[1] The club has a rich history of golf, starting out in 1901 as only 9 holes on 85 acres (0.34 km2) on the banks of the Genesee River in Rochester.

By 1921, Oak Hill had doubled in size and had a new clubhouse, so when the University of Rochester proposed a land swap in 1921, it was a tough decision for members.

Local physician and civic personality John Ralston Williams cultivated and planted tens of thousands of oak trees among the fairways and roughs on what once was a farmed-out field.

It has had several changes made over the years - first by Robert Trent Jones Sr. in the early 1960s, later (and more recently for the 1989 Open and 2003 PGA) by Tom Fazio and his design group and finally by Andrew Green who completed a restoration project in 2019.

In 1941, the Rochester Times-Union, a local paper at the time, posted a $5,000 purse which attracted the greatest golfers in the world, including names such as Sam Snead, Walter Hagen, and Ben Hogan.