From my last review, I remembered that Hidden Valley wasn’t as nice as its neighbor Seven Springs but whatever has happened in the past 7 years sure brought this course back to “resort standard” as the fairways, greens and even tee boxes were all in very nice shape. The greens weren’t the fastest but they rolled true and were tricky to read.

Hidden Valley starts you off with what is ranked as the number 1 handicap hole – a downhill mid length par 4 requiring a straight shot with proper club selection off the tee as water is about 250 from the whites – but with a decent tee shot you will have a mid-short iron to the green. It wasn’t all that tough and I actually thought that #10 and #18 were more much difficult.

We played white tees (6050 yards) in the morning and were dampened by hard rain for about 3 hole which actually forced us to wait several minutes but we still managed to get around in 4 ½ hours. Backing up to the blues (6550) in the afternoon round made the course play differently with required driver holes that were
long irons or hybrids in the morning. Go figure, 12 shots better for the lefthander from the longer tees?

In any event, Hidden Valley is true mountain golf with many elevated tees and greens to negotiate although you will have a few fairly flat holes. Plenty of beauty and wildlife on this track so enjoy!

The clubhouse and pro shop have not been upgraded and remind me of a double-wide trailer that a lot of new golf courses use as their clubhouse to start out with – but hey, we’re here for the course right?

By the way, the clubhouse offers does cold (draft) beverages and the back deck offers a great view of the landscape – so it is certainly something that we can still enjoy – it’s just not your country club type “19th hole”.

If you get the chance to play Hidden Valley – I think you will be glad you did!

Lefty carded a 95,83 combo for the day.

Hidden Valley Golf Club – Hidden Valley, PA – www.hiddenvalleyresort.com

My annual North vs. South (MD vs PA) event again took place 7 years later at this beautiful 4 season resort. We arrived for a twilight round which was a nice discount from the regular rates. Although Seven Springs is known as a ski resort, the condition of this golf course certainly makes it (in my mind) a true golf destination (besides, I don’t ski).

Anyway, from 7 years ago, I seemed to remember the course conditions were pretty rough and we focused on the scenery of the course since it was a little beat up in our opinion. My playing partners confirmed that to be true as this time, we really noticed that the course was in much better shape. All of the conditions were superb and the wonderful scenery from many of the tee boxes and greens are only made better by your ball sailing down the middle on another well struck tee shot.

The hole I remember from last time was #11 which is a long downhill par 3 (depending on tees may be 200) guarded by a lake just right of the green. And I do mean, just barely to the right. A career 6 iron for this lefthander nearly went in for my 1st ace so I’ll be sure to remember it again next time but one swing thought that I did have was to simply hit the ball and trust my swing – sometimes good things happen!

Our group had 2 outstanding days on this course, culminated by a tie match on Friday. That means we will have to play again soon – and what’s NOT to like about that!

Seven Springs has a great “after golf” bar and grill. Although the eats selection is kind of thin – usually after a round of golf, the beverages are the attraction…and trust me, we had NO problem with the beverage selection!

Lefty fired an 88/85 on this trip.

Seven Springs Mountain Resort – Seven Springs, PA – www.7springs.com