Green Lakes State Park Golf Course

Robert Trent Jones Sr.'s earliest golf course design, Green Lakes at Syracuse opened May 6, 1936 with a Gene Sarazen exhibition match that drew more than 1,000 spectators. RTJ would go on to design some 500 courses; this one, routed along a dark blue glacial lake in the Finger Lakes foothills, is where he started. The 6,209-yard par-71 layout rolls through mature evergreens with Jones's trademark deep-faced bunkers where flat lies are scarce. The par-3 average of 176 yards signals short tests that demand precision over power, consistent with his early design philosophy before the championship-length arms race took over. Writer James Dodson has called it his favorite Trent Jones course anywhere, citing the long view over the lake to the Adirondack foothills. A must-play for golf historians visiting the NY State Parks Trail. There's a direct line from this routing to Oakmont, Peachtree, and the hundreds of Jones designs that followed, worth a detour for anyone making a trip to Bethpage or the Finger Lakes.