Bedford Springs Hotel Golf Club

Golf came to Bedford Springs in 1895, when the resort hired Spencer Oldham, a Baltimore club professional, to lay out 18 holes on the valley floor beside the hotel. At about 6,000 yards it was one of the first courses of that length in the United States. In 1912 A. W. Tillinghast, very early in his career, cut the course to nine holes; the par 3 known as Tiny Tim dates from his work.

In 1923 the hotel hired Donald Ross to make it 18 holes again. According to the Altoona Mirror's history of the course, Ross kept seven existing holes and added 11 new ones, most of them cut out of the woods beside the old course. Ron Forse, who restored the course, dates the opening of Ross's 18 to May 1923. The resort's hole guide credits 11 of today's holes to Ross (the 4th through the 12th, the 16th and the 18th), four to Tillinghast (the 3rd, 13th, 14th and 17th) and three to Oldham (the 1st, 2nd and 15th).

In the 1970s a practice range was built over the last two holes of the 1923 card, a par 3 and a par 4, and the routing was renumbered around the gap. The hotel closed in 1986. By the time Bedford Resort Partners took it on, a silted Shobers Run closed the course after every inch of rain. The owners hired Forse in the spring of 2005; construction ran from June to October 2006, and the course reopened with the hotel in July 2007.

Holes to Know

From the Medal tees the card is par 37 out and 35 home, with five par 3s and five par 5s; the 2nd through the 5th alternate par 3 and par 5.

The 223-yard 4th from the Medal tees, stroke index 1, is the Volcano, an original 1923 Ross hole and the best known on the course. The shot crosses Shobers Run about 60 yards out and climbs to a green on a foothill, flanked by two bunkers on each side; the resort describes a narrow, two-tier putting surface.

The 358-yard 6th from the Medal tees, "Ross's Cathedral," is the only hole lined with trees from tee to green. The drive crosses a branch of the creek, and the approach goes to a two-tier green with a bunker at its front left and another down its right side.

The 124-yard 10th from the Medal tees, "Gulley," is another original Ross hole: a wooded ravine 55 feet deep separates the tee from a wide, two-tier green with a single bunker on its right.

The 593-yard 16th from the Medal tees, "Hole o' Cross," runs beside a road the whole way on the left. Two bunkers pinch the fairway about 400 yards out, and the resort's guide describes a green shaped like a Maltese cross, inspired by Tillinghast's 14th green at the Valley Country Club.

The 356-yard 18th from the Medal tees, "Home," is one of the two holes lost in the 1970s and rebuilt in 2007. Its fairway bends in an S past eight bunkers, the most on the course, including a pair of cross bunkers short of the green.

Ross's Design Here

Most of the Ross holes lie in the middle of the round, from the 4th to the 12th, on the valley floor along Shobers Run.

The 4th, 6th and 10th have two-tier greens. Forse found that the greens of the 8th and 9th mirror greens Ross built on other courses at about the same time. The 9th, a short par 5 in the open meadow, has a green split by a swale into three plateaus, and the 8th green is guarded by five bunkers, one of them chest-deep. The 5th, a double-dogleg par 5 through oak, hickory and sycamore, keeps its Ross green and five bunkers. On the 12th, a group of five mounds to the right of the green dates from the 1923 design, and the fairway tilts from right to left past two side-by-side bunkers. The 11th, at 467 yards from the Medal tees the longest par 4 and stroke index 2, has eight fescue mounds down its left side and a fairway broken into three sections.

The 7th has no bunkers at all. The resort describes a tee shot meant to be placed near Shobers Run and a green ringed by mounds that give it a rolling edge. When the stream was rebuilt in 2006, Forse and his associate Jim Nagle would not let it be moved on the 7th and 8th, because they did not want to depart from what Ross had built in 1923.

Ross also kept what he inherited. Tillinghast's Tiny Tim, today's 14th, is a short downhill par 3 over a creek-fed pond to a kidney-shaped green divided by a ridge. Oldham's 2nd, a par 3 with the stream on its left, has been in play since 1895; and the 3rd keeps Oldham's S-shaped and donut bunkers and a green of plateaus and swales.

Historical Significance

Bedford Springs is one of the few places where work by Oldham, Tillinghast and Ross can be played in one round. The resort's general manager called it "something of a golf architectural museum" before it reopened in 2007, and Forse calls it "a museum of the first 30 years of American golf architecture." The hotel, the course and the springs make up the Bedford Springs Hotel Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991. The landmark nomination, written while the hotel stood empty, counted 16 of Ross's 18 holes still present.

The Volcano made the course's early reputation. When it was built it measured 197 yards, to a green about 40 feet above the tee. The resort held a professional tournament every August in the 1920s, and when the pros arrived in 1924, a newspaper described the hole as having "almost a perpendicular grassy wall facing the tee." Only two birdies were made there that week. In 1929 a nationally syndicated golf column reported that "Bedford Springs claims one of the hardest holes existing," and told of a Pittsburgh surgeon who had stood on the tee during a pro tournament betting each player that he could not hit the green, and finished $63 ahead.

In September 2008 the Tillinghast Association and the Donald Ross Society held a joint meeting at the resort. Golfweek ranked the Old Course first in Pennsylvania on its 2024 list of courses you can play, and first again on its 2026 list of the state's public-access courses. In June 2026 Historic Hotels of America named it to its list of the 25 most historic golf courses at its member hotels.

