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As a teenager in the 1970s, John Vieau’s earliest memories of Drumlins Country Club were spent ice skating in the wintertime and roaming the golf course in the summer. He and his friends would escape from their parents’ watchful eyes for their own afternoons of adolescent freedom.

“If you lived within a couple miles, that was basically your playground,” Vieau said. “It was kind of like fantasyland for a kid growing up in a working-class neighborhood.”

Drumlins, now owned by Syracuse University and just a few miles from campus, is celebrating its centennial anniversary this year.

With two 18-hole golf courses, tennis courts, banquet spaces, a restaurant and pool, Drumlins has been a “hub of action” for the local community since 1926, interim director Joe Sidoni said. The club’s East Course is private for members and the West Course is open to the public, including SU students.

To celebrate its 100th birthday, Drumlins is hosting a centennial-themed event each month of 2026. Events include a special menu with members’ previous favorite dishes in April and a historical exhibit of the club’s artifacts in May. In December, the club is hosting a 1920s-themed New Year’s Eve Gala.

“Anytime something has any kind of longevity, longevity like 100 years, you look at it and you say, ‘Oh, they must be doing something, right,’” Rosemarie Nelson, a Syracuse resident who’s been a member for seven years, said.

The club was founded in 1926 by Roderick Burlingame Sr., who converted the space from Nottingham Farm into a place of leisure, Sidoni said. In 1969, SU purchased the property from the family. The farm’s original barn is still in use today as the club’s restaurant, Bistro 1926. The original club also included an ice skating rink and bowling alley, which closed for financial reasons.

For many families, Drumlins has a “deep-seated history,” Marion Nies, the current director of tennis, said. After working at the club for over 30 years, Nies has seen generations of families build traditions and share a love for the club. People often learn to play golf and tennis at Drumlins and pass that love for the sport, and the club, to their children and grandchildren. It’s telling that people keep coming back, Nelson said.

Founded by Roderick S. Burlingame Sr., Drumlins Country Club was converted from Nottingham Farms into a place of leisure in 1926. The space now includes two 18-hole golf courses, tennis courts and a restaurant. Courtesy of Drumlins Country Club

Vieau learned to ski at Drumlins as a teenager and spent decades playing golf. His youngest son — a former Drumlins club champion in golf — is also a member.

“I’ll always cherish the fact that I could be coming down number five fairway, and look over and see my sons teeing it up on the seventh tee,” Vieau said. “Then seeing them right afterwards, and hearing ‘Dad, I shot a 75 today.’ Or, ‘Dad, I almost hit a hole in one.’”

Richard Jones has belonged to Drumlins for 45 years, first joining with his family at 17. He grew up down the street from the club and said he remembers walking down to play golf with his stepfather and his friends. Many of them were World War II veterans, who told Jones stories of their lives and time in the war during rounds of golf. Jones said these conversations influenced him to eventually become a history major in college.

This feeling of family and community is what has kept Drumlins thriving for so long, Nies said. Commemorative benches and signs in the flower gardens honor members who have died. Over the last 10 years, members have come together to fund kids to compete in golf tournaments at the club and support younger players, member Madelyn Hornstein said. One such player recently received a scholarship to play golf at Penn State University.

“Whether you’re 90 years old and you’re in a golf cart and it takes you forever to play a round of golf or you’re 8 years old and you’re out there learning, we embrace you,” Hornstein said.

Drumlins has been a part of Hornstein’s family for three generations. In the 1960s, her mother learned to ski at the country club; her youngest son is now also a member.

After joining another local golf club with restrictions on when and how often women could play, Hornstein joined Drumlins in 1984. These restrictions are “appalling,” she said, especially those that still exist today. At Drumlins, she was immediately able to play freely, as she still does.

Drumlins has the largest group of women golfers in the Syracuse Women’s District Golf Association, compared to the other courses in the group, Hornstein said. Playing with other women is part of what makes Drumlins so fun, she said.

“It’s my kind of club,” Hornstein said. “I went over to Drumlins, and I never looked back. It’s just a lot of good people. It’s not hoity-toity. They don’t discriminate, male (or) female. It doesn’t matter.”

Even for relatively new members, like Nelson, there is still a strong community feel.

When Syracuse University purchased Drumlins Country Club in 1969, SU students were entitled to perks like free golf and snowshoeing. Drumlins allow students to “bridge the gap” between the club and students. Leonardo Eriman | Senior Staff Photographer

“What really speaks to it is the sense of community and neighborliness. It’s like the Cheers Bar, where everybody knows your name,” Nelson said, referencing the popular TV show. “They know so many people’s regular drink that you walk in, and they’re reaching for it and it’s on the bar before you can even ask for it.”

Partnering with SU allowed Drumlins to expand resources and provide more to the community, Laura Massa, banquets and events manager, said. Food and beverage at the club moved under university management six years ago, allowing the restaurants to get a complete “facelift,” Massa said. The ownership also allowed for better property maintenance, cohesive SU branding and the opening of summer ice cream shop, ’Cuse Scoops.

SU students can play golf and tennis at Drumlins for free during the academic year. In the winter, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing are free for students. These incentives help “bridge the gap” between the SU community and surrounding area, making the country club feel like an extension of campus, Massa said.

When Nies began working at Drumlins, there were only four indoor tennis courts. In the early 1990s, they added three additional courts, giving Drumlins the capacity to host matches efficiently, Hornstein said.

Hornstein said a highlight of her decades at the club has been seeing the community members embrace and support SU’s tennis players. The Division I team uses Drumlins courts to host their home matches.

“We essentially share a property line with South Campus, it’s right in the university’s back door,” Sidoni said.

This “magnificent” location is part of what has kept it surviving for a century, Jones said. It’s “smack in the middle of Syracuse,” accessible to students, the local community and attracts people from “all different directions,” Hornstein said. Plus, no other private or public clubs in central New York have two 18-hole golf courses, Nelson said.

Today, nearly 50 years after he first became a member, Vieau said Drumlins is still a place he holds dearly. Though Vieau lives in North Carolina during the year, he still spends his summers the same way he did at 15 — on the Drumlins golf course.

“For the guys my age, it’s our playground,” Vieau said. “As adults, we don’t have a lot of places to play. To be ourselves, to be like kids again.”

Published on February 12, 2026 at 12:36 am
Contact Eliana: ehrosen@syr.edu