Turning Stone Resort Casino: The golf

The five courses are touched by some of the most elite course architects in the world, including Tom Fazio (Atunyote), Robert Trent Jones, Jr. (Kaluhyat) and a double-dip of Rick Smith (Sandstone Hollow, Shenendoah).

Atunyote is the most well-known course, playing host to the Turning Stone Resort Championship on the PGA Tour from 2007-2010. Designed by Tom Fazio, the course is inviting to players of all skill levels, with the fairways forgiving, while you’ll need to be accurate with your approach shots to score well. Make a stop to tee it up where some of the best players in history have also played.

This course is as captivating as it is beautiful. You’ll know you are in for something special from the moment you arrive at Atunyote as the whimsical tree-like gate opens to bring you onto the property. Once you tee it up, you’ll find the course is perfectly manicured and is always in top-notch shape. Fazio and his team sculpted this course to showcase the beauty of the Northern New York terrain in a way that only he can do. The tree-lined parkland-style layout has ample bunkering and water hazards with several natural fescue areas to challenge you off the tee, while also providing you with approachable fairways to help you enjoy your round. As the premier course onsite, we suggest you play here at least once during your golf getaway.

Kaluhyat is consistently ranked among the best casino courses in the United States, including in Golfweek’s Best Casino Courses in 2022. The change in elevation is this course’s claim to fame, with some as high as 50 feet, allowing for mesmerizing views from the plateaus all over the course. Playing at 7,100 yards from the back tees, the multiple sets of tee boxes do make the course approachable for everyone.

Kaluhyat brings in more natural, native areas into the design compared to Atunyote as the course features several forced carries to tighter fairways providing golfers with a beautiful test of golf that will put a premium on accuracy for you.

The third 18-hole course on property is Shenendoah, a Rick Smith-designed track that embraces the surrounding naturally wooded area. The course plays at more than 7,000 yards and the course conditions are maintained to create an experience on par with what you would find at the levels on the PGA Tour.  It also provided the venue for the 2006 PGA National Club Professional Championship.

Like Kaluhyat, you get a real sense of a natural setting here as Smith and his team designed this course to abide by Audubon International standards.  The result is a unique combination of wooded parkland holes, open pastures that provide a links-style feel, and Lowcountry style reminiscent of those you’d find along courses in coastal South Carolina and Georgia.

The last two courses are 9-hole attractions, with Pleasant Knolls featuring fast greens and plenty of water hazards, while Sandstone Hollow winds through the woods and natural wetlands of Northern New York. Pleasant Knolls plays as a par-36, a more standard regulation 9-hole course, while the Rick Smith-designed Sandstone Hollow is a par-3 course perfect for testing your short game that can serve as a fun round on its own or a nice add-on after you tackle one of the other courses on property.