North Carolina Magazine's Top 100 Courses for 2004

[Dunlop_White]

"North Carolina" Magazine (NCCBI) publishes an annual list of the Top 100 courses in North Carolina. (Note: There are more than 700 courses in the state). Unfortunately, these rankings typically are published the same week as the Golfweek rankings. As such, these rankings tend to trump the GW rankings, not only because of their regional impact, but also because of the large number of courses listed. It seems to be the encyclopedia in this area.

The N.C. Panel consists of 130 raters. Some are business executives and golf industry leaders, while others are college golf coaches, sports writers, and club professionals.

The criteria are listed below: 1. Aesthtics  2. Conditioning
3. Routing  4. Flow  5. Strategy  6. Variety  7. Memorability  8. Design Elements  9. Fairness  10. Overall experience.

Below are the 2004 results:

1. Pinehurst No. 2, Pinehurst
Old North State, Uwharrie Point
Grandfather G & C. C., Grandfather Mountain
Country Club of N.C. (Dogwood) Pinehurst
Pine Needles, Southern Pines
Charlotte C. C., Charlotte
Elk River, Linville
Pinehurst No. 4, Pinehurst
Linville G. C., Linville
Quail Hollow, Charlotte
......................................................
11. Pinehurst No. 8, Pinehurst
Forest Creek CC, Pinehurst
Biltmore Forest, Asheville
National, Pinehurst
CCNC (Cardinal), Pinehurst
Mid Pines, Southern Pines
Mid South Club, Pinehurst
Wade Hampton, Cashiers
River Landing, Wallace
Tanglewood (Champ.), Clemmons
......................................................
21. Treyburn, Durham
Finley, Chapel Hill
Pinehurst No. 7, Pinehurst
Linville Ridge, Linville
Landfall (Dye), Wilmington
Governors Club, Chapel Hill
Rock Barn (Jones), Conover
Duke University, Durham
The Old Town Club, Winston-Salem
Sedgefield CC, Greensboro
...........................................................
31. Tiger’s Eye, Sunset Beach
Old Chatham, Durham
Myers Park CC, Charlotte
Tobacco Road, Sanford
Anderson Creek, Spring Lake
Pinewild (Magnolia), Pinehurst
Willow Creek CC, High Point
Raleigh CC, Raleigh
Forest Oaks CC, Greensboro
Brier Creek CC, Raleigh
.........................................................
41. Bald Head, Bald Head Island  
Hope Valley CC, Durham
Grandover (East), Greensboro
Mt. Mitchell, Burnsville  
Porter’s Neck, Wilmington  
TPC at Piper Glen, Charlotte
River Run CC, Davidson
Cape Fear CC, Wilmington  
The Point Lake & GC, Mooresville
Bermuda Run CC, Advance
..........................................................
51. Eagle Point, Wilmington
Mimosa Hills, Morganton
Forsyth CC, Winston-Salem  
TPC Wakefield Plantation, Raleigh
Landfall (Nicklaus), Wilmington
Ballantyne Resort, Charlotte
Peninsula Club, Lake Norman
Legacy, Aberdeen
Crow Creek, Calabash
Rivers Edge, Shallotte
.........................................................
61. MacGregor Downs CC, Cary
Sea Trail (Jones), Sunset Beach
Gaston CC, Gastonia
Cardinal CC, Greensboro
Tot Hill Farm, Asheboro  
Carmel CC (South), Charlotte
Heritage Club, Wake Forest
Champion Hills, Hendersonville  
Grove Park Inn GC, Asheville
Bryan Park (Champ.), B. Summit
.......................................................
71. The Challenge, Graham
Southern Pines Elks, S. Pines
Mill Creek, Mebane
Pinewood CC, Asheboro
The Preserve, Chapel Hill
Trillium Links, Cashiers
Hound Ears, Blowing Rock
Pinewild (Holly), Pinehurst
Rocky River, Concord
Catawba CC, Newton
............................................................
81. Starmount Forest, Greensboro
Carlson Farms, Greensboro
Keith Hills (Creek), Buies Creek
Alamance CC, Burlington
Magnolia Greens, Leland
Carolina National, Bolivia
The Pit, Pinehurst  
Verdict Ridge, Denver
Farmstead, Calabash
Grandover (West), Greensboro
............................................................
91. Jefferson Landing, Jefferson
The Thistle, Sunset Beach
Asheville CC, Asheville
Highlands Cove, Highlands
Club at Longview, Weddington
Croasdaile CC, Durham
Boone GC, Boone
Birkdale, Huntersville
Blowing Rock GC, Blowing Rock
Etowah Valley, Hendersonville

[Brian_Gracely]

If this is the first time your club is mentioned in a ratings thread, does this mean that all of a sudden you have to start getting passionate about all the other raters threads??  

