Caledonia Golf Club (Fayetteville, PA on 06/30/18)

A friend and I ended up doing a mini Pennsylvania golf trip this weekend. We played 27 holes on Saturday and 18 on Sunday, spread across three new courses. I’ve mentioned a couple times that my friend has a place up near South Central Pennsylvania so it is easy access to the courses up that way. He was kind enough to have me over again and on Saturday we made the short drive into Pennsylvania to play two courses.

Our morning round was at Caledonia Golf Club, which is about 15 minutes from I-81. Caledonia is located in a state park in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It wasn’t busy on Saturday morning when we arrived, with just a couple cars in the parking lot. We checked in and headed to the first tee. We ended up having the course to ourselves after playing through another twosome on the 2nd hole. Our pace was a leisurely 3 hours, partly assisted by the 5,184 yard par-68 design at Caledonia. The game is always more enjoyable when the pace of play isn’t like molasses! The rating is 67.1 and the slope is 118 from the white tees, which are as far back as you can go here.

Caledonia is an old school course and the course dates back to 1923. Many of its features are consistent with courses built during that time. It covers some undulating, tree-lined terrain and you can tell that there wasn’t much in the way of machinery to move dirt around and knock down trees! Most of the holes are shorter and the front nine is only 2,314 yards long, with many of the holes on the front being par-3’s.

Because of Caledonia’s age there is no denying that the course oozes character! The biggest part of its charm are the wonderful green complexes. The greens here are very interesting and require one accurate shot after another! Many of the greens are small and have false edges that fall a foot or two down to the fairway. If you do miss them, then you can still get it up and down, at least with some deft touch.

Each nine here has a brilliant little green! On the front nine I thought the 136 yard, par-3 4th was a great hole. While playing the 2nd I glanced over at 4th and noticed that the green was at the bottom of a small bowl and surrounded by grass edges, maybe the height of a chair. When I got to the tee I then saw that the circular green was guarded by two bunkers in front. I missed the green and on my chip I had to decide if I wanted to bounce a shot down the rough mound and onto the green or lob it directly onto the green.

On the back nine the short, par-4 16th is probably the most exciting hole! It is a 233 yard par-4 with a small green that angles from front left to back right. There is a bunker that guards the green and anything out to the right has to be flopped over the bunker, with out of bounds lurking. If you miss short, then left is the best place to chip from. The green itself has a little valley in the middle of it, so I can see many chips collecting down there.

I ended up liking the front nine better because it was more open. No surprise there I’m sure! The 1st is an odd, dogleg right but I thought all the other holes on the front were pretty solid. The 9th is my favorite hole at Caledonia because of the view from the tee. It is a 168 yard par-3 that drops at least a club down to the green. I always enjoy a nice view and trying to guess the yardage on a hole that like!

The back nine is tighter and has some uncomfortable shots. The 11th tee shot and the 17th approach come to mind in that regards. The 11th is a mid-length par-4 with an elevated tee. You hit through a small window in the trees, which got into my head. The 17th is an odd dogleg where you need to lay up to the extreme right side of the fairway.

The conditions at Caledonia were in line with what you’d expect for a budget course. It was $35 to ride on a weekend morning so the green fee won’t break the bank. The fairways were longer and I had many average lies. The greens were slower with some splotchy spots, but rolled fine. I found myself thinking more about getting my putts to the hole rather than making anything. Off the fairways there was a mix of grasses with a little bit of everything. This isn’t a high dollar course so as long as you don’t go in expecting perfect conditions, you shouldn’t have any issues.

There is no disputing that Caledonia has some funk to it! There are hokey holes, tiny targets and the shortness is likely to turn off some golfers. Yet at the end of the round I came away impressed with the mountain setting and a handful of brilliant holes. Still, I don’t know that Caledonia is worth a play unless you are a crazy course person like me or a local. But, Caledonia, when paired with South Mountain, will certainly allow you to scratch your old school golf course itch!

#1 (325 yard par 4):