Lake Norman Area Public Courses

[SLUGCC2002]

My parents live near Lake Norman, so I'm down a couple times a year. When I visited in April, I went and played Birkdale in Huntersville. Apparently, they just reopened after taking a year to replace all the greens. My recollection was that the greens were fine before, and after playing a few weeks ago, my only thoughts were, "Well, that was a few million to put lipstick on a pig." The course has decent bones for a track that winds through housing subdivisions, but it needs a lot of tree removal, sand added to the bunkers, cart path work, and apparently the range shed/event hall is condemned and collapsing. Maybe I'm asking too much for a $54 round on a weekday, but the management is doing a poor job. I've played there probably 40 times since 2017 and it seems to get worse every time.

[ishank1]

18 hours ago, SLUGCC2002 said:

My parents live near Lake Norman, so I'm down a couple times a year. When I visited in April, I went and played Birkdale in Huntersville. Apparently, they just reopened after taking a year to replace all the greens. My recollection was that the greens were fine before, and after playing a few weeks ago, my only thoughts were, "Well, that was a few million to put lipstick on a pig." The course has decent bones for a track that winds through housing subdivisions, but it needs a lot of tree removal, sand added to the bunkers, cart path work, and apparently the range shed/event hall is condemned and collapsing. Maybe I'm asking too much for a $54 round on a weekday, but the management is doing a poor job. I've played there probably 40 times since 2017 and it seems to get worse every time.

Some of the area public courses are really hit or miss on conditioning (like Birkdale, Highland Creek, etc). Previous owners failed to put much effort into maintaining those courses.  Unfortunately, their rates certainly don't reflect that.  I would recommend trying Mooresville Golf Club, a muni that was completely redone several years ago.  Rates are reasonable, the layout is good and I've always found the conditioning to be well above average for public courses in the area.  Another possibility is Skybrook Golf Club in Huntersville.  It's a very interesting layout with some elevation changes.  They did some major renovations several years ago also.  On the other side of the lake, you could try Verdict Ridge Golf Club.  Haven't been there is several years, but a good layout with lots of elevation changes and was in good condition when I last played.

[dbornack]

Played Birk myself about 6 weeks ago.  Yeah, decent bones, but not that great at all.

 

Verdict Ridge and Skybrook are the top 2 around there that I've played - I guess Mooresville is decent, Rock Barn, etc.  Highland I think is under or will be under new ownership and should be making some improvements.