Golf at Bedford Springs Resort spans a history of over 100 years. In fact, the resort is home to one of the oldest golf courses in North America. The original course was designed in 1895 by Spencer Oldham. In 1923, Donald Ross created a course that was both challenging and yet one with the natural landscape, which was hailed as one of the best in Pennsylvania upon its opening. Today, the impeccably restored course preserves the historic holes and features designed by its three famous golf architects. It is something of a golf architectural museum—encompassing three distinct eras of golf course design that occurred from the 1890’s to the 1920’s. The Bedford Springs layout is a true masterpiece with a wide range of classic historic features not commonly found today. These include five par fives and five par threes. Small greens, “serpentine” and “doughnut” bunkers, the “Volcano Hole” and “Tiny Tim”—a Tillinghast designed Par Three that has come to be known as one of the most celebrated holes in all of golf architecture—offer players an unparalleled golf experience.

Golfweek magazine has recently listed the Old Course at No. 1 among classic public-access golf courses in Pennsylvania, as part of the publication’s annual “Golfweek’s Best” series. It was the first time the renovated Old Course, which reopened in June 2007, was eligible for the rankings, and ranked No. 4 overall among the classic (build before 1960) and modern public-access courses in the state.