Malone Golf Club

Malone Golf Club has 36 holes on two courses, the East and the West, on Golf Course Road at the south edge of Malone, under nine road miles from the cabins and fifteen minutes by the listings' count. Donald Ross and Willard G. Wilkinson laid out the East Course's front nine in the 1930s, and Robert Trent Jones made the club into two courses in 1987. The club is owned by its members and semi-private: visitors pay a daily green fee that includes a cart, and they can book tee times online up to a week ahead.

History of the club

A small group of Malone residents started the club in 1903, and its first course was near the site of today's high school. In 1937 the club bought the land on Golf Course Road where it plays today, and in 1939 it opened nine holes there. Donald Ross laid them out with the help of Willard G. Wilkinson, and those holes are still in play as the front nine of the East Course.

Babe Ruth, the New York Yankees legend, formally opened the course on July 1, 1939, and played in the first foursome, although local golfers did not get onto it until August. In 1956 the club added nine more holes, which gave it a full eighteen.

Robert Trent Jones came in the 1980s, after the club bought more land. He kept the best of the old eighteen and designed eighteen new holes around them, and in 1987 the club opened the result as 36 holes on two courses. The back nine of the East is his, and the club credits the West Course to him as well. Jones called his approach to design "no risk, no reward." The practice hole near the first tee of the West is still called Old #10, and the putting green near the employee parking lot is Old #18.

In October 1991 Golfweek rated the East's front nine the "Best Pure Classic Nine" in the world, praising its Redan, a roller-coaster short par five and links-style bunkering. Golf Digest has given the club four and a half stars, and both courses carry its "Good Service" seal.

The clubhouse is newer. In 1999 the club decided to spend $1.3 million on a new one. The old clubhouse, about 8,000 square feet with a single dining room, came down in a controlled fire in October 2000, and the hockey great Bobby Orr presided at the grand opening of its replacement on June 9, 2001. The new building has nearly 20,000 square feet, three dining rooms and much more deck and patio, and the fireplace in the Grille Room is the one from the old clubhouse.

The club's longtime head of golf went on to lead the national body for golf professionals. Derek Sprague spent 25 years at his hometown club as general manager and director of golf, served as president of the PGA of America from 2014 to 2016, and was named the association's chief executive in December 2024.

The East Course

The East is a par 72 that measures 6,545 yards from the blue tees, 6,121 from the white, 5,563 from the gold and 5,224 from the red. The card gives the 17th a ladies' par of five, so the course plays to a par of 73 from the red tees. It has four par threes and four par fives on rolling ground, with the 1930s holes going out and the Jones holes coming home.

The front nine

The front nine is 3,114 yards from the blues and plays to a par of 36. It opens with a 428-yard par four. The fifth is the hole the club calls every golfer's favorite: a par five of only 437 yards from the blues that doglegs right between the trees. The drive has to carry a deep gully and hold the high left side of the fairway, because the fairway tilts hard to the right and sends a weak shot into the woods. The approach goes to a small green with bunkers in front and steep falls behind it and to the left.

The sixth, 133 yards from the blues, is the shortest hole on the course from the back tees. The eighth is the longer of the front nine's two par fives at 514 yards, and the ninth, a 410-yard par four, brings you back to the clubhouse, where the East's snack bar sits for the turn.

The back nine

The Jones nine is 3,431 yards from the blues, also par 36, with tee shots that drop as much as 90 feet to the green and carries of 150 yards over spring-fed ponds. The tenth is the longest hole on the course, a 565-yard par five. Its fairway is cut through a stand of tall pines, and the large, rolling green is guarded by bunkers in a typical Jones arrangement.

The 14th is a par three from a tee set high above a small green on a plateau, 148 yards from the blues. The 15th, at 495 yards, is the last par five, and the round ends with a 445-yard par four. If you play the red tees, the card makes the 17th, 386 yards from there, a par five.

