Orchard Creek Golf Club

Orchard Creek Golf Club occupies old farmland in the Helderberg foothills outside Altamont whose deed history reaches back to 1792, when Stephen Van Rensselaer leased the farm to William Ward. In the early 1900s Albany physician Daniel Cook planted the first orchard here out of a scientific interest in apple growing, and in 1967 Joseph and Ellen Abbruzzese bought the property, becoming the first owners to live and work on the farm. The purchase of the neighboring Anna Anthony farm in 1993 set the golf project in motion. Paul Cowley designed the layout in 1997, shaping began in the spring of 1998, and the par-71 course opened to the public on July 13, 1999. In 2008 the National Golf Course Owners Association named it New York State Golf Course of the Year.