Champion Lakes Golf Course

Champion Lakes Golf Resort has one of the best origin stories in American public golf: in 1966, Pittsburgh Pirates legends Dick Groat (1960 NL MVP and World Series champion shortstop) and Jerry Lynch (clutch Pirates pinch-hitter) bought an apple orchard in the Laurel Highlands and converted it into an 18-hole golf course themselves. They didn't hire a name architect, they routed it, built it, and ran it as player-owners for decades. The result is a 6,805-yard par-73 (note the 73, with a rare five par-5s) that earned a rare Golf Digest 4-star rating and consistently ranks among the top 50 public courses in the US. Bent-grass greens, tees, and fairways, unusual for the 1960s and still in beautiful condition today, give Champion Lakes a country-club feel at public-course prices. The 133 slope and 72.4 rating tell you the course has teeth despite its welcoming character; Groat and Lynch wanted a layout that you'd want to play a second time. For the Nemacolin / Laurel Highlands trip visitor who's seen the resort offerings, this is the local-legend round: a baseball story wrapped around honest American parkland golf.