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By Mark Gaughan

The ability to stand on a property of 120 or more acres and have the imagination to visualize an ideal path to route 18 holes of golf across the land is the challenge of a golf course architect.

Nobody arguably did it better than Donald Ross. 

“He was as good as anyone at routing and constructing interesting greens,” said architect Brian Schneider. “The routing is such an important part of designing and building a golf course. This is a guy who designed more than 400 golf courses, and he got that right almost every time. That was his greatest strength, I think. He was terrific at it. If you only had a routing from Donald Ross, you’d be off to a really good start for any course.”

Ross is one of the greatest golf architects ever and a giant of the “golden age” of golf course construction – before World War II. 

New York State is fortunate to have 38 courses designed by Ross, according to the Donald Ross Society. This season, three of the New York State Golf Association’s 2026 championships will be held at Ross courses. The NYSGA Men’s Amateur is at Glens Falls Country Club July 7-9. The NYSGA Super Seniors and Legends Championship is at Bellevue Country Club on July 30-31. The NYSGA Mid-Amateur visits the Country Club of Buffalo Oct. 5-7. 

Unofficially, call it “the year of Donald Ross” for the NYSGA. 

Courses designed by Ross have hosted more than 100 national championships. Ten Ross courses are among the top 100 on the latest lists by both Golf Digest and Golf Magazine. That includes Aronimink Golf Club near Philadelphia, which hosted the PGA Championship in May, and Pinehurst No. 2, which has hosted four U.S. Opens and is on the schedule for four more. Of course, it also includes Rochester’s Oak Hill Country Club, site of three U.S. Opens and four PGAs and the site for the U.S. Amateur in 2027. Ross, in fact, designed 90 spectacular holes in a two-mile radius in Rochester, including Oak Hill, the Country Club of Rochester, Irondequoit Country Club and Monroe Golf Club. 

Here’s a closer look at the special nature of Ross’ work at the three courses that will host NYSGA events this year:

Glens Falls CC

Ross was born in Scotland in 1872, moved to the United States in 1899 and almost immediately began his golf design business. Ross laid out Glens Falls CC’s first nine in 1912 and did the second nine in 1921. 

Famed architect Tom Doak, who has seven top-100 courses on the Golf Magazine list, had high praise for Glens Falls CC in his book, The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses.

“There is a broad hill in the center of the property, perhaps 50 feet high, and the routing works around it and across it and twice up and over, so even though there are many parallel holes, you never have the sense of playing Army golf. … I would put it comfortably in Ross’s top 10 courses, and that’s a pretty special list.”

Schneider works for the Renaissance Golf Design Co. of Michigan and has been contracted to do restoration work at Glens Falls.

“It’s a hilly but very dramatic piece of land, and the way he tacked his way around it, the variety of the holes and the variety of the par 4s, is really impressive,” Schneider said. “The property itself is very dynamic but you’ve also got these beautiful off-site views. They’ve got the best of both worlds, a brilliant routing and a great set of greens. To me it’s one of his five best golf courses, which is really saying something.” 

There are some great short par-4s. The 341-yard fifth features a “top-hat” or turtleback green, with a crowned shape falling off at the edges. 

“I just copied that green at a course I’m doing in Connecticut,” Schneider said. “It’s short, it’s flat, it’s relatively wide open off the tee. But it’s entirely dictated by hole location and the contours of the green. You’ve got to hit a precise approach shot or miss in the right place.”

The green at the 292-yard seventh is protected by three bunkers cut into the front and left side and is set diagonally at the top of a ridge. 

“It’s a very dramatic little hole,” Schneider said. “You’re playing across the deep ravine that runs through that portion of the site. It’s the type of hole that doesn’t provide a great place to land. There’s plenty of fairway short, but you’re most likely going to have an awkward lie. So he really encourages you to be aggressive. People take a crack at it. But on a short hole, you can get yourself into trouble.” 

The par-4 17^th plays 401 yards, but it’s downhill to a valley then uphill to a green with a false front. It’s a “wow” hole.

So is the 150-yard par-3 ninth, with a green that rises up out of the ground on a high perch. It’s a “volcano hole,” a feature Ross built at a handful of his courses. 

“It’s a good set of par 3s at Glens Falls, but the ninth is the show stopper,” Schneider said. “It’s a perched up green with no good place to miss, a stunning little hole.”

Glens Falls CC last hosted the NYSGA Men’s Amateur in 1962, and it was one of the greatest in the 102-year history of the event. The final pitted two men who are members of the NYSGA Hall of Fame – Elmira’s William Tryon vs. Rochester’s Don Allen. Tryon made birdie putts of 35 feet on the 35^th hole and 10 feet on the 36th to send the match to extra holes. Tryon then made a 28-foot putt on No. 1 to halve the 37^th hole, and he won it on the 38^th. It was the first of three state amateur wins for Tryon. Allen won six state ams and a record 11 NYSGA titles overall in his career.

Bellevue Country Club

Bellevue, designed by Ross in 1916, is another example of Ross’ expert routing, as it’s built on the slopes of Onondaga Hill in Syracuse. Like all of the top classic-era architects, Ross was operating with a higher degree of difficulty than modern designers. Pre-World War II architects did not have massive earth-moving equipment at their disposal. 

“I can really make out the green structures here and how he used the lay of the land to build his greens,” said Dan Steinsdoerfer, Bellevue club professional. “This is a 1916 Ross. There wasn’t the machinery to build. He used the lay of the land and the topography to place the greens and fairways. You can see that influence.” 

