TUSCARORA GOLF CLUB, SYRACUSE, NY


Our Course was completed in 1923 by the master Scottish golf instructor and club maker, Dunn. Though settled in the U.S. at the age of twelve, Seymour Dunn designed golf courses in both America and Europe. Among his best known European designs are the private courses of King Leopold of Belgium (1906), the Rothschild Estate in France (1908), and King Emmanuel of Italy (1908).

For the detailed yardage book for Tuscarora, please go to the following link:

Golfwits.com eYardage Book

History
Tuscarora Golf Club began to take shape in 1921 when a group of local golfers and businessmen formulated the plan to build and operate a golf course. At the time, there were only a handful of courses in Central New York. The founding members of Tuscarora negotiated the purchase of the Lawless family farm, raised the capital necessary for construction, and hired Scottish Golf Pro and Course Designer Seymour Dunn to lay out the course.

In the Fall of 1928, the Club contracted with a young Cornell University student to make some design changes to improve the aesthetics and playability of the course. The contract called for the young man to redesign two holes per year in exchange for an annual payment of $200. In the Fall of 1928 and into the Spring and Summer of 1929, the young man worked on the course, adding a huge trap in front of the sixteenth green and gumdrop mounds to the left and behind a newly enlarged green. He added the same distinctive mounds behind the tenth green and a grass bunker to the right. The young designer would go on to become the most prolific golf course architect in the United States. His name was Robert Trent Jones. Jones completed his task of two redesigned holes for 1929 and looked forward to tackling two more holes during the Summer of 1930. It was never to happen. The stock market crash and the beginning of The Great Depression in the Fall of 1929 put an end to the course redesign. The changes made by Robert Trent Jones to the original Seymour Dunn design are still evident today and the same characteristics have been incorporated into the current ongoing course upgrade. The distinctive Jones mounds bordering the tenth and sixteenth greens now frame the fifth green. After World War II, Bill Bednarski, a former caddy at Tuscarora, returned from Europe to Marcellus. The Tuscarora golf course was owned at the time by four of the former Club directors, and they were not interested in immediately reopening it. Bill and his younger brother Henry approached the owners and in 1947 purchased the property. The Bednarski’s set fire to the brush that covered the course, allowing the grass beneath to reseed. In most spots, the grass began to grow and within weeks, the Bednarski’s were mowing fairways and trimming greens. By June of 1947, the ten holes south of the trolley bed which dissects the course were playable. Tuscarora Golf Club reopened and new members paid dues of $35 for the June to October golf season. The next year, the remaining eight holes north of the Trolley Bed reopened and the annual dues skyrocketed to $45. Tuscarora’s golf course is impeccably maintained and a serious test of golf for scratch players and high handicappers alike. Tuscarora has played host to events sponsored by the Syracuse District Golf Association, the New York State Golf Association, and the United States Golf Association. The clubhouse is bright, comfortable and welcoming, and the membership is friendly and sociable. Tuscarora Golf Club has grown over the years into one of the premier clubs in New York State and the club’s history has put it in position to remain a top club well into the future.