The Adirondacks Golf Living Guide
Essex County, New York
- Golf clubs researched
- 2
- Communities researched
- 2
- Flagship guides
- 2
Looking for a Golf Community in The Adirondacks?
US Golf Living can connect you with a local real-estate specialist who knows The Adirondacks's golf communities.
The Adirondacks market, centered on the village of Lake Placid in Essex County, is a genuinely distinct golf-living market shaped by 19th-century Great Camp/resort history rather than the private-club pattern found in the Capital Region to the south. This research pass, contrary to the general expectation that many Adirondack Great Camps and resorts have closed, found both of the region's two named historic golf-resort candidates still confirmed operating and, notably, both showing real residential-real-estate integration -- a genuinely positive discovery for a region the research brief expected to be thin or closed.
Whiteface Club & Resort is the market's clearest case: a resort explicitly self-branded a 'Historic Lakeside Resort Community,' selling homes, cottages, condos, townhomes, and vacant land directly on its Lake Placid property, with an 18-hole golf course and a seasonal Club Membership available to homeowners, guests, and the public alike. Lake Placid Club Golf required real entity-identity work to adjudicate honestly: this research pass confirmed that its 45 holes of historic golf (including a Mountain Course redesigned by Alister MacKenzie) and the real-estate arm selling condominiums and building lots on the same historic 900+ acre property are genuinely commonly owned by the Lussi family, not separately-run businesses that merely share the 'Lake Placid Club' historic name -- resolving the exact entity-identity risk the research brief flagged in advance. Three other named candidates (Saranac Inn Golf & Country Club, Lake George Club, Queensbury Country Club, and Saranac Lake Golf Club) were researched and excluded: none currently combine golf with a confirmed residential offering.
Golf Character
Both qualifying anchors carry genuine architectural pedigree from golf's early-20th-century golden age: Whiteface's course traces to a design credited to John Van Kleek and Walter Hagen (sources vary on exact date), while Lake Placid Club Golf's Mountain Course was redesigned in 1931 by Alister MacKenzie, architect of Cypress Point and Augusta National -- an unusually significant design credit for a resort-model course. Neither anchor is a private, membership-gated club in the Capital Region sense; both operate on a public/semi-private resort-golf model with an optional, separately-purchased club membership.
Membership & Access Patterns
Neither Adirondacks anchor bundles golf membership automatically into a real-estate purchase. At Whiteface, a seasonal Club Membership providing unlimited golf, tennis, and cross-country trail access is sold on the same terms to homeowners, resort guests, and the general public -- real estate ownership does not itself confer any confirmed preferential access. At Lake Placid Club Golf, golf is public and daily-fee (published green-fee rates, no membership required to play) with a separate golf-membership application process; whether real-estate ownership on the historic property carries any special golf terms was not confirmed after real search effort and is recorded as a genuine open question rather than assumed bundling in either direction.
Housing & Community Patterns
Both anchors offer a similar range of product: existing resort homes, cottages, condominiums, and townhomes alongside vacant land/building lots for custom construction. No current, reliably sourced price range was found published for either community in this research pass -- real-estate pricing at both is effectively contact-only (Whiteface via its resort office, Lake Placid Club via named contacts Art Lussi and Katrina Lussi Kroes).
Lifestyle
Both properties extend well past golf into a four-season Adirondack resort lifestyle: Whiteface adds a marina, beach, and clay tennis courts on Lake Placid itself; Lake Placid Club Golf's broader historic property includes an extensive cross-country ski and mountain bike trail system.
Geography & Getting Around
Both qualifying anchors sit within a few miles of each other and of the village of Lake Placid, Essex County, in the heart of the Adirondack Park's High Peaks region. Excluded candidates Saranac Inn Golf & Country Club and the ordinary public Saranac Lake Golf Club sit roughly 20 miles northwest near Saranac Lake; the excluded Lake George Club and Queensbury Country Club sit roughly an hour southeast near Lake George.
Nearby Alternative Markets
The Capital Region market, this batch's other researched market, sits roughly 2.5 hours south by road -- a genuinely separate golf-living decision given its old-guard private-club character versus the Adirondacks' resort-community pattern. No other New York market researched to date borders the Adirondacks closely enough for a meaningful commute.
Golf Clubs & Anchors
Residential Communities
Ready to Start Looking in The Adirondacks?
We can connect you with a local real-estate specialist who knows this market's golf communities.
What Buyers Should Verify
- Whether real-estate ownership at either anchor includes or discounts golf-club membership -- not confirmed at either property.
- Current real-estate and golf-membership pricing at both anchors (contact-only, not published).
- Whether the Grossinger's-area PPG Development redevelopment in the Catskills (not part of this market) reaches visible construction progress in a future refresh.
Notable
- Both qualifying anchors are confirmed currently operating, despite the research brief's caution that many Adirondack Great Camps and resorts have closed.
- Lake Placid Club Golf's Mountain Course was redesigned in 1931 by Alister MacKenzie, architect of Cypress Point and Augusta National.
- The historic Lake Placid Club property was purchased by the Lussi family in 1996, who commonly own its golf operations, its real-estate arm, and the nearby Grandview Lake Placid hotel.
Looking for a Golf Community in The Adirondacks?
US Golf Living can connect you with a local real-estate specialist who knows this market's golf communities.
US Golf Living provides independent real-estate research and can connect consumers with real-estate professionals. Golf membership, availability, fees and approval are determined independently by the applicable club.