The Front Nine
Full eighteen — 1 hr 8 min from Syracuse
Fillmore is an hour and eight minutes out from us, which makes it the longest haul we’ve taken for a round this season. We’ll say this up front: it’s a nice drive. You get out of the city, into the farm country south of the lakes, and by the time you pull in you’ve already had a pretty good morning.
The course backs up the trip. It’s a scenic property and it’s very well maintained — they were out mowing while we were playing, which tells you something about how the place is run, and the greens showed it. Smooth, true, no complaints from either of us all day.
The one thing that got us on the front is the fringe. It’s grown out long down the sides of the fairways, and it eats golf balls. We lost a few we had no business losing — shots that were only a little offline and should have been an easy find. Worth keeping in mind off the tee, because “barely missed the fairway” and “gone” are a lot closer together here than you’d expect.
The highlight of the nine is getting to hole 7. The cart path runs down a hill on the way there and it genuinely feels like a roller coaster — you come over the top and the thing just drops out from under you. We were not expecting that on a golf course in Locke, and we’d ride it again.
The one real knock on the front: the porta potties. Depending on which way the wind was moving, you’d catch a whiff at a few points out there, and it’s hard to un-smell once you have.
The Back Nine
The back nine is much of the same, and we mean that as a compliment. Same well-kept greens, same open fairways, same views the whole way in. It doesn’t fall off after the turn and it doesn’t throw anything at you that the front hasn’t already shown you.
Open is the theme of the whole place. There’s room to miss out here as long as you keep it out of that long stuff along the edges, which is a big part of why the round stays fun even when you’re not hitting it well. For two guys who spend a fair amount of time off the short grass, that matters.
Watch the Round
Watch on YouTube
Course Photos
The Verdict
Fillmore is worth the drive. It’s scenic, it’s genuinely well kept, it’s $42 a person with a cart, and the only two things we came away complaining about were long fringe and a porta potty. That’s a good day of golf.
If you’re anywhere in Cayuga County, this one is an easy yes — go play it. If you’re coming from Syracuse like we were, it’s a little over an hour each way, but the drive is pleasant and the course holds up its end of the deal. We’d go back.