The club relocated to its present Williamsville property in the mid-1920s and commissioned Donald Ross to design a new course on ground broken by limestone extraction and steep ledges. Club and USGA summaries consistently date the Ross design to 1926, the year typically cited for the completion of his plan and construction.
Ross’s routing made a deliberate feature of the Onondaga escarpment and quarry voids. Club publications note that six holes—5, 6, 7, 11, 12, and 13—incorporate quarry ground, while additional holes such as 13, 17, and 18 occupy the lower terrace below the escarpment. This arrangement produced two “signature” moments from the outset: the quarry-floor par-3 sixth and the rising par-4 eighteenth finishing below a natural rock garden. These descriptions appear in club historical materials and remain accurate to the present course.
Through the post-war period, the club engaged outside architects for modernization. Robert Trent Jones advised in 1952–54, Geoffrey St. John Cornish in 1965 and 1983, and William Craig Schreiner in 1994–96. Beginning in 2013, Forse Design (Ron Forse/Jim Nagle) carried out a major restoration using Ross’s original hole-by-hole drawings as guidance. The project was completed in 2013 and received Golf Inc.’s Renovation of the Year (Best in Show, 2014). The contractor’s release details scope—restoration of 117 Ross bunkers, tee relocations, selective fairway relocations, tree work, and infrastructure upgrades—consistent with a return to Ross’s ground game and visual intent.
No documentary evidence surfaced of Ross returning to the Williamsville site after his 1926 build to make a second phase of design changes; subsequent alterations are attributable to the architects listed above. (Primary club minutes or Ross correspondence would be required to confirm any later Ross site visit.)
Unique Design Characteristics
The quarry sequence remains the course’s architectural signature:
No. 6 (par 3) sits “in the middle of the abandoned rock quarry,” with a long, narrow green perched on a volcanic pad ringed by sharp falloffs. With the putting surface “40 yards long,” club selection and distance control dominate, and any miss courts a three- or four-shot recovery. This is the most cited single hole at CCB and one of the clearest surviving expressions of Ross using found landforms to dictate green placement and recovery severity.
No. 7 (par 4) is described by the club as a “slash” hole—driver line must favor the left, away from the quarry cliffs on the right. The open front allows a run-up approach, a hallmark of Ross’s greens when he expected ground entries.
No. 11 (par 4) plays to a two-level fairway that tightens due to a right-side bunker intruding into the landing zone, then carries the quarry to a green canted back-to-front and right-to-left, rewarding approach control and angle.
No. 12 (par 3) climbs up to a quarry-top green that tilts steeply back-to-front and left-to-right, emphasizing
precision and below-the-hole putting.
Outside the quarry, several holes show restored Ross features. Contemporary accounts of the 2013 project note the reintroduction of corridor width, reclaimed green depth/edge, and the re-establishment of clustered and diagonal bunkers that influence driving lines rather than simply flank greens. With 117 hazards restored and several tees repositioned, the course regained its graduated angles into smallish, intricately contoured greens—particularly noticeable on No. 5 (306 yards), a short par-4 “strategic wonder” whose plateaued right green half and bunkering pressure the preferred angle off the tee.
The finishing hole (No. 18) reprises the property’s amphitheater setting: a long, uphill par 4 rising to a 40-yard-deep green tucked below the clubhouse terrace and stone garden—the culminating example of Ross using the escarpment both as hazard and backdrop.
Historical Significance
Within Ross’s body of work, CCB is a distinctive “quarry course”—a relatively small subset where heavy industry left forms that the architect integrated rather than obliterated. The six quarry-influenced holes and the split-level routing between the upper bench and the lower terrace give the course a topographic identity uncommon in upstate New York parkland golf. The club’s own narrative has long celebrated No. 6 and No. 18 as dual signature holes; national publications routinely single out No. 6 among notable par-3s.
As a club, CCB’s championship résumé spans sites. The 1912 U.S. Open was played when the Country Club of Buffalo occupied its earlier city property (today’s Grover Cleveland Golf Course). That event does not belong to the Williamsville Ross course, but the USGA’s 2027 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur and 2032 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur will. The selection underscores how the club’s recent work restored both agronomic capacity and architectural clarity suited to national events.
CCB also garnered design recognition following the Forse/Nagle restoration: Golf Inc.’s 2014 Renovation of the Year (Best in Show) and coverage in national golf media highlighting the quarry sequence and the revival of Ross strategies.
Current Condition / Integrity
By the club’s account and contemporary reporting, the present course closely reflects Ross’s 1926 design, with later-era intrusions (tree overgrowth, simplified bunkering, narrowed fairways) reversed during 2013 restoration. The bunker field was rebuilt to Ross patterns (117 hazards), fairways were re-widened to restore playing angles, and green perimeters regained depth and corner pinnability. The quarry holes—5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13—remain the course’s architectural anchor; 13, 17, 18 retain their lower-bench setting that dramatizes the finish. As of the club’s 2024 course-tour page, CCB plays par 70 at 6,444 yards (Rating/Slope 71.8/127), with additional tee options shown in third-party databases reaching ~6,850 yards. Differences likely reflect alternate tee sets and recent back-tee additions since 2013.
Prior modernization campaigns—Jones (1952–54), Cornish (1965, 1983), Schreiner (1994–96)—altered aspects of bunkering, tees, and corridors. Forse/Nagle’s work intentionally undid many of those mid-century trends, guided by Ross’s original hole drawings and early imagery; it also delivered drainage/irrigation upgrades and necessary tree work to re-expose quarry vistas and sun/wind corridors. On present evidence, routing, quarry relationships, and green identities (especially at 6, 7, 11, 12, 18) remain intact and legible as Ross.
Sources & Notes
Country Club of Buffalo — “Golf” pages (official site). Course history, quarry-hole descriptions, architect chronology (Ross 1926; Jones 1952–54; Cornish 1965, 1983; Schreiner 1994–96), and “signature holes” narrative; 2024 course-tour with yardage and Rating/Slope. Accessed 2024–2025.
Country Club of Buffalo 2017 Viewbook (PDF). Identifies quarry-influenced holes 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13 and notes 13, 17, 18 on lower level beneath the escarpment; emphasizes No. 6 and No. 18 as twin signature holes.
USGA Championships at CCB (USGA.org). Announces 2027 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur and 2032 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at the Country Club of Buffalo; includes club historical note about previous USGA events (at earlier venues).
Grover Cleveland Golf Course (Wikipedia/USGA links therein). Documents that the 1912 U.S. Open was contested at the club’s former city course (now Grover Cleveland GC), not the present Williamsville site. (Secondary source; primary confirmation would be USGA championship records.)
Aspen Corporation Press Release (Aug. 1, 2014). Details 2013 completion of Forse Design restoration at CCB; Golf Inc. 2014 Renovation of the Year (Best in Show); scope including restoration of 117 Ross bunkers, tee and fairway relocations, drainage/irrigation, and tree work.
Business Insider summary of Golf Digest “Best New” (Dec. 3, 2013). Notes Forse/Nagle restoration “armed with … Ross’s original hole-by-hole blueprints,” reintroduced width, green depth, and clusters of bunkers; highlights quarry sixth. (Secondary summary of Golf Digest’s 2013 feature.)
Club hole pages. No. 6 (quarry “volcano” green, 40-yard depth); No. 7 (quarry cliff right; open-front green); No. 11 (two-level fairway; quarry carry; canted green); No. 12 (quarry-top, strongly sloped green); No. 18 (40-yard-deep green below terrace).