Maine Mountain Green & GoldBy Brooke Cunningham
We moved next to the driving range where he made a video tape of each of us in turn taking long shots. He worked with our individual strokes, and then did more footage of our strokes after a bit of refinement. I made smoother and longer drives after Jason’s observations were put into motion. Barbara was thrilled with a subtle change in the roll of her hands through her swing that she had never detected before.
After dinner, pianist Rob Robbins moved downstairs where the musical repertoire expands to include jazz, old Rolling Stones, R & B, Ella Fitzgerald and the party is on. Rob is a master of request, and walks the line beautifully between faithful rendition and elegant interpretation. People dance, laughter flows, time passes joyfully and nobody has to drive.
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Through the buttery afternoon sunlight pointing the way towards a dozen shades of blue mountains forming the wide horizon, across the neatly trimmed 100 foot tall pines flies a small white sphere on its way to the green. The Bethel Inn & Golf Resort waits beyond that green as it has for nearly a hundred years, welcoming golfers home. As we approach, the golden light makes the large stately yellow inn glow against the dark pines in an almost audible hum. This is “tween” time, between full sun and starry night, between a day of golf and an evening of wonderful dining and live cabaret, between learning, practicing and appreciating golf in Bethel Maine.
In the morning, Barbara and I had spent two hours in the Guaranteed Performance Golf School with lead instructor Jason Hurd. I am a beginner at golf while Barbara has been an active student of the game for over a decade, a small but diversified class of enthusiasts. We began our morning with me learning and Barbara practicing short strokes on the chipping green. Jason moved smoothly between us first watching, and then making suggestions as he designed exercises for each of us.
From there we went onto the course. I had never been on a course before so I was thrilled to be “out in the field” as it were. Longer shadows slid across greens and fairways, pointing out all of the contour of the course in the kind of detail that golden light brings to landscape. Lining the course were handsome yellow townhouses that had large porches for watching the play through. I could see people in lawn chairs observing the games, enjoying the afternoon as armchair “Arnies”. We played three different kinds of holes, selected by Jason for the lessons that they offered. 
When we finished the play, we went back to the golf school Jason showed us our videos, and offered ideas about improvements that he had seen, and things that we should continue to think about the next day. I was very pleased to be able to actually see for myself how much better my game had gotten in only one day, but then I am a beginner. Barbara is a very good golfer, and over dinner she told me that she was very pleased with her lesson because Jason had pointed something out to her that had never been touched before, and she felt that it would bring her great improvement. 
Dinner at the Bethel Inn is a charming old world experience; thick carpets, tall windows, white tablecloths with glistening silver, gleaming china lighted by candles whose light disappears into the darkness of very high ceilings. The black laquer piano in the center of the room hints of the soft Gershwin and Berlin that floats through dinner. The ambiance, the menu and beautifully presented cuisine along with the wafting tunes create a leisurely atmosphere for dining, the hallmark of these “grande dames” hotels.
Outside of our spacious townhouse the golf course awaits the dawn while wild turkeys cross the fairways leaving lines of tracks in the morning dew. We step out the door and take up the game right from the breakfast table. The Bethel Inn and Golf Resort is truly an oasis of old world mountain town and new golf course tangent townhouses blending comfortably as four seasons grace the rolling terrain of central Maine mountains. We will look forward to returning.