening of the hotel. So now the big question, since I've now played the course before and after the renovation: How good is Bedford Springs now?

The first hole is an interesting way to open the round. It's a short par 4 at 310 yards, which means there are people who could consider going for the green on the drive. It's not an easy proposition using the driver though; you have to clear a group of four bunkers built into the hill and hit into a narrow, tilted fairway with a road left and a stream right. The fairway short of the bunkers is quite generous, but you can only really go 200 yards or so, meaning you'll have a full wedge up the hill into a semiblind green with bunkers and the steep dropoff right very much in play. That's not exactly the approach you want on a hole this short or this early in the round. Is this a tough hole? No, it's wide and it's only 300 yards. But it's also not easy or straightforward, and it's a good way to start the round.

The first hole. I was impressed how green the grass was, considering we played in the middle of December, but this is an upscale place, and they can afford the extra maintenance.

Approaching the first green.

The first green.

The second hole is the first of Bedford Springs' five par 3s. Now, when I played here before the renovation, the second was a par 3, but it wasn't this par 3. There were some routing changes, some holes got taken out, some got added, and the entire sequence was shifted. What was the second is now the fourteenth (and is also a par 3), and while I don't remember what exactly this hole was before, I know it wasn't the second. This hole is 190 yards and the most obvious hazard is the stream that flows between the tee and green. The green is medium sized and also has a bunker to the right. This is a pretty straightforward hole, but it's still solid, even though it's the weakest of the set at Bedford Springs.

The second hole.

The second green.

I hope you enjoy long par 5s, because Bedford Springs has four very, very long ones (and one normal-sized one). The third hole is 589 yards, and it's the second shortest of the five. There is barely any mercy from the next tee up; it's 577 yards from there. And on a not particularly warm December morning, it played every bit of that yardage. The hole is wide open left, though there is a series of mounds separating it from the thirteenth that you don't want to end up on, since they'll make getting to the green in regulation difficult. But since the stream is running right of the fairway, you'll be naturally drawn away from that and toward the mounds. If you do hit the fairway, the hole is still a definite three-shot affair, with the second being mostly a matter of positioning. The green is quite interesting though, being protected by two bunkers and having multiple levels. If you're not on the right level, two putting becomes very difficult.

The third hole.

Approaching the third green.

The third green.

The fourth hole is probably the most well-known hole at Bedford Springs, and definitely its most difficult. When I reviewed Shennecossett a few years ago, I mentioned the Volcano hole there (incidentally, it's also the fourth) and briefly compared it with the one here. Funny enough, while I stand by my conviction that this is by far the more difficult hole, the scores don't back that up. Here, my brother and I played it in one over; there, I made a triple and my brothers didn't do much better. It's amazing how much a difference hitting a good (or a not completely awful) iron makes. Anyway, I think the difficulty here is pretty obvious: the green is 30-40 feet above the tee, perched upon the top of a hill. Wayward shots will be bounced away into generally unfriendly locations, with those two bunkers right and the one front left being especially brutal places to miss. There's not much of a dropoff past, but before you go missing long, the green slopes from back to front quite a lot, making chip shots quite tough. So even if you hit the green, it's not necessarily an easy two putt. Take your par (or even bogey) and run.

The fourth hole, the infamous Volcano hole.

The fourth green.

The fifth hole is 611 yards, but it still isn't the longest hole at Bedford Springs. Not quite. The tee shot isn't very interesting, with the only real hazard being some overhanging trees on the right side. Otherwise, just get it out there as far as you can, preferably with a fade to match the dogleg. The rest of the hole has more going on. Bunkers protect the lay-up area on both sides, and the green is protected by five bunkers on three sides. Even so, this is a hole that mostly relies on length to provide challenge. 

The fifth hole.

Approaching the fifth green.

The fifth green.

The sixth hole is the first par 4 we've seen since the first, and it's a pretty good one. The first five holes go pretty much in a straight line out to this point, the furthest spot from the clubhouse. The hole is 360 yards and set among dense forest, giving it (and the second half of the fifth hole) a slightly different look to the rest of the course. There's plenty of space between the trees, and the fairway is fairly wide, but it meanders through a maze of three fairway bunkers, so you'll need an accurate drive to avoid them. If you negotiate those, you'll have a wedge into a fairly narrow green flanked by sand.

The sixth green. There's a stream that runs between the fairway and tees, but it's a very minor threat.

Approaching the sixth green.

The sixth green.

The seventh hole is a mid-length par 4 that runs along the creek, which eventually cuts across the hole a bit over 300 yards from the tee, separating the green from the fairway. Unless you're a tour player, you don't have to worry about running out of space if you go right, but going down that way leaves you with a worse angle into the green. Go down the left side, close to the creek, and you'll have a much better shot. However, there's not nearly as much room to use driver, so if your intention is to go left, you might want a 3 wood. I tried to go right with a driver, hooked it, and was just a few feet short of running out of space. On a drier and warmer day, I almost certainly would have gone in.

The seventh hole.

Approaching the seventh green.

The seventh green.

The eighth hole is a 355 yards par 4 with a tee shot that looks a lot tougher than it actually is. When you're on the tee, you can't really see any fairway, just tall grass surrounding the creek. And while a carry is involved, it's only 175-200 yards, which is not a lot, and there's a fair amount of room left of the fairway as well. The second shot is the actual challenge here, since the green isn't big and it's actually completely surrounded by sand, which isn't a common occurrence on these old golf courses. 

The eighth hole.

Approaching the eighth green.

The eighth green.

The ninth hole is the lone reachable par 5 at Bedford Springs, playing 525 yards from the tips. And there's plenty of room to be aggressive on the tee, since there's no trees, no stream, and the fairway bunker is pretty easy to get past. The longest hitters may want to be wary of a small ditch that crosses the fairway about 200 yards from the green, but most of us won't get that far. If you are going for it in two, the green has two bunkers right but is wide open left, and there's some left to right slope to bring shots in toward the hole. I think this is easily the best birdie opportunity during the round, and I'm really irritated that I missed a 5 footer for birdie. I didn't get a better chance than that.

The ninth hole.

Approaching the ninth green, with the tenth hole beyond. That was quite a hole, but we'll get to that.

The ninth green.

That's it for this week, next week we'll take a look at the back nine.