Lake Norman NC area golf.

nybluebird · March 12, 2013

So it appears the Mrs has plans on us going to Lake Norman for an extended weekend later this spring, and actually may want to eventually relocate the family to the area.

What are some of the better golf courses in the area? Which one is "can't miss"? Nicer towns? Better school districts? Private clubs worth joining eventually?

Any info greatly appreciated. (Not sure this topic is in the proper section)

nybluebird · March 12, 2013

Bump. Yep, I just bumped my own topic ;-)

Sixcat · March 12, 2013

My brother lives in the Charlotte area so I have played about everywhere. Hope this helps. Drive into Charlotte and play Carolina Golf Club if you can get on. It is private but every so often, you can find something reasonable on Golfnow. It is a Donald Ross gem. One of my favorite golf courses I have ever played. The greater Charlotte area is not a golf hotbed but has some playable courses. Birkdale, Cowan's Ford, Northstone, Skybrooke and River Run are all good courses but nothing as memorable as Carolina Golf Club.

fenwayfear · March 13, 2013

Lots of good courses to play in the Charlotte area(not like pinehurst or myrtle beach), but very good courses and affordable rates. Quail Hollow(home of the Wells Fargo) is probably the best course but it is ultra private. Springfield and Fort Mill golf clubs are nice and the membership is reasonable. The Carolina Golf Trail has 8 course you can play and all are nice and the membership is inexpensive($995 a year including range and cart). Most these are south of Lake Norman, but worth a look.

The best schools are in Fort Mill, SC(20 min to downtown charlotte). Lake Norman is a nice area as well, I preferred Lake Wylie less boat traffic.

Private clubs to look into: Myers Park, Quail Hollow(best), Carmel CC, Charlotte CC, Cedarwood CC(nice little track), Raintree(3 courses), TPC @ Piper Glen, River Hills CC(lake wylie), Palisades(lake wylie), Ballentyne CC(nice area).

good read! · March 13, 2013

If you are looking around the Lake Norman area then the private courses are River Run CC, The Peninsula, Trump National, Cowans Ford, Northstone. Of these Cowans is probably the best bang for your buck and Trump is probably the best course with River Run in 2nd. Public courses are somewhat hard to come by. Skybrook, Birkdale (I hate this course with a passion), Fox Den, Verdict Ridge, the Carolina Trail courses as mentioned above, really depends how you value convenience vs course etc.

From the lake Pinehurst is only 2 hours away which is always a nice trip.

Fell free to PM me for any other details.

bk4 · March 13, 2013

Charlotte is an interesting golf city. Private golf is just as good as any city in the Carolinas, with Charlotte CC and Quail Hollow being the top of the class. I kind of have always looked at it as if you enjoy the kind of courses the PGA of America likes, you'll like Quail, and if you like the kind of courses the USGA like, you'll like Charlotte better. Both are expensive to join, though if you have the money Quail is quite a bit easier to get into, but isn't particuarly family friendly. There are a couple courses in the same price range as those, but their golf courses and golf facilities are inferior to the other two, but do tend to have fancier swimming pools. Carolina is a great value, though initiation has gone up in the past couple years. They probably have the best players in town, though a lot of the good, young members there tend to eventually move on to Charlotte or Quail. Cedarwood is also a good value, but very crowded. Raintree has two courses, and while neither is anything to write home about, neiter is terrible. Up towards the lake, you have River Run, Trump National, The Peninsula and the others that have been mentioned. A lot of those courses tend to wind through developments. Trump has been saying that his course there is the best course in the Carolinas, but it's probably about the 15th best course in the Charlotte area. Irish Creek is a little further north, and is not a bad course by any means.

To go along with good private golf, the public golf in Charlotte is terrible. Not only are the courses not very good, but they are very crowded.

Charlotte schools as a whole aren't very good unless you go to private school. That being said, there are some very good schools in some of the surrounding counties and Myers Park (just south of downtown) and Ardrey Kell (southside of city) in the city are two of the best public schools in the state.

This is probably more down the road, but if you moved to Charlotte, the traffic from Lake Norman into town in the mornings and out of town in the afternoons is awful.

Hope that is somewhat helpful!