I live in Rochester, NY and one of the few advantages that has is that I live very close to some absolutely amazing golf courses with a rich and varied history of courses that over the years have hosted a variety of PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, Senior PGA Tour, and Amateur tournaments. I also am lucky enough to have some friends who have access to these great courses and I got to play Oak Hill yesterday unexpectedly. Figured it might make a good topic and I could share some pictures and thoughts ahead of the 2023 PGA Championship in May. First though, a little history lesson and highlight some of the courses and tournaments that have been held here.
Locus Hill CC was the home of the Wegman's LPGA stop from 1977 to 2009. Fun long course with an incredible history. The Danielle Downy Classic is hosted on the other side of the city at Brook Lea Country club. I think this course is a bit of Jekyll and Hyde. It can be scored on if the conditions allow or it can be one of the most difficult courses to score. Monroe Country Club hosts one of the premiere amateur events for college players and is a beautiful flowing course that meanders like a brook running through foothills of grass.
A special history lies with The Country Club of Rochester ( CCR ). It was the home course of Walter Hagen, who sits behind Tiger and Jack with 45 PGA Tour wins and was born in Rochester, but CCR is where he caddied from the age of 7, learned to play the game and start his professional career at age 19. CCR is listed as one of the first 50 ever in the United States having been founded in 1895, with the original 9 hole course was designed by a member in 1895 and finalized by Alexander Findley in 1898. Donald Ross finalized what would be come the more common course design in 1912 ( with a rework and expansion in 1931 ) by reworking the original course into what is there, more or less, today. This is one of the courses that have documents showing that Donald Ross did all of the hands on work as this was still early in his career. CCR was course number 19 or 20 that he designed out of the ~400 he worked on designing or redesigning. In that same window, Donald Ross designed 6 courses in Rochester including Irondequoit Country Club in 1916, Monroe Country Club in 1923, Brook Lea Country Club in 1926 and of course, the crown in the Rochester Golf world, Oak Hill Country Club in 1925.
Oak Hill Country club which will host its record tying 4th PGA Championship in 2023. In total, Oak Hill has hosted 3 PGA Championships ( 4th in a few months ), Ryder Cup in 1995, the Senior PGA Championship, three US Opens in 1956, 1968, and 1989, a Senior US Open in 1984, and the 1949 US Amateur. It sits in the middle of what used to be open fields until Ross was brought into design the course lay out in 1925, after the club had been established in 1922. At the time, the land was farm land and had no trees. However, once the design was completed by Ross, a local doctor, John R Williams, was asked to lay out a landscape architecture to match the course design. He took this task to heart and planted somewhere around 40,000 trees across the property, something that up until this year marked the course architecture and added to its difficulty and also created much of the character of the course.
When Ross looked at the land in front of him at Oak Hill where he would carve 2 distinct courses from the landscape, he saw an immediate opportunity to stretch his legs. He designed the East and West courses, the East being the more famous of the two but the West being kept the more faithful to the original design even today. The East is what you see on TV when the PGA comes to town. But here's a secret: The West is the more fun of the two. I have played both and while playing the East is magical, almost religious like experience, even from shorter tees, it will leave you beaten and bruised, both physically and emotionally. The East invites you in to visit and spits you out at 18 saying "thanks for trying, come back next time when you get good" regardless of your handicap. It will take the most confident swing and turn it into mush. It will take the most stable putting stroke and make you believe you the touch of a blind elephant in a cactus farm. It will give you the yips just looking at the greens as they shine with unadulterated speed. And you will love every single minute you spend on course. You will forgive it all because church is in session, and the majesty and beauty will overwhelm you. You may walk away beaten, but your score won't matter as a smile will inevitably stay on your face for days as you share with your closest friends how you shot 15 shots worse than your normal rounds anywhere else.
The West invites you in, gives you a nice drink, sits you by the fire, and undercuts you like your mother did when you stole cookies from the cookie jar. You get punished, but somehow you feel good about it. Its the younger sister to the beauty queen who may not have the stunning looks of her sister, but is cute in a wholesome way and eyes sparkle with the untold truth that behind the grin and giggle is something devious. "Play what is given to you, " she whispers to you, " and I'll reward you with birdies and pars. Try to over power me, and you will get a swift knee to the crotch". The East sneers at you down her nose and challenges you, the West gives you a warm hug before she sticks you in the back if she doesn't like what she sees.
