Brook Lea Country Club

Brook-Lea grew out of the 1922 purchase of Oak Hill Country Club's original grounds on the Genesee, which the buyers gave to the University of Rochester. With Oak Hill preparing to move east, golfers from Rochester's 19th Ward lost their nearby course, and a group of west-side neighbours including Ward Head, John Mullan and Harvey Haddleton met in an office on West Avenue to form a club of their own. Seventeen charter members put in $100 each toward land, and Frank Moffett led the purchase of the parcels in Gates along Little Black Creek, which gives the club its name.

By the end of 1924 the founders had Donald Ross designing the course. His routing blueprint, a set of green drawings and a sheet of notes and sketches for each of the 18 holes survive at the club, which says he first envisioned 27 holes. Construction was under way by April 1926. Crews had cleared fairways and greens, more than 4,800 pounds of dynamite went into removing stumps, the budget was just over $42,000, and Franklyn P. Clark was hired to oversee the build. The first nine opened to members on August 14, 1926.

During construction the club moved the planned site of the clubhouse. The holes stayed where Ross put them, but the order changed. Ross's hole sheets, which the club publishes with today's numbers pencilled above his, show how: today's front nine was his back nine and today's back nine was his front, each rotated to start and finish at the new clubhouse. Ross's round opened on today's 15th and closed on today's 5th, and his par 3s fell at his 4th, 7th, 13th and 16th, so neither of his nines ended with a one-shotter. Within the first decade three of the greens were flattened, according to contemporary articles the current restoration team found.

Holes to Know

Brook-Lea plays to par 72 and 6,830 yards from the Black tees, par 36 on each nine, 3,435 yards out and 3,395 in. There are four par 3s (the 3rd, 9th, 12th and 18th), four par 5s (the 2nd, 7th, 10th and 11th) and ten par 4s. The back nine opens with back-to-back par 5s, and both nines close with a par 3.

The 350-yard 8th from the Black tees is the shortest par 4 on the card, a straight hole between tree lines. A two-lobed bunker sits on the left about 220 to 240 yards out, and the round green has sand short-left and a pair of bunkers on the right. Barry Jordan's restoration reinstated a back-left greenside bunker here and restored the other three.

The 173-yard 9th from the Black tees crosses Little Black Creek about 50 yards out. The creek then loops back along the left and comes within a few yards of the line about 25 yards short of the green before turning away. The green, the smallest on the course, has a bunker on its left and two on its right. Ross's note for the hole asked that a clump of willows on the right be kept to separate it from his 15th, today's 2nd. It is one of the three greens flattened early.

The 459-yard 10th from the Black tees, the shortest par 5, leaves from beside the clubhouse. The creek crosses in front of the tee, runs up the right, winds back across the fairway between about 200 and 260 yards where the hole turns right, then follows the left side to a large green with no bunkers. A pond sits right of the cart path at the bend. Ross's sheet for the hole, his 5th, draws a new line for the brook, to be staked on the right beyond the 200-yard mark.

The 421-yard 15th from the Black tees was the first hole of Ross's routing. It runs straight between trees, with a fairway bunker on the right about 80 yards short of the green, another on the left about 35 yards short, and two bunkers flanking the front of a small green. Jordan's work reintroduced spectacle bunkers on the hole and, with the 14th, reinstated ten lost bunkers.

The 172-yard 18th from the Black tees closes the round across the creek, which cuts diagonally in front of the tee about 75 yards short of the green. The round green has a bunker on the left and two on the right, and the clubhouse dining room and patio overlook it. Ross's note for the hole, his 4th, asked that a ridge on the left-centre be lowered if it hid the green from the tee, with three small pot bunkers in its face.

Ross's Design Here

Little Black Creek is the thread of the routing. Jordan describes it running across, along and through several holes, and the ground moving between moderately rolling topography and flatter, linksy terrain. On today's 10th Ross did more than route around the creek: his sheet moves it to a new line. The sheets also show attention to what a player sees and to separating holes. On the 18th he asked for a ridge to be lowered if it blocked the view of the green, and on the 9th he kept a stand of willows as a screen from the neighbouring hole.

The sheets are working construction documents. They give tee dimensions and bunker specifications; the sheet for today's 1st calls for its first two bunkers to be cut into the face of slopes and finished four feet six inches deep. Together with the green sheets, they are what the current restoration works from, including the original contours of the three greens flattened in the first decade, at the 5th, 9th and 18th.

Not all of Ross's bunkers were built. Historic articles record the club's decision to postpone several of them in his design, and Jordan's plan installs them now.

Historical Significance

The Donald Ross Society and Tufts Archives directory lists Brook-Lea as a new 18-hole Ross design of 1926, one of several Ross courses around Rochester along with Oak Hill, Monroe and Irondequoit. Its link to Oak Hill is closer than geography: the club was formed by west-side golfers displaced when Oak Hill's original grounds were sold, and club historian Ben Gibson has described founders who were Oak Hill members. Top100GolfCourses calls the par-3 finish to both nines unusual.

