Im in North Carolina for the next 3 months. Is there a discord or something for tee times/events?
Where abouts? We have two (actually three).
Iāll be all around. Full time in an RV. OBX now, Lake Gaston next week, the Raleigh for a few weeks.
This is for central and east NC:
Drop in and introduce yourself. Lots going on around here.
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There is an off chance that I may be moving to Wilmington. Anybody on here from hurricane country that can give me a sense of what Wilmington is like as a place to live and what the golf scene is like. I am from NY and have lived no farther south than DC in my life. I would especially like to hear from someone who is not from Wilmington but moved there from somewhere cold. I love the prospect of the beach, year-round golf, and garden tomatoes that ripen before September, but I am kinda fat and a sweat enough during NY summers.
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I donāt know how qualified I am to answer your question but I am from the area and have also spent short stints in northern climates. No getting around extreme heat in July and August. It sucks. But you will also be playing golf in January which is a nice trade off. Wilmington Muni is a total gem but outside of that itās a tough scene. Cost of living is reasonable unless you are looking right off the beach. If it were me Iād 100% rather live in Wilmington than the northeast. Just my 2 cents.
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What do you mean by a tough scene? It does look like mostly private clubs with significant initiation or a bit of a drive? I am spoiled in central NY with relatively cheap annual dues, a 3 minute drive, and 3:30 18s. But we just started golfing last week. How are schools, restaurants, etc.?
Not a lot of good public golf in the area. Canāt speak to schools but downtown Wilmington is super fun and plenty of good restaurants.
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I moved from NYC in 2018 and lived in Wilmington for two years. Our experience was a bit jaded due to the pandemic but we still loved it. Work/life eventually brought us back.
Pros:
Weather is awesome. Playing golf in January when itās 60 degrees out is great.
The Muni is fantastic.
Restaurants and food scene is quite good, a nice variety too.
Live music scene is very good also. Greenfield Lake is a very cool place to see a show.
The beach is great, sometimes gets a bit crowded but the water is always warm and clear.
Very much an outdoors living culture, biking, fishing, running, etc.
Cons:
Public golf is sparse. Donāt know what private clubs are charging these days but not a ton of options.
Everything is a bit spread out. Youāll need to drive most places.
It is very hot in the summer. I didnāt mind that at all, but itās not for everyone.
We donāt have kids and struggled to meet people at first.
Traffic can be oddly bad in certain spots, especially going to and from the beach.
If not an outdoors person, you may get bored. Thereās not a ton to do outside of bars, restaurants, etc
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Did you go back to West Chester? I lived there when I was a kid. I am not averse to private, but it looks like it may be quite the outlay for initiation or a long wait. Here in CNY, most places you can just join. I guess I am spoiled.
@deez_nauts @AirMailWedges @iPress are all Wilmington residents and might be able to give their insights.
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They arenāt as active here, you may have better response times on our Whatsapp chat for First Flight. Link is right above your post if you want to jump in
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Been living here for around 12 years, originally from Ohio. Overall my opinion is Wilmington is a great place to live but it has grown ALOT over the past 10-15 years. As it has become larger it has lost some of its smaller town/little city, hidden gem beach town vibes that I remember when I first came here to visit 15-16 years ago. But not in an overly negative way.
@NCLeft hit on a lot of the pros and cons that I would agree on.
Pros:
Weather is great, I hate the cold so the hot summers do not bother me one bit. Would much rather sweat my ass off than be cold.
Food and music scene is great with a ton of variety.
Multiple beaches all with different vibes within a close location.
If you are someone that travels often the airport is super easy and gets you to all the major hubs (parking is a slight issue right now with renovations but thatās a short term con).
Muni is SO SO GOOD!
Cons:
Outside of Muni, the public golf scene is rough! Have to travel a ways to find other options. With all the growth of the city the 2 other public courses closed over the past years to build more apartments/houses.
With the population boom and lack of public options, private golf have gotten very expensive and most clubs has a wait list. My club is probably the lowest of options in terms of cost but even it has become significantly more expensive since COVID.
