Holiday Valley Golf Course

Great Valley sits in the Enchanted Mountains of Cattaraugus County in western New York, a region better known for its ski slopes — Holiday Valley Resort's downhill runs are among the most popular in the state — than for its fairways. That context matters: this is mountain golf, where the terrain is shaped by glacial ridges and hardwood-forested hillsides rather than the flat lake plains that define much of upstate New York.

Playing a course that shares a name and property with a ski resort typically means elevation changes are a genuine feature of the round, not a minor wrinkle. Expect the kind of layout where your uphill lie and your downhill lie are just as important as reading the green, and where the surrounding scenery does real work in making an ordinary Thursday afternoon feel like something more.

At par 70, this is not a bomber's course — positioning and course management tend to reward more than raw distance here, which suits the rolling Cattaraugus terrain just fine.