The New York State Golf Association has brought two state championships to Brook-Lea: the NYS Women's Amateur in 1986 and the NYS Men's Amateur in 1991, won by Leonard Lasinsky. The club hosted NYSGA Amateur Series events in 2021, 2024, 2025 and 2026.

The club marked its centennial in May 2026 with a Governor's Ball, a long-standing club event, the first of a series of anniversary events running into 2027.

Changes Since Ross

The first recorded change came within a decade of opening, when the surfaces of three greens were flattened. Later work by architects whom no source we read names, over roughly the past 30 years, is described by Jordan as misguided and is being undone.

In 2022 the club approved a restoration masterplan by Barry Jordan, built on Ross's routing blueprint, the 18 hole sheets, the green sheets and historic photography, with research help from club historian Bob Graham and Ross historian Brad Klein. MAS Golf Construction is the contractor. The first phase reinstated lost bunkers, among them a back-left greenside bunker on the 8th, ten bunkers across the 14th and 15th, and spectacle bunkers on the 15th. A second phase was scheduled to begin in spring 2024. The plan covers bunker renovation, green and fairway expansions, drainage, tree removal, and native grass and seasonally mowed areas. When complete, 18 bunkers will have been removed, 44 restored and 57 added. The plan also rebuilds and recontours the 5th, 9th and 18th greens to Ross's green sheets.

Ross's hole locations and creek crossings survive; what changed most is the order of play, fixed before the course opened.

Uncertainties

• No source we read reports whether the rebuilt 5th, 9th and 18th greens, or the second phase, are finished; the text describes them as planned.

• The previous listing named J.B. McGovern as Ross's construction supervisor. We found no source for it; the club's centennial history names Franklyn P. Clark as the man hired to oversee construction, and we followed the club.

• The Ross Society directory dates the design to 1926, the opening year; the club's centennial history has Ross engaged by the end of 1924. We give both.

Sources & Notes

1. Brook-Lea Country Club, History, https://brookleacountryclub.com/history (1926; 27 holes envisioned; holes renumbered from the blueprints; links to Ross's blueprints and green drawings)

2. Brook-Lea Country Club, Donald J. Ross hole sheets 1-18 (scanned PDF), https://brookleacountryclub.com/documents/20124/40188/Brook-Lea-CC-Donald-J-Ross-1-18.pdf (Ross's original hole numbers against today's; notes on the 1st, 9th, 10th and 18th)

3. Brook-Lea Country Club, The Centennial Chronicles, https://brookleacountryclub.com/centennial (founding after the 1922 Oak Hill sale; founders; charter members; Ross engaged by end of 1924; April 1926 construction, dynamite, $42,000, Franklyn P. Clark; first nine opened August 14, 1926)

4. Brook-Lea Country Club, About, Golf, Dining, Fitness, Clubhouse, Golf Tournaments and Meet Our Team pages, https://brookleacountryclub.com/about (188 acres; practice facilities; Windsor Room views; pool; fitness centre; staff; Monday outings)

5. Richard Humphreys, Golf Course Architecture, Barry Jordan to continue Ross restoration at Brook-Lea in spring 2024 (15 November 2023), https://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/content/barry-jordan-to-continue-ross-restoration-at-brook-lea-in-spring-2024 (clubhouse move and sequence; hole sheets and green sheets; flattened greens; scope and bunker totals; holes 8, 14 and 15)

6. The First Call, Design Notes (7 March 2024), https://www.firstcallgolf.com/design-notes/feature/2024-03-07/tom-lehman-revives-the-arizona-biltmore (phase two in spring 2024; draws on item 5)

7. Top100GolfCourses, Brook-Lea, https://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/brook-lea (par-3 finishes called unusual; creek on the 9th, 10th and 18th)

8. New York State Golf Association, NYS Men's Amateur History, https://nysga.org/nys-mens-amateur-history (1991 at Brook-Lea, Leonard Lasinsky)

9. New York State Golf Association, 2021 championship schedule, https://nysga.org/communications-news/schuyler-meadows-teugega-shaker-ridge-highlight-2021-nysga-championship-schedule (1986 Women's Amateur and 1991 Men's Amateur at Brook-Lea)

10. New York State Golf Association, Amateur Series results at Brook-Lea, 2021, 2024, 2025 and 2026, https://nysga.org/communications-news/results-2026-nysga-amateur-series-at-brook-lea-cc

11. Donald Ross Society and Tufts Archives, Directory of Golf Courses Designed by Donald J. Ross (January 2026), https://rosssociety.org/resources/Documents/Ross%20Course%20List/Final%20Ross%20Directory%20of%20Courses%20Jan%202026%20website.pdf (Brook Lea, 18 holes, new 1926; other Rochester Ross courses)

12. Hunter Wright, News10NBC, Brook-Lea Country Club celebrates 100 years with a Governor's Ball (17 May 2026), https://www.whec.com/top-news/brook-lea-country-club-celebrates-100-years-with-a-governors-ball-on-saturday/ (centennial; historian Ben Gibson on the founding)

13. Greens Visited scorecard and course-tour aerials (New York State Digital Orthoimagery Program), https://gis.ny.gov/orthoimagery (yardages, card shape and what is on the ground today)