Yippee!!  We're city champs!!    

That list just goes to show that people can have opinions and they might vary from other people.....here's Golf Digest's version.


1. Pinehurst Resort & C.C. (No. 2) [1] *«
2. Wade Hampton G.C., Cashiers [2]*
3. Grandfather G. & C.C., Linville [3]*
4. C.C. of North Carolina (Dogwood), Pinehurst [4]*
5. Charlotte C.C. [6]*
6. Eagle Point G.C., Wilmington*
7. Pinehurst Resort & C.C. (No. [8] *«
8. Tanglewood Park (Championship), Clemmons [9] *«
9. Treyburn C.C., Durham [13]*
10. Champion Hills C., Hendersonville [23]*
11. Pinehurst Resort & C.C. (No. 4) [5] *«
12. Old Chatham G.C., Durham *
13. Forest Creek G.C., Southern Pines [7]*
14. Tiger's Eye G. Links, Sunset Beach [11] *«
15. Pine Needles Lodge & G.C., Southern Pines [14] *«
16. Rivers Edge G.C., Shallotte [12]*
17. River Landing Plantation G.C., Wallace
18. Duke U. G.C., Durham [15] *«
19. Elk River C., Banner Elk [17]*
20. Pinehurst Resort & C.C. (No. 7) [18] *«
21. Bryan Park G.C. (Champions), Browns Summit [16]*
22. Linville Ridge C.C., Linville [21]*
23. Old North State C., New London [10]*
24. Governor's C. (1st/2nd), Chapel Hill [25]*
25. Linville G.C. [24]*

[Mike_Sweeney]

Brian & Dunlop,

I have probably only played 4 or 5 courses in NC, but I was surprised to see that The Currituck Club (Rees Jones) in The Outer Banks did not even make the Top 100. Yes, a resort style course with some long rides and lots of houses, but it is a very pleasant place to play which would seem appealing to this group of raters?

[Jonathan Cummings]

Wade Hampton is awfully far down that list....

[JDoyle]

Dunlop, Brian & Scott B,

I am surprised to see UNC Finley ranked higher than Duke's course and that Wade Hampton & Tobacco Road are not higher......what are the biggest surprises for you?

Is this list consistant year after year or does it have significant changes each year?

[Brian_Gracely]

Mike,

Currituck missing was one of the things that surprised me,
along with (a) Wade Hampton being so low, (b) Finley (UNC Course) being rated above Duke, (c) Statesville CC is missing and it consistantly hosts USGA and CGA qualifiers.

Dunlop,

Have you heard any rumblings around Wake Forest about the university building a course?  I haven't gotten any alumni requests in a few years.  Do you know if Mr.Palmer had been slated to design it, or if Bill Coore's name was ever considered as well?

[Brian_Gracely]

Dunlop, Brian & Scott B,

I am surprised to see UNC Finley ranked higher than Duke's course and that Wade Hampton & Tobacco Road are not higher......what are the biggest surprises for you?

Is this list consistant year after year or does it have significant changes each year?

JDoyle,

Have you gotten a chance to get down to Tobacco Road yet?

I think the reason it's not rated higher is that it's one of those courses that either fits your eye or it doesn't, and alot of times it takes multiple rounds to realize what's truly there.  I don't see if cracking the Top10, but it could fit into the Top20 somewhere.....at least ahead of Mid South.  

[Pete Buczkowski]

I picked up the ratings issue of the NC magazine in 2002.  It specifically mentioned Wade Hampton and stated the reason it was so far down on the NC last was due to access issues.  The GD raters have an easier time with access to some courses than the NC magazine raters do.  If I can recover that article I will post the excerpt here.

One also needs to be aware that some of the raters have specific ties to some of these courses.  For example, many people on the panel are former UNC players, etc. which might account for Finley being rated so highly.  While I admit it does make me slightly happy to see Finley so high up the list considering how it usually gets bashed, its rating is a bit skewed.    

Pete

Can anyone speak on Wade Hampton from experience?

[Pete Buczkowski]

Here is a link to an article and the list in the Triangle Golf Today Publication:

http://adserver1.harvestadsdepot.com/trigolftoday/ss/triangle/

Its on p. 26 w/ an article on p. 24.