“There’s a charm about the early years of Ross’ design work,” said architect Ron Forse, referring to Ross’ jobs before 1920. “You can see the great routing or the use of the land that he’s been given. The par 3s are excellent. The third is a great hole, and the 15^th is cut out of a hillside, and the area’s built up to create the green. It’s very resourceful, efficient way of moving earth.”

Forse’s design firm is based in Florida, and he has done restoration work on 56 Ross courses. He helped Bellevue create a master plan true to Ross’ design in 2003.  

“The ground slopes down to the clubhouse,” Forse said. “Usually, you’ve got the clubhouse on the high ground, and the finishing holes rise up to it. That’s one of the nice things about Bellevue, you get to finish downhill.”

Precision will be key for the Super Senior and Legends competitors in July. Golfers must have their driver under control on the tree-lined fairways, and approach shot accuracy is a must.

“The greens are small,” Steinsdoerfer said. “There’s a lot of postage stamp greens. I say to guests who come to our club that Ross never intended these greens to be 11 or 12 on the Stimpmeter because they’re so slopey that they were maybe a 6 to an 8 back in the day. So when the greens get in season and they get really fast, it’s tough to pin our greens. You have to be very careful to make them fair. You really want to be in the right spots.”

Among the highlights are the small greens on the 121-yard third and the 161-yard, picturesque 15^th. 

Holes 11 through 14 were part of a redesign and are not Ross holes, “but the designer did a really good job of making it as Bellevue as possible,” Steinsdoerfer said.

One reason Bellevue is an excellent tournament venue is the finishing holes make for drama. No. 16 is a 459-yard par 4 dogleg left to a long narrow green. No. 17 is a birdie opportunity at 335 yards. No. 18 plays 454 from the back, but it’s downhill to a green that falls away.

“Most classic architects did slope greens back to front, as Ross did,” Forse said. “But the 18^th shows Ross’ use of the land. The green falls away from you and it’s an extension of the downhill approach. It’s a great finish.”

The Super Senior championship is for golfers 65 and over. The Legends event is for those 70 and over. This is the fourth year the 65 and over titles will be held separate from the state senior event, for those 55 and over. It will be the 11^th NYSGA championship tournament at Bellevue.

Country Club of Buffalo

Talk to esteemed architects familiar with CCB and they tend to gush. 

“If you picked up the Country Club of Buffalo and put it in Rochester, some would go, ‘Oak Hill who?’” said Jim Nagle, head of Nagle Design Works of Hopwood, Pa. Nagle oversaw a restoration of CCB as a member of Forse’s firm a dozen years ago.

“I think the Country Club of Buffalo has what I believe to be maybe the top five best sets of 18 original Donald Ross greens in the country,” Nagle said. “When we restored that golf course in 2013 and 2014, the only thing that had been interrupted on their greens was the fourth green to the rear right and on the 10^th green to the rear. Robert Trent Jones Sr. at some point had interrupted original portions of the greens with some bunkers. So when we did that project, we took the bunkers out and restored the green surfaces into those areas. Otherwise, those greens all are original. It’s rare to find a place of that quality with that many original greens. That is a phenomenal place.” 

Ross had a great property to work with in Williamsville, just outside of Buffalo. Part of the site was an abandoned limestone quarry. 

“It’s great how he used the quarry on each nine, with three holes on each nine that skirt or go through or over the quarry,” Forse said.

The most famous of those is the 167-yard par-3 sixth, called “The Pulpit,” which is another of Ross’ “volcano” holes. An elevated tee points to a green that rises dramatically out of the ground on all sides. It’s an island green, without the water, and the long, diagonal green tilts.

In 2005, Golf Digest senior editor and course architect Ron Whitten wrote: “It must be seen to be believed. It could well be the most outrageous par 3 that Donald Ross ever conceived. Many call it ‘the volcano hole,’ but it reminds me more of what the deck of the Titanic must surely have looked like minutes after its fatal brush with an iceberg.”

The 190-yard 12^th at CCB also could be viewed as a volcano hole, with the back tees on a ridge, over a narrow part of the former quarry that now is a lake, toward a green on the far rim. 

“When you’re talking golf courses of that classic era, one of the strong indicators of what makes an old course like Bellevue, Glens Falls and Buffalo really noticeable are the par 3s,” Forse said. “For as good as the 6^th is at Buffalo, the 8^th, the 16^th the 12th, they’re all really good par 3s.” 

The par-4 18^th is a spectacular finishing hole and draws comparisons with No. 18 at Riviera Country Club, because it’s a dogleg right that rises up to the foot of the clubhouse, perched atop a hill.

“When it comes to early-American "quarry courses, I like it better than the far more famous Merion East,” wrote Whitten, referring to the Pennsylvania course that has hosted five U.S. Opens.

CCB takes pride in being a jewel in the Ross collection. The club’s project in 2013 and 2014 was called the Donald Ross Golf Course Restoration Plan.

“The changes were great because it restored back to the Ross’ vision,” said Bob Rosen, CCB member and a former Buffalo district champion. “They did a great job with runoffs. They restored the greens to the original size, so it brought in a lot more pin positions. And then the hiring of Anthony Tosh as grounds superintendent was a great development. The way Anthony has manicured the surrounds and managed the conditioning, he made the golf course probably three to four shots harder.”

A national audience soon will get to see what the raving is about. CCB will host the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur in 2027 and the U.S. Senior Amateur in 2032. Obviously, the U.S. Golf Association thinks CCB is pretty special. 

“I think it was the membership wanting to showcase the golf course,” Rosen said. “We have this great gem of a golf course and let’s see if we can showcase it to host these national events.”