The club that became Teugega organized at the end of the nineteenth century and built its Lake Delta clubhouse in 1923, but the present golf course owes its identity to Donald Ross’s commission and construction culminating in 1921. Contemporary and later accounts agree that the course opened over the July 4th holiday weekend with a celebratory exhibition; the club’s centennial programming in 2021 expressly commemorated that occasion and the early exhibitions by Gene Sarazen and Walter Hagen that helped launch the course’s competitive life. The opening date fits squarely within Ross’s New York period, when he was translating his “second-shot” emphasis to compact club properties that needed interest from green sites and bunkering rather than large earthworks.
The course’s historical fabric benefitted from unusually consistent stewardship. By the early 2000s, like many Ross courses, Teugega’s greens had shrunk at the margins, mowing lines had crept inward, and certain bunkers no longer influenced play as originally intended. In 2004 the club adopted a master plan by Barry Jordan (Jordan Golf Design). Guided by historic aerials and early photographs, the plan expanded greens back toward original perimeters, restored fairway widths, rebuilt and re-sited bunkers that had drifted from their strategic roles, and removed unoriginal hazards that had accumulated over the decades. The work proceeded methodically in phases, with the club continuing play during construction. In 2024 the club publicly marked completion of the long-running restoration program—framing it explicitly as a return to Ross’s original intent.
Unique Design Characteristics
Teugega’s interest is generated at the green sites and their immediate surrounds. The opening hole sets the tone: a dogleg-right that climbs to a large, elevated green canted back-to-front and left, with a front-left bunker pinching the preferred angle. Approaches landing past-pin risk slippery downhill recoveries—a Ross hallmark when he wanted restraint from the tee.
The 10th is a mid-length two-shotter with a distinctive hump running through the green, effectively creating left and right pinnable shelves. The feature rewards disciplined distance control; even from the fairway, indifferent trajectory leaves a treacherous two-putt across the crown.
At 11, a straight hole for men (par five for women), the fairway crests and falls to an intermittent stream fronting the green, then rises again into a surface divided by a steep internal ridge. The fall-then-rise sequence and the frontal hazard create a classic Ross approach dilemma—spin and height to a precise landing spot versus a chased, lower-flighted ball that risks rejection by the slope.
The short 7th is the course’s most famous par-3—a compact target surrounded by sand that demands a high-flying tee shot to hold its surface. Club lore (repeated in published profiles) holds that Ross made an ace here shortly after the course opened, and the hole remains a pivot point in match play: miss in the wrong quadrant and the up-and-down is far from routine.
Teugega’s strategy also turns on pars and pacing. A collection of sub-400-yard par-4s asks players to choose between position and aggression; their greens—small, perched and often flanked by fronting bunkers—tend to extract more from the second than from the tee. The longer par-4s on the inward half (notably into quartering winds off the lake) are framed by restored fairway bunkers that again intrude on the optimal line. As the restoration re-established fairway width, many holes now offer the preferred angle for those willing to challenge hazards—another Ross constant that remains legible here.
Historical Significance
Within Ross’s New York portfolio, Teugega is significant for two reasons. First, it is a purpose-built, club-scale commission whose original corridors and green sites have largely survived a century—a rarity in the state outside of a handful of more famous venues. Second, it stands as a compelling example of how small greens with strong internal tilts can produce enduring challenge at modern green speeds without relying on additional length. The club’s competition record underscores its continuing technical relevance: Teugega has hosted the New York State Golf Association Mid-Amateur (2014), state-association finals and Amateur Series championships (most recently in 2022), and periodic district and junior events that keep the course in tournament trim. The centennial in 2021 revived the historic Sarazen-Hagen exhibition narrative and positioned Teugega within the living Ross canon rather than as a static museum piece.
Current Condition / Integrity
Teugega today presents as a high-integrity Ross routing with restored green sizes and strategic bunkering. The Jordan plan’s green-edge reclamation returned fronting false edges and corner hole locations that had been lost to shrinkage; fairway expansion re-opened angles around cross-hazards and brought bunkers back into the tee shot’s decision tree. Selective tree management has reintroduced wind to approach shots near the lake and revived the original scale relationships between greens and surrounds. The result is a course that still plays to 6,514 yards at par 71, with tactile differences felt most on approach and recovery: balls that creep just past certain pins finish above interior spines or on crowned plateaus, and short-sided recoveries face restored sand that now sits where Ross meant it to influence play.
Feature-level attributions can be made confidently where club descriptions and photographs align with plan-era forms: the elevated, back-to-front first green; the humped 10th putting surface; the stream-fronted 11th with its steep interior step; and the compact, guarded 7th. Other details (e.g., the precise interior contours of lesser-documented greens) were refined during restoration to match aerials and period imagery; absent a full set of original green sketches in public circulation, some micro-contours should be treated as informed reconstructions rather than verified originals.
Sources & Notes
Teugega CC — “Golf Course” (official hole descriptions). Elevated 1st green; humped 10th green; stream fronting 11th; other hole-by-hole features.
Teugega CC — “History” (official). Club origins; early leadership; context for course and clubhouse development.
Teugega CC — “Amenities” (official). Clubhouse built 1923; notes on the 2000 clubhouse renovation; campus facilities.
Teugega CC — Home page (official). Statement of a Donald Ross course; private-club identity; lake access and facilities.
Jay Flemma, “Teugega Country Club, Rome, NY by Donald Ross” (photo essay, 2012). States course opened in 1921; summarizes Barry Jordan restoration intent and methods.
Golf Course Industry, “Editor’s notebook: Authentically awesome” (2021). Notes 2004 Jordan master plan; scope: green/fairway expansion, tree removal, reconstructing original bunkers, grassing over unoriginal bunkers; describes methodical, phased execution.
Teugega CC (official Facebook), July 6, 2024. Club announcement marking completion of restoration to Donald Ross’s original design, crediting Barry Jordan and the long-running effort.
Top100GolfCourses – “Teugega.” Ross attribution and 1921 date; note that Ross reportedly aced the 7th shortly after opening.
NYSGA results pages. 2014 NYS Mid-Amateur results at Teugega; 2022 NYSGA Amateur Series Championship hosted at Teugega.
Donald Ross Society – “In the News” (2021 item). Club’s centennial exhibition honoring Sarazen and Hagen and the 1921 opening exhibition.