Colonial Ridge Golf Club

Colonial Ridge Golf Club sits in the rolling terrain of Laurens, a small town in Otsego County in central New York's Leatherstocking region. Designed by Clair Jacobsen and opened in the mid-1990s, the course occupies farmland characteristic of upstate New York, where open meadows transition into wooded corridors and the land moves in gentle to moderate waves. The routing takes advantage of natural elevation changes without requiring severe climbs, offering golfers a walkable layout that presents strategic variety across its eighteen holes. Jacobsen, a regional architect active in the Northeast during the late twentieth century, designed Colonial Ridge as a daily-fee facility intended to serve the local golfing community and visitors to the Cooperstown area, which lies roughly fifteen miles to the northwest. The course reflects practical design principles common to accessible public golf of its era: fairways that reward accuracy over pure distance, greens with modest undulation, and hazards positioned to define playing corridors rather than to penalize aggressively. Water features and bunkers appear selectively throughout the round. The setting provides views across the rural landscape of central New York, with tree-lined holes alternating with more open stretches that expose golfers to prevailing winds. Colonial Ridge serves both local members and daily-fee play, maintaining a straightforward, unpretentious character typical of small-town courses in the region. The facility includes standard practice areas and a clubhouse offering basic amenities and casual dining.