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.