Streamside Country Club in the town of Richland wasn't supposed to open this year, but so many people kept stopping by that last month the owners, Frank and Rick Binotto, decided to put up an "open" sign.
Since then, more than 200 golfers have played the nine-hole, par-35 course.
Frank Binotto says the course is designed to attract women and senior citizens. There are plenty of golf courses in the area, but few cater particularly to that clientele, he said.
There will be additional women's restrooms in the clubhouse, and special tees with red wooden markers have been set up to give women and seniors a better angle at each hole.
Each hole also has tees for the average golfer (white markers) and the advanced golfer (blue markers). The holes were designed east to west, so that the wind and sunshine also became factors.
"It plays well for all golfers," Binotto said. "There is a degree of difficulty where you have to hit a golf shot. It's not a place where you can bang away. You have to do some thinking.
"It's a short course and it's scenic and it plays as difficult as you want it to be."
The golf course is half of the project. The other half, still under construction, is a 60-site campground for people 50 and over. The Binottos want to draw snowbirds who stay in Florida during the winter and return to Central New York during the warmer months.
The campground will be open from April 15 to Oct. 31 and already has about a half-dozen people have put down a deposit, Frank Binotto said.
Rick Binotto said he bought the 99-acre property, a former Christmas tree farm, when he was 16, using money he made working at a lumber mill.
Frank, his father, talked him into buying the property, which would increase in value, instead of buying a car, which would decrease.
The two eventually teamed up to buy more land, bringing the total to 150 acres.
Now 30, Rick Binotto marvels at the 2,570-yard course, which used to be a thick forest of evergreens and hardwoods.
More than 600 trees were moved and more than that were cleared.
"I never envisioned it would look like this," he said.
Both the Binottos worked in construction and did much of the work building the course, Frank Binotto said. Each hole, however, was designed by a different family friend.
The Binottos had a party and put the numbers one through nine in a hat.
Each friend drew a number and designed that hole, Frank Binotto said.
The Binottos eventually want Streamside to become an 18-hole course, perhaps in a few years.
"It will take a few more years to get it," Frank Binotto said. "You'll never get it the way you want it. You're always tweaking it."
First, however, they want to build the clubhouse and the campsites, which currently are a large, tree-lined hole in the middle of the golf course.
"Come back in two weeks," Frank Binotto said. "You'll see it all done."
Source: The Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.)
