Golf in Canandaigua

High Performance Golf’s professionals—who call on more than 25 years of collective experience—help golfers to hone their game by using advanced technology to break down swings. The golf pros use video analysis, K-Vest 3-D motion-capture systems, and launch monitors to dissect each pupil’s mechanics and sweaty palm tendencies. The data generated by these systems enables the instructors to develop personalized plans for students' improvement, helping them to reach goals more efficiently in private and group lessons. The professionals incorporate training exercises for specific muscle groups, and their facility lets students practice indoors or at an outdoor range. Additionally, High Performance Golf’s PGA Tour simulator invites players to swing through the fairways of famous courses without having to wrestle the feral caddies that lurk in their water hazards.

Built in 1993 by owner Neil Comstra, Eagle Ridge Driving Range has since expanded from a practice facility to a fun center with mini-golfing and go-karting action. While putting guests try their hand at the 18-hole mini-golf course, players rehearsing teeoffs on the 300-yard driving range can take aim at a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle and the mechanic trying to start it. Guests can transition to a different kind of driving by hopping into a single- or double-seated go-kart for a spin around the oval slick track. In between races, range time, and mini-golf games, youngsters can continue playing in an oversized sandbox or join adults on the facility's picnic tables or in the shade of a custom-built gazebo.

Arrowhead Golf Course’s 18-hole track rubs shoulders with the banks of the Erie Canal, which players follow on a picturesque tour of flora and fauna. Richard Wholers built the course in 1976, and made up for the lack of available distance by keeping the bluegrass fairways narrow and the bentgrass-greens compact. In addition to the canal, which looms heavily on the mind throughout a round, golfers must also factor water hazards on 12 holes into their shot-making decisions and choice of location for talking about how dumb mermaids look. These aquatic pitfalls take the form of nine ponds and two creeks that snake their ways across the beryl-green grass.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 66 course
• Total length of 4,171 yards from the back tees
• Course rating of 61.5 from the back tees
• Course slope of 103 from the back tees

Elected to the PGA as an instructor in 1977, Gary Tatar has spent more than three decades helping students find the middle of the fairway and the bottom of the cup. Gary draws his greenside manner from World Golf Hall of Fame coach Harvey Penick, who taught him the importance of simple and direct communication and practical training devices rather than imparting swing advice via sand-trap hieroglyphs.

During private lessons, Gary often enlists the help of 3-D video analysis so players can view their own swing and better understand his feedback. Gary also imparts his pin-hunting panache in playing lessons at Deerfield Country Club, where he gives advice in real time and fields course management questions, such as what club to hit off of the tee and how to overcome a fear of being abandoned by one's golf ball.

Stretched out along the western banks of Silver Lake, a gauntlet of bent-grass fairways leads players along a path that presents challenging play and picturesque views of the water. Though play never wanders close enough to Silver Lake proper to render it a hazard, multiple ponds enter play on several holes. The course adds additional challenges with undulating terrain, tall evergreens that line the fairways, and strategically placed sand traps that double as tanning beaches for displaced tourists.

Adjacent to the course, golfers can find respite at The Club restaurant, which offers a menu of classic American dishes to be enjoyed in a dining room with views of Silver Lake.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 70 course
• Total length of 6,012 yards from the back tees
• Course rating of 69 from the back tees
• Course slope of 119 from the back tees