Luckily for me, I was able to get out and play at Oak Hill yesterday. I was supposed to play the East course but they had a 4 day amateur tournament starting today and yesterday was the practice round on the East course. They had more players show up than expected and booked out. So instead, I played the West course but got a tour of some of the changes of the East in preparation for the PGA Championship in May. I have played the East course 3 times and the West twice, 3 including my round yesterday.
I'll drop some pictures below, but the biggest change you will see come may is the absence of trees. They took out over 3000 trees from the East course alone as part of the modernization, added some links-style grass bunkers, and moved some tee boxes back to change some angles and lengths of holes. The East course greens would completely replaced 2 years ago and were dug down 8 feet or so before rebuilding literaly from the ground up. Old greens were a mixture of bent grass and Poa annui. They are now 100% bent grass and have been re-countoured more towards the original Donald Ross design shapes. The promise to be plenty fast and roll smooth come May. The lack of trees on the East is noticeable right away as when you drive up the long driveway to get to the club house, you used to only see a hole or two directly across. Now, you can see across the entire course. It will be a significant change for anyone who played in the 2013 PGA as it very much represents as a different course but with the same feel.
Some notes on the pictures below. Most of these are from the practice green or the West Course. You can see in the video, the absence of trees that impact both East and West courses. I will be going back to play the East course shortly after the PGA finishes so I'll take some pictures of the East then which should still be in PGA shape ( read massive rough ).
Enjoy!
Members practice range. 250 to the nets. Callaway practice balls.
Practice Putting greens with the PGA driving range beyond the flags. They use the #8 and #9 West course holes as the driving range for hte pros so what you see here is the 9th fairway cutting across and the 8th fairway leading up to the tee in the distance.
West Course, #5 Par 5 "Camelback" 548 yards into the wind. You can see the amount of trees normally there and even this is less than there were.
Tee picture of the West Course #8 par 4 434 yards heading back to the club house. This fairway is the driving range for the pros as they are hitting at you from the perspective of this picture.
Same hole, #8 from the fairway. Hole goes to the left up a hill to an elevated green. Club house in the distance.
Shot from the top of the ridge on#9 fairway of the West course looking over the practice greens and the club house.
Tee shot from the blues at the 18th on the West Course. Played 437 yards, par 4. Considered by the membership to be harder finishing hole than #18 on the East course from the same tees.
Closer look at the approach shot on 18. This mirrors closely the rebuilt 18th on the East course as the original Ross designed had them as sister holes.
Video of around the 3rd green
Score card for the day. 76 with 3 birdies. Was a good day and the Younger Sister West treated me well. Other names changed to protect the innocent.
Locus Hill CC was the home of the Wegman's LPGA stop from 1977 to 2009. Fun long course with an incredible history. The Danielle Downy Classic is hosted on the other side of the city at Brook Lea Country club. I think this course is a bit of Jekyll and Hyde. It can be scored on if the conditions allow or it can be one of the most difficult courses to score. Monroe Country Club hosts one of the premiere amateur events for college players and is a beautiful flowing course that meanders like a brook running through foothills of grass.
A special history lies with The Country Club of Rochester ( CCR ). It was the home course of Walter Hagen, who sits behind Tiger and Jack with 45 PGA Tour wins and was born in Rochester, but CCR is where he caddied from the age of 7, learned to play the game and start his professional career at age 19. CCR is listed as one of the first 50 ever in the United States having been founded in 1895, with the original 9 hole course was designed by a member in 1895 and finalized by Alexander Findley in 1898. Donald Ross finalized what would be come the more common course design in 1912 ( with a rework and expansion in 1931 ) by reworking the original course into what is there, more or less, today. This is one of the courses that have documents showing that Donald Ross did all of the hands on work as this was still early in his career. CCR was course number 19 or 20 that he designed out of the ~400 he worked on designing or redesigning. In that same window, Donald Ross designed 6 courses in Rochester including Irondequoit Country Club in 1916, Monroe Country Club in 1923, Brook Lea Country Club in 1926 and of course, the crown in the Rochester Golf world, Oak Hill Country Club in 1925.
Oak Hill Country club which will host its record tying 4th PGA Championship in 2023. In total, Oak Hill has hosted 3 PGA Championships ( 4th in a few months ), Ryder Cup in 1995, the Senior PGA Championship, three US Opens in 1956, 1968, and 1989, a Senior US Open in 1984, and the 1949 US Amateur. It sits in the middle of what used to be open fields until Ross was brought into design the course lay out in 1925, after the club had been established in 1922. At the time, the land was farm land and had no trees. However, once the design was completed by Ross, a local doctor, John R Williams, was asked to lay out a landscape architecture to match the course design. He took this task to heart and planted somewhere around 40,000 trees across the property, something that up until this year marked the course architecture and added to its difficulty and also created much of the character of the course.
