The Empire State Open was a golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

 tournament on the PGA Tour

PGA Tour

The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...

 from 1950 to 1952. It was played in the Albany, New York

Albany, New York

Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...

 area at two different courses. In 1950 and 1951, it was played at the Shaker Ridge Country Club in Loudonville

Loudonville, New York

Loudonville is a hamlet in the town of Colonie, in Albany County, New York, United States. Loudonville was a census-designated place in the 1970, 1980, and 1990 US Census, but ceased to be in the 2000 Census.The area is not precisely defined...

. For its final year, it moved to the Normanside Country Club in Delmar

Delmar, New York

Delmar is a hamlet in the town of Bethlehem, Albany County, New York. A census-designated place has been established since 1980 by the US Bureau of Census for tabulating the population of what the census has defined as the boundaries of the urbanized area in and around Delmar. The population was...

.

In 1950, Skip Alexander won in a 18-hole playoff over Ky Laffoon

Ky Laffoon

Ky Laffoon was an American golfer. He won 10 times on the PGA Tour, with four of the victories coming in 1934. He played on the 1935 Ryder Cup team. In 1939 his wife Irene Laffoon threatened to leave him if he could not control his temper on golf course...

. In 1951, Buck White

Buck White (golfer)

O'Neal "Buck" White is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour.White was born in Memphis, Tennessee. White won three times on the PGA Tour between 1946 and 1951....

 won by two strokes over Doug Ford

Doug Ford (golfer)

Douglas Michael Ford, Sr. born Fortunato is an American professional golfer and two-time major golf champion.Ford was born in West Haven, Connecticut. He turned professional in 1949 and won for the first time in 1952 at the Jacksonville Open.The win in Jacksonville was an unusual one...

. In 1952, Jim Ferrier

Jim Ferrier

James B. Ferrier was an Australian professional golfer from Manly, New South Wales. He became an American citizen in 1944.-Early years:...

 won by six strokes over Sam Snead

Sam Snead

Samuel Jackson Snead was an American professional golfer who was one of the top players in the world for most of four decades. Snead won a record 82 PGA Tour events including seven majors. He failed to win a U.S...

. He shot an 18-under-par, 262 to threaten the PGA Tour record of 259 for a 72-hole tournament.