Golf in Champion

Champion is Somerset County's Laurel Highlands resort address, home to Seven Springs Mountain Resort — one of Pennsylvania's largest ski destinations and a four-season recreational facility. The Laurel Highlands, the ridge and plateau country of southwestern Pennsylvania stretching through Somerset, Westmoreland, and Fayette counties, draws visitors from Pittsburgh, Maryland, and West Virginia for skiing, hiking, white-water rafting, and resort golf. Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece, lies in the same general highland zone in Fayette County. Seven Springs' golf course serves the resort's four-season visitor market rather than a local permanent population — Champion itself is barely a community in the conventional sense, existing primarily as the resort's address. The elevation here — roughly 2,500 feet — produces cooler summers than the Pittsburgh valley and snow conditions that extend the ski season into spring most years.