The toughest course in the Albany-Schenectady, NY combined area is Olde Kinderhook Golf Course, at slope 151 — ahead of Saratoga National Golf Club at slope 144 and Sagamore Resort and Golf Club at slope 138.
All 45 courses in the area with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees are ranked below, along with 5 more lists: hardest from the tips, longest, widest tee spread, oldest, highest above sea level.
Albany-Schenectady, NY is a combined statistical area as the U.S. Office of Management and Budget delineates it — the boundary is theirs, not ours. Each list counts only the courses in the area that publish that figure, so the totals differ between them. Slope and course rating measure difficulty, not quality — nothing here ranks how good a course is.
Toughest test
— the top 25 of 45 courses with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees
The highest USGA slope rating published for any of the men’s tee sets. Slope rates difficulty for a bogey golfer relative to a scratch golfer — a rated figure issued by the golf association, not an opinion about the course. Men’s ratings only, because a tee is rated separately for men and for women and the two scales do not compare; a course rated only for women is not in the running rather than converted.
Hardest from the tips
— the top 25 of 38 courses with a USGA course rating for its men’s tees
The highest USGA course rating published for any of the men’s tee sets — the score a scratch golfer is expected to shoot. Men’s ratings only, for the same reason as slope: the men’s and women’s ratings of one tee are different measurements. It measures difficulty and nothing else; it is not a quality score and never orders these pages by how good a course is.
Longest
— the top 25 of 71 courses with a published scorecard
The longest tee set the course publishes, in yards from the tips. Compared against every course that publishes a scorecard — length is a measurement, not a verdict on the golf.
Widest tee spread
— the top 25 of 69 courses with two or more tee sets of different lengths
| # | Course | Widest tee spread |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eagle Crest Golf Club | 6,288 yds between tees |
| 2 | Championship at Saratoga Spa State Park | 2,794 yds between tees |
| 3 | Saratoga National Golf Club | 2,311 yds between tees |
| 4 | Mohawk River Country Club Chateau | 2,077 yds between tees |
| 5 | Stadium Golf Club | 2,007 yds between tees |
| 6 | Olde Kinderhook Golf Course | 1,988 yds between tees |
| 7 | Pole Valley Players Golf Course | 1,981 yds between tees |
| 8 | Blue Red at Western Turnpike Golf Course | 1,790 yds between tees |
| 9 | Orchard Creek Public Golf Club | 1,778 yds between tees |
| 10 | Brookhaven Golf Club | 1,751 yds between tees |
| 11 | Evergreen 1 at Evergreen Country Club | 1,650 yds between tees |
| 12 | Glens Falls Country Club | 1,648 yds between tees |
| 13 | Airway Meadows Golf Course | 1,604 yds between tees |
| 14 | Sagamore Resort and Golf Club | 1,548 yds between tees |
| 15 | Schuyler Meadows Club | 1,523 yds between tees |
| 16 | The Country Club of Troy | 1,503 yds between tees |
| 17 | Hiland Park Country Club | 1,457 yds between tees |
| 18 | Cobleskill Golf Country Club | 1,451 yds between tees |
| 19 | Van Patten Golf Club Blue Red | 1,438 yds between tees |
| 20 | Van Patten Golf Club Red White | 1,420 yds between tees |
| 21 | Kingswood Golf Club | 1,387 yds between tees |
| 22 | Capital Hills at Albany | 1,364 yds between tees |
| 23 | Top of the World Golf Course | 1,362 yds between tees |
| 23 | Van Patten Golf Club White Blue | 1,362 yds between tees |
| 25 | Burden Lake Country Club | 1,325 yds between tees |
Yards between the longest and shortest published tee sets — how far the course moves to fit a different player. Courses publishing a single tee set are not in the running, because one set is an unmeasured spread rather than a narrow one.
Oldest
— the top 25 of 48 courses with an opening year
The year the course opened, as published. Ranked oldest first. An opening year is not a design credit and not a renovation date — a course that opened in 1921 and was rebuilt in 1998 still opened in 1921.
Highest above sea level
— the top 25 of 72 courses with a coordinate we could sample
| # | Course | Highest above sea level |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stamford Golf Course | 2,030 ft |
| 2 | Cobleskill Golf Country Club | 1,031 ft |
| 3 | Sagamore Resort and Golf Club | 1,004 ft |
| 4 | Green Mansions Golf Club | 962 ft |
| 5 | Top of the World Golf Course | 930 ft |
| 6 | Kingsboro Golf Club | 915 ft |
| 7 | Hales Mills Country Club | 825 ft |
| 8 | Canajoharie Country Club | 813 ft |
| 9 | Brookhaven Golf Club | 810 ft |
| 10 | Copake Country Club | 803 ft |
| 11 | Burden Lake Country Club | 656 ft |
| 12 | Cronins Golf Resort | 640 ft |
| 13 | Hillcrest Golf Country Club | 611 ft |
| 14 | Thousand Acres Golf Club | 598 ft |
| 15 | Milestone Golf Club | 571 ft |
| 16 | Hoosick Falls Country Club | 565 ft |
| 17 | Amsterdam Municipal Golf Course | 563 ft |
| 18 | Brunswick Greens Golf Course | 555 ft |
| 19 | Pioneer Hills Golf Course | 509 ft |
| 20 | East at Mohawk Golf Club | 452 ft |
| 21 | Dutchaven Golf Course | 435 ft |
| 22 | Glens Falls Country Club | 420 ft |
| 23 | Albany Country Club | 415 ft |
| 24 | Olde Kinderhook Golf Course | 404 ft |
| 25 | Eagle Crest Golf Club | 387 ft |
Height above sea level at the course’s own published coordinate, sampled from the USGS 3DEP elevation model. THIS IS A FIGURE WE DERIVED, not one the course publishes — anybody can re-query the same public dataset at the same coordinate and get the same number, but no scorecard states it. Because every course carries a coordinate, this is the only board here whose field is nearly the whole database rather than the courses that publish a particular figure. Elevation changes how far a ball carries; it says nothing about whether a course is good.