East Course yardages

The West Course

The West is a par 71 of 6,592 yards from the blues, 6,037 from the whites, 5,468 from the golds and 5,272 from the reds, where the card makes the 18th a par five and the par 72. It is the tighter of the two courses, with rolling, tree-lined fairways, big white bunkers ringing many of the greens, trouble behind them and a strong wind effect. Water comes into play on nine of its holes.

The front nine is the club's scoring nine, 3,251 yards from the blues to a par of 35. Its par threes are the 161-yard second and the 210-yard seventh, and the 545-yard fifth is the longest hole on the course. The back nine is narrower and has many natural hazards. It opens with a 167-yard par three, and the 11th, a 395-yard par four, needs a straight drive, because the landing area is narrow. Then come the two water holes, the 173-yard par-three 13th and the 400-yard par-four 15th, where the wind direction decides which club you hit. The 14th and 17th are the back nine's par fives, at 526 and 517 yards, and the 428-yard 18th brings you home.

West Course yardages

Choosing a course

With one round, play the East for the 1930s nine and for the Jones holes coming home, with their 90-foot drops and the high tee at the 14th. Play the West if you like narrow driving holes and water in play. From the blue tees the two are 47 yards apart, so length will not decide it.

With two days, play both, the East first, and keep the same-day replay rate in mind for the course you liked better. For a short evening game, the West's front nine is the club's scoring nine. Golfers who play from the red tees should check the par before they post a score: the card makes the East's 17th and the West's 18th par fives for them.

Tee times

Visitors book the way members do: online through Chronogolf, the booking system linked from the club's home page, or by phone with the pro shop at 518-483-2926. Tee times open seven days ahead, and the club highly recommends them. Groups go off eight minutes apart.

Check in at the pro shop at least 15 minutes before your time and be on the tee ready to play when it comes. Groups are limited to four players. The shop can allow a fivesome depending on the time of year and the weather, but do not plan on one.

The member course alternates each day between the East and the West, so tell the shop which course you want when you book. Leagues also fill parts of the week. In 2026 the club ran senior leagues on Monday and Tuesday, a Monday twilight league, a Tuesday ladies' league and two Thursday ladies' leagues. The senior leagues have teed off between 8:24 and 10 a.m., and the Thursday ladies' leagues have gone out in shotgun starts at 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. Ask the shop which times are open on your day.

The club also sells Stay and Play packages through its partner lodging in Malone: two or more days of unlimited golf with the cart included for your first round and $20 a player for a cart on a second, tee times guaranteed more than seven days ahead, discounts on extra days and a coupon for half off the green fee on a future round. Ask the shop which places are in the program.

Green fees in 2026

The club's 2026 daily rates include a cart, and the posted prices include taxes and fees. Peak season runs from May 18 to September 20, and the price depends on the day and the hour you tee off.

Walking rates are given by phone. Juniors 17 and under play free with a paying adult, and children 11 and under must have an adult with them. Players aged 12 to 17 on their own pay $20 for unlimited walking and may tee off after noon from Monday to Thursday and after 2 p.m. from Friday to Sunday. The replay rate is for a second round on the same day; you can book the replay only once your first round is over, and only if there is room. These are the 2026 rates; the club sets new ones each year, so check its rates page before you go.

Light matters for the twilight rate. In mid-July the sun sets about 8:40 p.m. at the club, which leaves time for 18 holes at the club's pace of 4 hours and 15 minutes. By mid-August sunset comes about 8:05, and by September 1 about 7:35, so a 4 p.m. start is a nine-hole round by then.

