Welcome to some of the finest golf the North Country has to offer. Bethlehem Country Club is located about two-and-a-half hours north of Boston in the quaint community of Bethlehem, New Hampshire, a town with a population 2,200 that proclaims itself the “Star of the White Mountains.”
The club, with it is meticulous playing conditions, lives up to such superlatives. The Donald Ross-designed course features small and challenging greens provoking one local newspaper to refer to them as “smooth, velvety turf, over which the ball rolls almost as though on a billiard table.” Making this track even more inviting is the consistently crisp climate, the picturesque panoramas, and the rolling topography, which is equal parts wide blue expanse, hulking mountains, and large patches of Granite State greenery.
The course is a little less than 6,000 yards, relatively short by today’s standards, but don’t let the distance fool you. Bethlehem offers a plethora of challenges that can foil the most experienced golfer and it’s been that way for more than a century when the first players ever to tee off in 1898 lost their balls on the 5th hole. More than 100 years and a couple redesigns later, the course still offers a championship-level experience.
A century ago this year, golf legend Donald Ross redesigned the course. The club has pretty much stayed with his design since then. That means 100 years of small, tight, challenging, and, in some cases, mounded greens, and loads of rolling terrain that the club maintains to this day.
The slope in the greens is very indeterminable and extremely difficult and very fast. They’re speedy and that was part of Ross’s architecture. He did the same thing in North Carolina that he did at Bethlehem. It makes Bethlehem a really interesting golf course.
Among the archetypes of the Ross style include No. 3, a Par-3 that plays 220 yards from the back tees. Golfers tee off from an elevated tee box with stunning panoramas of the White Mountains and the north side of the golf course. Or take No. 13, a Par-4 that also starts from an elevated tee box. The hole is 417-yards of bucolic New Hampshire scenery. No. 11 is a Par-5 dogleg right. Big hitters can make this 530-yarder in two.
In any given year, Bethlehem hosts a number of tournaments, including HPGA, NHGHA and NHWGA events. The club’s brass is proud of their ability to offer a championship venue for the top levels of competition in the area, while maintaining the type of playable golf course that the recreational golfer will find enjoyable.
In this year, the centennial anniversary of the Ross re-design, the mountainside club drips with history. The first nine holes opened in 1898, when hickory clubs were all the rage and greens fees cost a quarter. Legends such as Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet and Walter Hagen graced the course at one time or another and the club’s pro and superintendent around the turn of the century, Edward Connery, is considered among the first American-born golf pros.
One particular tale that has evolved into a local legend is when the duo of DE Miner and Peter O’Hara defeated golfing giants Joe Kirkwood and Walter Hagen in early-September 1922. About 1,800 people witnessed the exhibition and at least one historian has speculated that the previous night’s libations may have played a part in Kirkwood and Hagen’s loss as the two easily won an afternoon match.
The original 1898 course contained several bunkers created by covering the old stone walls with dirt and sod, while many rocks were strewn generously about the fairways to serve as hazards. In 1909, course management contacted Ross, of Pinehurst fame, about expanding it to 18 holes. Ross completed the 5,783-yard course in June 1910, making it his first course in the Granite State. He would later plan or alter about a dozen courses in the state, and more than 500 in his career.
The town of Bethlehem has owned the Par-70 course since 1949. During this time, the course has undergone various design renovations and improvements. In the 1950s, some long moundings were eliminated, as were the punchbowl Par-3s.
Much of the course, however, has remained constant. A promotional brochure for the town in the first half of the 20th century lauded the new clubhouse as a focal point of social life, calling it “commodious.” That, too, has not changed. There’s not a better or more comfortable place to enjoy your favorite food or beverage than on the balcony at Bethlehem Country Club. The views alone are worth the visit. The quiet quaintness of the White Mountains remains as well. Nestled in a hiking, camping and skiing hotspot, Bethlehem sees a steady stream of visitors year round.
While history permeates every blade of grass on the course, the club’s management has not rested on its laurels. There are plans to improve the course by increasing its length by 600 yards, new tees are being built and additional cart paths are being created. Additionally, management is working on plans to create a modern practice center, including chipping and sand practice areas.
For more information on this meticulous course steeped in history, visit bethlehemccnhgolf.com