Changes Since Ross

The largest loss was the pair of closing holes taken by the practice range in the 1970s; in the renumbered layout, today's 16th played as the 18th. The 2007 restoration returned the 1923 sequence. The par-3 17th, which the resort credits to Tillinghast, was rebuilt from a large mural on the wall of the original 1923 clubhouse, and the 18th came back with its S-shaped fairway.

Irrigation, drainage, fairways, greens, bunkers and tees were all rebuilt. LandStudies of Lititz restored about 6,200 feet of Shobers Run, lowering it toward its pre-colonial level with an 80-foot buffer on each side and about 11 acres of new wetland. Forse puts the topsoil recovered from the stream at about 70,000 cubic yards, and it was used to raise the valley. Almost every green was raised on its existing footprint, because the greens sat too low and were pitched too steeply for modern green speeds, and some fairways were built up by as much as three feet. Frontier Golf built the work, which cost $4.3 million.

Forse kept the features of all three architects, "even the grass on them" in the case of the 1895 course, and added new bunkers and mounds in each one's manner. Documented additions include the fairway bunkers on the 6th, the centre ridge on Tiny Tim's green, copied from Tillinghast's sketch in Gleanings from the Wayside, and a replica of the Hell bunker at St Andrews beside the second landing area of the 13th.

Uncertainties

• Golf Course Industry's 2008 article says the two reinstated finishing holes were both Tillinghast's work; the resort's hole guide credits the 17th to Tillinghast and the 18th to Ross. This listing follows the hole guide.

• Historic Hotels of America says Ross's new holes were mainly on the back nine, while the hole guide places most Ross holes on today's front nine. The 1970s renumbering may account for the difference; hole numbers here are today's.

• Forse dates the opening of Ross's 18 to May 1923; one Golf Club Atlas forum post gives 1924. This listing uses 1923.

Sources & Notes

1. Omni Bedford Springs Resort, Old Course History Map (PDF), https://cms.omnihotels.com/-/media/images/hotels/pitbsr/golf/pdfs/pitbsr-old-course-history-map.pdf — hole names and architect credits, hole descriptions, 17th rebuilt from the clubhouse mural, Hell bunker, Sarazen quote.

2. Omni Bedford Springs Resort, golf groups brochure (2025), https://cms.omnihotels.com/-/media/images/hotels/pitbsr/golf/pdfs/pitbsr-golf-brochure-25.pdf — tees, rating and slope, practice facility, Golfweek 2024 ranking.

3. Golf Club Atlas, Feature Interview with Ron Forse (November 11, 2020), https://golfclubatlas.com/feature-interview/feature-interview-with-ron-forse/ — May 1923 opening, Ross using existing holes, topsoil from the stream, scope of the restoration.

4. John Torsiello, "A river runs through it," Golf Course Industry (March 2008), https://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/gcnew/article/2008marsupp4.pdf — restoration dates, team and cost, stream work, raised greens and fairways, 7th and 8th stream kept, 8th and 9th greens, 1970s range.

5. Sean Dudley, "Restoring a living museum," Golf Course Architecture (July 1, 2007), https://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/content/restoring-a-living-museum — eleven Ross and four Tillinghast holes, creek in play, Tiny Tim, contractor.

6. Ken Love, "Volcano hole time-tested," Altoona Mirror (August 3, 2018), https://www.altoonamirror.com/sports/local-sports/2018/08/volcano-hole-time-tested/ — seven kept and 11 new holes, the Volcano's original length and height, 1920s tournament, 1924 and 1929 press accounts.

7. LINKS Magazine, "Omni Bedford Springs Resort" (September 25, 2013), https://www.linksmagazine.com/omni_bedford_springs_resort-3/ — Oldham as Baltimore pro, 1st and 3rd hole features, 6th creek carry, Tiny Tim green, 18th cross bunkers.

8. Historic Hotels of America, Golf at Omni Bedford Springs Resort & Spa, https://www.historichotels.org/us/hotels-resorts/omni-bedford-springs-resort/golf.php — Ross kept four Tillinghast holes; 17 and 18 moved and later returned.

9. Golf Club Atlas forum, "Spencer Oldham" (2006–2008), https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,27038.0.html — Oldham at Baltimore Golf Club.

10. Golf Club Atlas forum, "Bedford Springs GC" (2008), https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,33797.0.html — joint Tillinghast Association and Donald Ross Society meeting, September 20, 2008.

11. Jake DiBlasio, "Golfweek ranks top public-access courses in Pennsylvania," Bucks County Courier Times via Yahoo Sports (June 22, 2026), https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/golfweek-ranks-top-public-access-124746769.html — 2026 ranking.

12. Wikipedia, Omni Bedford Springs Resort, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omni_Bedford_Springs_Resort — 1984 historic district including the golf course; hotel closure in 1986.

13. National Park Service, National Historic Landmark nomination, "Bedford Springs Hotel Historic District" (revised February 1, 1991), https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/a8aaf033-3015-4256-8fba-ee7a77599f1f — golf course within the district; 16 of 18 Ross holes present in 1991.

14. Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, PHLF News No. 170 (April 2006), https://phlf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/170_PHLF_NEWS_2006_06.pdf — National Register 1984, National Historic Landmark 1991.

15. Historic Hotels of America, "The 2026 Top 25 Historic Hotels of America Most Historic Golf Courses List is Announced" (June 15, 2026), https://www.historichotels.org/us/press-room/press-releases/the-2026-top-25-historic-hotels-of-america-most-historic-golf-courses-list-is-announced — 2026 list.