Carts, pace and rules on the course

• Carts. The club's carts are gas powered and come with the daily rates. Whoever drives needs a valid driver's license, juniors need to be 16 and licensed to rent or ride in one, a group can take no more than two carts, and two players in a group of two share one.
• Where carts go. Keep them at least 30 feet from greens, tees, bunkers and wet ground, and follow the signs to the cart paths. Golfers with limited mobility can ask the shop for the blue handicap marker that lets them drive closer to greens and tees within reason.
• Pace. The club expects a round in 4 hours and 15 minutes or less. Play ready golf, let a faster group through, fix your pitch marks, replace divots and rake the bunkers.
• Lightning. A series of siren blasts stops play when there is thunder and lightning nearby, and a single blast after the delay means you can play on. If the weather turns dangerous, take shelter without waiting for the siren.
• Frost. Expect frost delays early and late in the season, when tee times are pushed back until the courses are ready. Walking on frosted grass damages it.
• Dress. The club does not publish a dress code online; ask the shop when you book.
• Tipping. It is not required but is customary: a couple of dollars to the staff who carry your bag from the lot, drive you up from the lower lot or clean your clubs, and 15 to 20 percent for your server in the restaurant.

The pro shop, lessons and practice

The pro shop carries name-brand clubs and clothing, logo merchandise, gloves, shoes and hats, and it replaces grips, swaps soft spikes and fits clubs. The PGA professional staff give private lessons and playing lessons, with video analysis and a launch monitor if you ask for them, and the club schedules clinics, Get Golf Ready courses and junior camps through the season. In peak season the shop has opened as early as 6:30 a.m. and closed as late as 9 p.m.; the hours shift with the time of year, the weather and the amount of play.

Rental clubs are not on the club's posted rates, so call the shop before you count on a set. The driving range, which sits between the two 17th holes, is listed as a members' benefit, so plan your warm-up without it unless the shop tells you otherwise.

The clubhouse and the Grille Room

The Grille Room is open to the public. It serves lunch and dinner from a menu of salads, soups, sandwiches and dinner entrees, and it runs from April to the end of the golf season. For the last days of the 2026 season it is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and it closes for the year after service on Sunday, October 11. Hours vary with the season, so call the club to confirm them.

The main Grille Room, with the fireplace and the bar, seats up to 85, and the side dining room up to 35. The banquet room takes up to 200 for a dinner and about 175 for a wedding, so a golf group can book a room for its last-night dinner.

Each course has a snack bar with food, soft drinks and alcoholic drinks. The East's is right outside the clubhouse, handy before you tee off and at the turn, and it has taken both cash and cards. The West's sits between the 10th and 11th holes and has been cash only, so carry some bills. The snack bars close at times when play is slow or the weather is bad.

Park in the upper lot beside the clubhouse, or in the lower lot just below it when the upper one is full.

The golf season

The golf season runs from spring into late fall. Golf listings give it as about April 15 to November 15, and the club's own rates run from its opening day to its closing day, so call the shop if you are planning a round at either end of the year. In 2026 the peak season ran from May 18 to September 20, with lower off-peak rates before and after, and the Grille Room's season ends in mid-October. Expect frost delays on cold mornings at both ends of the season. These are Malone's averages for the golf months, from the 1991 to 2020 normals, with the time the sun sets at the club around the middle of each month:

June and July give you the longest evenings, and a summer twilight round can end close to 9 p.m. Black flies can be out in late May and June; see the bug guide. For fall color on the drive in, the fall color guide follows the state's weekly foliage report. The Franklin County Fair fills Malone for nine days in August, and the events calendar has the rest of the year.

Leagues, tournaments and juniors

From spring to fall the club's calendar fills with member events and outings. Its program of tournaments has included a club championship, team qualifying for its six- and eight-man and six-woman teams, two-man, two-woman and mixed team championships, and two events with "Open" in their names, the Adirondack Open and the Partners Open Championship. Entry fees have typically covered the cart, dinner, prizes and, for non-members, the green fee. The dates are on the events calendar on the club's site. Ask the shop whether an event takes outside players, and whether one ties up a course on the day you want to play.

The club is set up for families. Children play free with a paying adult, a teenager can walk on alone in the afternoons, and the club runs junior camps each year. In July 2025 it hosted a local qualifier for Drive, Chip and Putt, the national skills contest for boys and girls aged 7 to 15.

