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Course spotlight: Cassadaga Country Club

Golfer's Diary

Submitted Photo Shown above is the Cassadaga Country Club’s golf course, owned and operated by the Wintersteen family for the past 13 years.

Cassadaga Country Club is a truly remarkable place — the very epitome of a family business.

The establishment is owned by the Wintersteen family and it’s impossible to visit the golf course, bar or restaurant without running into at least one member of this fantastic clan. Pete and Janice have owned Cassadaga Country Club (hereby referred to as CCC) along with their children Steve and Stacey since 2006. In fact, Steve points out that the course might not exist at all had his folks not intervened.

“I was an assistant golf pro down in Florida when my dad called me up,” he recalled. “He said the course was up for sale and wanted to know what I thought. I have a good feeling that if the course wasn’t purchased when it was, there wouldn’t be one here today. It was in that rough of shape at the time.”

While the Wintersteens have been running the course for the past 13 years, CCC was actually built way back in 1932 – with a grand opening in 1934. Predictably, the course has seen some major changes over the years.

“Back in ’06 there were 11 sand traps,” Wintersteen explained. “I had to re-do them all. They were so bad that players actually had free relief from them. Now we have 21 bunkers with hopefully a few more coming this year.”

Another massive project that Wintersteen has been working on is the change coming to Nos. 8 and 9. No. 8 is currently a long, uphill par 3 with a brutally difficult green. For the last few years, CCC has been working hard at clearing trees, leveling ground and bringing up truck after truck of sand to build a new green way up on the hill. The new hole will be a par 4, but Wintersteen plans on maintaining the current green for tournament purposes. No. 9’s new tee box will be an astounding 150 yards above No. 8’s tee and the new par 5 will play a good 540 yards.

“The view from up there is going to be remarkable,” Wintersteen noted.

“We have a few more improvements going on,” he continued. “I’ve started re-doing some of the tee boxes so that the back nine plays even more differently than the front nine even though you’re going to the same greens. I’m adding a few bunkers. We’re always working on making the greens better. We started putting down cart paths and we blacktopped where the carts are parked. Before it was just gravel.”

Speaking of the golf carts, CCC has some of the newest in the area after purchasing 29 brand new carts in 2017.

Perhaps one of the most overlooked aspects of CCC is the fact that the course stays remarkably dry, making it playable even in the wet seasons.

“We’d make more money as a gravel pit,” Wintersteen said with a laugh. “That’s why we stay so dry. There’s just so much gravel up here. It makes it hard to have extremely lush fairways. We’re always working hard at that. But it also means we’re one of the first places you can play in a season.”

Another aspect of CCC that sets it apart is the full restaurant and bar that are open all year. There are over a dozen different kinds of fish on Fridays. There are ludicrously affordable Burger Bash nights. Steak-a-pa-looza is exactly what it sounds like. Every Monday is chicken wing night.

As this is a “diary” of sorts, allow me to speak in the first person briefly as Cassadaga Country Club has a special place in my heart and that of my family. Upon realizing my love of golf seven years ago, I also stumbled upon what turned into my favorite place to go eat. After bringing them up to CCC, my parents fell in love with the restaurant possibly even more than I have. We go for wings at least once a month. We’ve been for fish fry countless times. The chicken wing burger (yes, it’s lathered in chicken wing dip) is one of my go-to post-golf meals. To show just how welcoming the Wintersteen family is, they always change the radio station to one that plays things like James Taylor and The Doobie Brothers when they see my mom come in because they know that’s what she likes. Where else are you going to get that kind of treatment?

So if you love unbelievably good food, a wonderfully maintained golf course with plenty of elevation change and some of the best people you’ll ever meet, I whole-heartedly recommend checking out CCC.

“You’re basically like family when you come here,” Wintersteen concluded. “Everyone is so happy to be here. I’m not going to say don’t play another course, but if I could only play at one place, it’d be here.”

For more information on Cassadaga Country Club, including league and tournament schedules, menu and more, be sure to “like” them on Facebook and check out cassadagacountryclub.com.

Stefan Gestwicki is an OBSERVER contributing writer. Comments on this article can be sent to golfersdiary@gmail.com.

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