Sonyea

Par 68 courses get a bad reputation they don't always deserve — shorter layouts often demand a precision and creativity that longer, par-72 tracks never require. Sonyea sits in Nunda, a small town in Livingston County in the Genesee Valley region of western New York, where the landscape rolls through glacially carved hills and open farmland, the kind of terrain that naturally produces interesting, uneven lies and elevation changes even on modest layouts.

Nunda itself is quiet, rural country — the sort of upstate New York community where golf tends to be genuinely local, tied to the rhythms of the area rather than to destination tourism. A course here likely serves a tight-knit community of regulars who know every break and every quirk, which gives play a familiar, unhurried quality that polished resort golf rarely matches.

With 18 holes playing to a par of 68, the course leans heavily on par 3s and shorter par 4s. That format rewards shot-making and course management over raw distance, making it a genuinely interesting test for players who like to think their way around.