“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” Well, according to the top touring pros and the Seven Dwarfs, it’s the Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester. For this venue is regarded, almost universally, as the fairest but most challenging course on the US major circuit. 

When Oak Hill Golf Club started out in life back in 1901, golf was played on a barren rudimentary nine-hole course set close to the banks of the Genesee River. Things at the club remained low key until the beginning of the 1920s. Or so the members thought. Little did they know that the University of Rochester had their hearts set on a new riverside campus, which they wanted to develop on the site of the Oak Hill course. Fortunately, for Oak Hill, the rich University had land and cash to spare and a trade-off took place – 350 acres of farmland plus $360,000 for 85 riverside acres. 

Naturally Oak Hill grasped the golden opportunity and commissioned Donald Ross to build two courses on the new site at Pittsford. Tens of thousands of oak trees were planted, and the new Oak Hill gradually started to take shape.  

Before play commenced in the 1954 US Open at Oak Hill, Ben Hogan suggested that the East course was not hard enough to host this top event. After missing a short putt on the penultimate hole and losing by one shot to Cary Middlecoff, Hogan changed his tune and declared Oak Hill’s opening hole to be the toughest he’d ever played. Since then, Oak Hill has been a regular US Open and USPGA venue and only world’s very best golfers have managed to better the Oak Hill par. The East course staged the 1995 Ryder Cup which resulted in a narrow European win and the course will play host to the 2013 USPGA.