When Ross looked at the land in front of him at Oak Hill where he would carve 2 distinct courses from the landscape, he saw an immediate opportunity to stretch his legs. He designed the East and West courses, the East being the more famous of the two but the West being kept the more faithful to the original design even today. The East is what you see on TV when the PGA comes to town. But here's a secret: The West is the more fun of the two. I have played both and while playing the East is magical, almost religious like experience, even from shorter tees, it will leave you beaten and bruised, both physically and emotionally. The East invites you in to visit and spits you out at 18 saying "thanks for trying, come back next time when you get good" regardless of your handicap. It will take the most confident swing and turn it into mush. It will take the most stable putting stroke and make you believe you the touch of a blind elephant in a cactus farm. It will give you the yips just looking at the greens as they shine with unadulterated speed. And you will love every single minute you spend on course. You will forgive it all because church is in session, and the majesty and beauty will overwhelm you. You may walk away beaten, but your score won't matter as a smile will inevitably stay on your face for days as you share with your closest friends how you shot 15 shots worse than your normal rounds anywhere else.
The West invites you in, gives you a nice drink, sits you by the fire, and undercuts you like your mother did when you stole cookies from the cookie jar. You get punished, but somehow you feel good about it. Its the younger sister to the beauty queen who may not have the stunning looks of her sister, but is cute in a wholesome way and eyes sparkle with the untold truth that behind the grin and giggle is something devious. "Play what is given to you, " she whispers to you, " and I'll reward you with birdies and pars. Try to over power me, and you will get a swift knee to the crotch". The East sneers at you down her nose and challenges you, the West gives you a warm hug before she sticks you in the back if she doesn't like what she sees.
Luckily for me, I was able to get out and play at Oak Hill yesterday. I was supposed to play the East course but they had a 4 day amateur tournament starting today and yesterday was the practice round on the East course. They had more players show up than expected and booked out. So instead, I played the West course but got a tour of some of the changes of the East in preparation for the PGA Championship in May. I have played the East course 3 times and the West twice, 3 including my round yesterday.
I'll drop some pictures below, but the biggest change you will see come may is the absence of trees. They took out over 3000 trees from the East course alone as part of the modernization, added some links-style grass bunkers, and moved some tee boxes back to change some angles and lengths of holes. The East course greens would completely replaced 2 years ago and were dug down 8 feet or so before rebuilding literaly from the ground up. Old greens were a mixture of bent grass and Poa annui. They are now 100% bent grass and have been re-countoured more towards the original Donald Ross design shapes. The promise to be plenty fast and roll smooth come May. The lack of trees on the East is noticeable right away as when you drive up the long driveway to get to the club house, you used to only see a hole or two directly across. Now, you can see across the entire course. It will be a significant change for anyone who played in the 2013 PGA as it very much represents as a different course but with the same feel.
Some notes on the pictures below. Most of these are from the practice green or the West Course. You can see in the video, the absence of trees that impact both East and West courses. I will be going back to play the East course shortly after the PGA finishes so I'll take some pictures of the East then which should still be in PGA shape ( read massive rough ).
Enjoy!
Members practice range. 250 to the nets. Callaway practice balls.
Practice Putting greens with the PGA driving range beyond the flags. They use the #8 and #9 West course holes as the driving range for hte pros so what you see here is the 9th fairway cutting across and the 8th fairway leading up to the tee in the distance.
West Course, #5 Par 5 "Camelback" 548 yards into the wind. You can see the amount of trees normally there and even this is less than there were.
Tee picture of the West Course #8 par 4 434 yards heading back to the club house. This fairway is the driving range for the pros as they are hitting at you from the perspective of this picture.
Same hole, #8 from the fairway. Hole goes to the left up a hill to an elevated green. Club house in the distance.
Shot from the top of the ridge on#9 fairway of the West course looking over the practice greens and the club house.
Tee shot from the blues at the 18th on the West Course. Played 437 yards, par 4. Considered by the membership to be harder finishing hole than #18 on the East course from the same tees.
Closer look at the approach shot on 18. This mirrors closely the rebuilt 18th on the East course as the original Ross designed had them as sister holes.
Video of around the 3rd green
Score card for the day. 76 with 3 birdies. Was a good day and the Younger Sister West treated me well. Other names changed to protect the innocent.