Other courses within reach

For a second course, five more lie between about 44 and 61 road miles from the cabins, and each was open in the 2026 season. Two are on NY 30 south of the cabins, one is in Lake Placid, and two are west of Malone off US 11.

Saranac Inn

The Saranac Inn course began with six holes in 1901 for the guests of the old Saranac Inn resort and grew to 18 in 1910. Seymour Dunn designed it and called it his masterpiece. It is a public par 72 of 6,602 yards with four sets of tees, fast bent-grass greens and a three-tier green on the ninth, and Walter Hagen played it in 1923 and set a course record of 70. A ten-unit motel on Upper Saranac Lake stands steps from the first tee, and the club sells golf-and-stay packages. It is about 44 road miles from the cabins, an hour's drive south on NY 30; see Saranac Lake and Paul Smiths for the rest of that corner.

Lake Placid Club

The Lake Placid Club has 45 holes on three courses. The Links, laid out by the Scottish architect Seymour Dunn in 1909, measures 7,052 yards to a par of 71. The Mountain was laid out in 1910 by Alexander Findlay and redesigned by Alister MacKenzie in 1931, and it measures 6,294 yards. The Pristine Nine, 1,519 yards with seven par threes and two par fours, is a good place for children and beginners. The public pays by the time of day: in 2026, 18 holes with a cart cost $109 before 1 p.m., $90 from 1 to 3 p.m. and $60 after 3 p.m. when booked online. The club is at 88 Morningside Drive, about 53 road miles from the cabins; pair it with a day in the village, covered in Lake Placid and Whiteface.

Tupper Lake

Tupper Lake Golf Club is a second Donald Ross course, carved into the side of Mount Morris in 1932, with tree-lined fairways, bunkers placed for strategy and mountain views. It is a public par 71 of 6,057 yards from the blue tees, and its pro shop rents clubs and carts. A trip that pairs it with the East's front nine at Malone gives you two Ross layouts in one weekend. It is about 61 road miles from the cabins, farther south on NY 30 past Saranac Inn, and the Wild Center is in the same town for the non-golfers.

Massena and Potsdam

The River Course at Louisville Landing was the Massena Country Club until the Town of Louisville took it over in April 2021. The Canadian golf professional Albert Murray designed it, and it opened in 1958. It is a par 71 of about 6,600 yards, open to the public for daily play, with the St. Lawrence River in view from most of the back nine and in play on the 17th and 18th, and it has a restaurant and bar, The Reserve. It is about 52 road miles from the cabins: north through Malone, west on US 11, then NY 420 and NY 37 toward Massena.

Potsdam Town & Country Club, on NY 56 about two miles south of the village of Potsdam, is a semi-private 18-hole course where a cold trout stream comes into play on eleven holes. Its signature hole is the par-four fourth, 384 yards from the blue tees and 350 from the whites, where the approach crosses the stream to a green backed by a pond. It is about 51 road miles from the cabins, west through Malone on US 11.

Getting there from the cabins

Local roads bring you out to County Route 25, the Duane Road, in about two miles. Turn north toward Malone and follow it about five and a half miles, then turn left onto Golf Course Road just before the village. The clubhouse is about eight road miles from the cabins, fifteen minutes by the listings' count. Malone's supermarkets, liquor stores and restaurants are a few minutes further north; see the Malone guide, groceries and supplies and where to eat.

A golf weekend from the cabins

This plan fits a summer weekend for one foursome that books each round as soon as the seven-day window opens.

For a non-golfer in the group, the Elephant's Head trail in the Titusville Mountain State Forest is a short climb to a view over Lake Titus. Every cabin has a washer and dryer for wet golf clothes, a grill and a private hot tub. Each sleeps a foursome in a main bedroom and a bunk room, and two foursomes can take The Modern Pine and The Aviator, which share a property; see golf trips and the cabins.

Questions

Sources

Facts on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. Hours, fees and schedules change; confirm before you go.

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