Course Comparisons / New York
Atunyote Golf Club vs. Shenendoah Golf Club: The Verona Choice
Turning Stone Resort Casino has three championship courses in Verona, and the honest question for a guest with time for two rounds is which two. Atunyote gets the headlines. Shenendoah gets something interesting in return: Golfweek ranked it No. 10 on its 2026 list of the best courses you can play in New York. Kaluhyat completes the trio, but this comparison is between the resort's tournament stage and its players' favorite, the Fazio and the Rick Smith, and the choice says a lot about what kind of difficulty you actually enjoy.
Atunyote: the tournament stage
Tom Fazio designed Atunyote, which opened in 2004 and plays par 72 at 7,315 yards, with a 13 acre lake running along three fairways. It hosted the PGA Tour's Turning Stone Resort Championship from 2007 to 2010 and stepped in for the flooded B.C. Open in 2006, and winners there include Matt Kuchar and Dustin Johnson. Atunyote is the Oneida word for eagle. Everything about the course is pitched at the championship register: length, water in the frame of the shot, parkland corridors built to look right on television because they were. Our Atunyote course profile makes the full case for it. If you play one round at Turning Stone and want the round the pros played, this is the reservation to make, and it leads our Verona town ranking for that reason.
Shenendoah: the ranking that raises eyebrows
Shenendoah was designed by Rick Smith, and its No. 10 placement on Golfweek's 2026 list of New York courses you can play is the fact that starts arguments at the resort. Ahead of a former PGA Tour venue, at the same resort, by the same booking desk? Rankings panels reward different things than tournament committees do. A course built for a tour field optimizes for separation at the very top of the game. A course built for resort guests optimizes for the round a 10 handicapper remembers on the drive home. Shenendoah's supporters say Smith threaded that needle: a championship course by the card, one of three at Turning Stone, that plays fairer and friendlier than its sibling without going soft. Its critics say the Golfweek number flatters it, and that when the wind rises and the pins tuck, Atunyote's extra 7,300 yard test is simply the more serious golf course. Both positions are defensible, which is what makes this the best argument at the resort.
Access settles nothing, usefully. Both are resort courses at Turning Stone, open to guests on the same trip, in the same town, and both sit within the New York state ranking conversation for public and resort golf in the state. There is no members' gate to hide behind, no invitation to angle for. You pick with your tee time, which is the cleanest kind of golf decision there is.
One more consideration belongs in the decision, and it is the existence of Kaluhyat, the third championship course at the resort. A three course resort is quietly making an argument about progression: one course for the cameras, and others tuned to the guests who actually pay for the rooms. Golfers planning a two day trip often default to Atunyote twice, once for the name and once for the rematch. The smarter itinerary uses the variety the resort built. Atunyote on day one, when your swing is fresh and the challenge is the point, then Shenendoah on day two, when you know the property and can play aggressively with a grooved swing. The ranking panels and the tour schedules will keep disagreeing. Your itinerary does not have to pick a side before you have played both.
The concession goes to Shenendoah, and its fans should take it seriously. A ranking is a panel's opinion in a single year. A four year run as a PGA Tour host, with fields that produced winners of Kuchar and Johnson's caliber, is a record. Atunyote has proven itself under the hardest examination resort golf ever gets. Shenendoah has a very good list placement and a loyal following. Those are not the same weight of evidence, and pretending they are would be its own kind of flattery.
Verdict: Atunyote for the golfer who wants the championship test and the tour history, and for any first visit. Shenendoah for the second round, the rematch round, the one where you want to score rather than survive, and for the golfer who reads the Golfweek list and wants to judge the No. 10 claim with his own ball in the air. Play both in that order and the resort makes sense. Atunyote shows you how hard it can get. Shenendoah reminds you how good it can feel.