Not sure, I don’t think I’ve been there on a holiday weekend before, but I don’t know how much they can really do without burning them out.
I got paired with a random there a while back who said he had heard Pete Dye’s design group contacted Oak Hollow and the city to see about updating the course and possibly redoing the greens, but HP didn’t want to shut it down. Not sure if there is any truth to that story, but in this climate they’ll have to put bermuda on them eventually. Some of the more severe slopes may have to be softened if/when they go that route.
I recently joined River Hills CC on Lake Wylie, which is fully private, but doesn’t really have that vibe. Actually, the strongest vibe I’ve received from the clubhouse has been “retirement home” but I won’t get into that. They’re offering a membership level that has no initiation, lower dues for the first 2 years, and then the usual F&B mins, annual range fee, etc. For the quality of the course and how quick I can get around walking, it’s 100% worth it.
I’d seen that too, I’m actually building a house right now (probably a terrible time to be contemplating a CC expense) right across the Lake off Shopton Rd so I’d be really close to that, but the feeling I’d gotten was that it was on the older side. Retirement home vibes is interesting, does it seem like most of the membership is older?
Yeah, the membership is definitely older but I don’t mind that too much. I typically play a lot by myself or with my wife, and occasionally will join the Saturday morning group and it’s not too bad. I’ve only been inside the clubhouse once, since it’s been closed due to SC COVID-19 restrictions, and it smelled like a retirement home and was decorated similarly.
Speaking of the Lonnie Poole “membership”, does anyone here have experience with it? What’s it like trying to get tee times? I think the annual pass booking window is 10 days out while the public is 7 days.
I’ve thought about it and talked to some others here above in the posts. It’s a great course all things considered (being right in town, good challenge but fun and fair).
For perspective, I have had the pros there tell me that course gets some of the most rounds played per year in the entire state…
It’s a fun place to play, I play once and a while when I can get it for a good price. Their membership price is attractive, but I can’t justify it for 5 hr rounds and competing against a million others for decent tee times.
I’ve never heard this, but it doesn’t surprise me. The city can’t get out of its own way. Let me give you a perfect example… I’ve been trying to help them move onto our newish cloud based operating system to help modernize their operations a little bit, but they don’t have WiFi on property and didn’t have a fast enough internet connection to install it (if you’ve ever had issues getting your credit card ran out there, this is why). They got the WiFi finally put in this week. You know when they first started talking about getting it put in? APRIL 2019, and it was probably even earlier than that. I don’t how the guys at the course put up with waiting over a year for something most of us could set up in 15 minutes. So yeah, rejuvenation project and new greens? Don’t think that’s happening any time soon. It’s painful because they really could have an awesome thing going out there, but they don’t get near the support that Bryan park, Tanglewood and Jamestown do.
Following up on my post from last week to confirm what most of you already know that, in fact, Tobacco Road is the shit. The only thing I wanted to do when walking off 18 green was go straight back to 1 tee…
Wow, doesn’t surprise me though. It’s a shame, hopefully one day they can spruce the place up a bit, but I agree with you, won’t happen for a long time. I’d bet on the greens going completely to shit and losing rounds before they even start thinking about it, every time I’ve been there it’s still packed.
Just relocated to Pinehurst. Looking forward to meeting some Refugees in the area. @Double_Bogey_Dave could you let me know where I should sign up on the spreadsheet and send me the WhatsApp link?
Yeah, we’re pumped to be here. It was tough to leave Brooklyn because we loved living there in normal times, but being stuck in a 2BR apartment with a three year old made it an easy call. Plus golf in NYC is a disaster unless you have huge huge cash to go private, so hopefully can get out much more here.
Yeah, the major factor (besides being cooped up for the last 3 months) is that my wife is pregnant with our second, due this fall. So we felt that the risks of a second wave were too high to be in a hospital up there, or to have both kids and us in a tiny space if there’s another/continuing lockdown. So we decided to get out of town and have Pinehurst as home base at least for a while.
Absolutely. My company was great - technically I transferred to the Raleigh office, but my role isn’t tied to a particular geography so I’ll largely be working from home.
Hey Guys, long-time NLU fan but new to the Refuge. I’ve been quarantined away from NYC Icarito-style down in Southport NC for the past few months. I’ve been able to check out Farmstead, Oak Island GC, Crow Creek, Carolina National, Rivers Edge, Kings North, Panther’s Run (awful shape) but wanted to pick the experts brains on your favorites on the Grand Strand & in the Wilmington area.
I have two buddies driving down for July 4th weekend so I’m trying to put together a fun golf itinerary to make it worth their while & fun for my dad’s 66th birthday. They have their hearts set on Pinehurst but I’d love to show off The Grand Strand and maximize our budget & cut down on travel as much as possible. The goal is to play 36 one day in North Myrtle/Conway, another 36 in Sunset Beach area & another day in Wilmington area. Any intel on recent course conditions, good rates/specials and any courses I might be missing would be great! If you had to choose two each day from the list below, what are you going with?
North Myrtle/Conway Day:
Glen Dornoch
Shaftesbury Glen
Kings North
Sunset Beach Day:
Farmstead (replay rate for Meadowlands)
Oyster Bay
Pearl West
Thistle (is the rate worth it?)
Sand Piper Bay
Wilmington Day:
Wilmington Muni (any local tips on getting tee times?)
North Shore
Compass Pointe
Magnolia Greens
Dad’s Birthday:
Bald Head Island (long shot at a friend connection)
Back Up: Cape Fear National
Any other suggestions to make the 66th bday a memorable one?
Appreciate any and all help and look forward to hearing for you!