Mill Creek Golf Club

Mill Creek Golf Club in Churchville, west of Rochester, began with a nine-hole par-3 Short Course designed by Illinois architect Rick Jacobsen beside the driving range. Its 18-hole championship course followed: the investors bought two neighboring farms, about 320 acres of wooded hills, fescue, rocky creeks and waterfalls, and hired Raymond Hearn and Paul Albanese of Raymond Hearn Golf Course Designs. The front nine opened for preview play over Labor Day weekend in 2004, and the $7 million project, including an Adirondack-style clubhouse, opened officially in 2005. The course sits atop a glacial drumlin that its owners described as the highest point in Monroe County, and the high ground gives views of the Rochester skyline and toward the Finger Lakes. Bentgrass greens, rock-lined creeks and holes that tumble over the drumlin's slopes give the course a rugged, natural feel for a modern public layout.