Traffic is no where as bad as something you may have encountered but it does have random weird bottlenecks around town that seem to always cause issues.
We are kind of in the middle of no where. We are just far enough away from other popular places to spend time around the Carolinaās than people think. (If you are a sports person, outside of UNCW sports options for going to a game are very limited and result in having to drive a few hours).
If you donāt already have plenty of hobbies or are not an outdoors person you can get bored or feel isolated.
I canāt speak directly to the schools as we donāt have kids yet but there is a plethora of options from the city/public schools to a range of private ones.
If you have any more questions shoot me a DM!
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This is great - thank you. At this point a move is still unlikely and a lot of pins would have to fall for it to happen, but I need to check some of the important life boxes. Golf is a pretty important one, but this is going to be mostly a work and family related decision.
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Morninā. Congrats on the possible move to ILM. Iām NC born & bred. Grew up in the Piedmont area before moving to ILM in '97. Have lived in ILM for over 1/2 my life. Wife is from upstate NY, so I know that experience as well.
The pros and cons youāve seen are fairly accurate. Youāll play golf year round. A lot of the outlying golf courses even into Myrtle Beach consider New Hanover County / Wilmington as locals, so youāll be able to get a local rate. Lots of golf in Brunswick County (just to the SW of us). An hour or so from Myrtle. Plenty of beaches. And the music / food / nightlife scene around here is on point. Traffic is / can be a mofo. We have 2 seasonsā¦tourist season and college season. Thereās always going to be traffic.
When it gets hot, it gets āGates of Hell / The Devils Jock Strapā hot. 100+ with 100% humidity is a mofo. AC units canāt keep up. But thank god for the beaches.
My son is 16 and has gone through the school system here. Schools are all dependent on where you live and what district you are in. For the most part, all the schools are good.
If you need anything else, let me know.
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First, I do not meet the criteria to respond to your question but I will still offer my thoughts lol
In my opinion there is not a better place to live in the State that has everything a family, outdoorsman or lover of affordable public golf could want than the Triad region of NC. You can absolutely do a day trip to the coast or the mountains or any other major city in the State. Anyway, that is not what you asked lol.
I live in Duplin County, 50 minutes from Wilmington, and I love the variety that Wilmington offers. I have always loved the beach vibe although it is losing or has already lost that charm in a lot of ways. The public golf scene sucks but thankfully the muni still exist and I could play it everyday. Traffic is horrible a lot of the times as others have alluded to and the stormwater drainage is also terrible in places. I will say my favorite part of Wilmington is the food scene. Downtown has an amazing collection of restaurants/bars(Shoutout Goat & Compass) and a beautiful waterfront. As someone who is raising a family of 5 in a small town out in the country, Wilmington has plenty of things to entertain a family imo and is usually our go to place for family outings.
With all that being said I would never live in Wilmington or anywhere along the Coast. As a matter of fact, when the kids move out me and the wife are heading west to get as far a way from hurricanes as we can. I would say head to the hills but Helene taught everyone that you arenāt necessarily safe there either. Regardless, I have personally been effected by hurricanes multiple times and have severe anxiety during that season due to working onsite with public safety officials after numerous devasting hurricanes down here at the coast.
Wish you all all the best in your search!
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This is really helpful, thank you. I too am weather obsessed, but that is mostly about how much lake effect snow we are going to get. CNY is the most insulated part of the country when it comes to natural disasters - no hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes. That said, the potential jobs are in Wilmington proper and I am not going doing a long commute. Iāll just have to eyeball the elevations and make sure I am high enough that coastal flooding and storm surges are less of a worry. The move would be more about work and overall quality of life. There are a lot of boxes that need to be ticked for us to make a change. My golf situation here is pretty damn ideal but that isnāt everything. Hopefully I can at least swing a visit soon.
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Yeah man totally understand that! If you do come for a visit and want to loop the Muni just holler. Would be glad to join ya.
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Norwood just doesnāt know how to throw a proper hurricane party
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Thatās true but mainly because I am in lockdown before, during & after an event at the EOC 
ā¦If it wasnāt for that oh man!!