[FREEMAHC]

Much along the same lines as others I was surprised to see Duke so low, also seems lie there are an awful lot of courses in Linville ranked pretty high. I haven't played any of them, but something seems a little biased there.

Other ranked too high..
Charlotte CC
Finley
Governors Club

Ranked too low...
Raleigh CC
Pinewild (Magnolia)
Heritage

[Lester George]

I'm sure this biased, but IMHO Starmount Forest is way too low on this list.  In the words of Colonel Frank Slade "I been around you know".

LG

[A.G._Crockett]

Lester George
I'd echo your sentiments about Starmount Forest, though I understand there has been much work done there since I last played it about 10 years ago.  It is a wonderful "older" course with a lot of history, and a great variety of holes.  I'm not sure why it gets so little attention.

[Michael Whitaker]

Here is a link to the official web site for the North Carolina Magazine Golf Panel:

http://www.nccbi.org/Golf/2004.golf.dir.index.htm

[Scott_Burroughs]

A.G.,

The reason Lester mentioned he could be biased about Starmount is that he is the one that did the work there.  I understand it was a good course before he worked on it, and must be even better now.

Snead won a few GGOs there way back when.

[A.G._Crockett]

Scott (and Lester)

AHA!

Seriously, my brother was a member there in the 80's and early 90's and I played 5-12 several rounds a year there.  I loved the golf course, and really miss playing it.  (He moved his membership up to Deep Springs, then later gave up the game when he went into a Duval/Baker-Finch type death spiral with his swing, but that's another story!)

I'd love to see Mr. George's changes.  What was done?

[rjsimper]

Has anyone played Old North State?

I've played around 10 of the top 50 or so...maybe top 100...and I'm taking a trip to Pinehurst at the end of the month.

[Scott_Burroughs]

I've played Old North State.  Way overrated at #2 in the state.  I barely remember many of the non-noted holes (final 3 and cove holes).

I've played 33 of the courses listed.  Surprised Currituck in not on the list (it was last year, I beleive), although I like Nags Head better amonst Outer Banks courses.

I've played with two of the Magazine panelists on their home courses and met a third briefly.  Two of the panelists are architects.  I hope there's a provision that people can't vote on their own course, as there are a bunch on the panel affiilated with courses.

Dunlop,

I see Old Town rose quite a bit in the rankings.  Wasn't it significantly lower last year?

Where's Roaring Gap on the list?  I thought it was on last year's list as well?  I also don't see Highlands CC nor Diamond Creek.

It's interesting that Heritage won Best New course last year over Old Chatham, but Old Chatham is higher on the overall list than Heritage.  I guess OC must have improved quite a bit somehow or Heritage lost something.

[FREEMAHC]

I've never played Old Chatham, so no reference there, but I've enjoyed all my rounds at Heriage. It's interesting, nothing remarkable and would probably get panned by many on his site, but it's still a good course. The knock I have is with, of course, the housing. Just a ton a building going on around the holes, and lots of extraneous noise. houses don't infringe on the course too much, but they are noticable.

[Jimmy Muratt]

Scott mentioned Diamond Creek, is anyone familiar with that club?  I've heard very little about it except that it's practically hidden and very private, I believe that I heard it's a Fazio.  Is it at all similar to his other notable courses in NC such as Forest Creek and Wade Hampton?

[dfrey]

I guess NC magazine doesn't like Fazio's work.......WHampton is his best layout

[CHrisB]

I guess NC magazine doesn't like Fazio's work.......WHampton is his best layout

dfrey,
Actually Fazio did Old North State which sits at #2, right behind #2...

The article says "course conditioning" and "tournament hosting" received weight in how the courses were ranked.

Architecturally speaking, I'd say Maxwell's Old Town Club in Winston-Salem should be higher, and Pete Dye's Oak Hollow in High Point belongs somewhere on the list.

[Jonathan Cummings]

Actually four (!) Fazio courses rank ahead of Wade Hampton

Old North
Pinehurst #4 (nobody give me stuff that this is a Ross course!)
Forest Creek
Pinehurst #8
Wade

Man, the national ranking panels have apparently blown it!

JC

[Scott_Burroughs]

Fazio also did the renovation work at Quail Hollow, sitting at #10.

[Doug Wright]

Are there really 100 courses in NC better than Wilmington Municipal?   That must be a helluva state golfwise...See the Course Profile--guess it remains a hidden gem even amongst the North Carolina cognoscenti.. .  

[Pete Buczkowski]

Doug:

I believe many of the NC raters can't get past the conditioning of the course.  At times it can be a bit rough around the edges.  I think conditioning is highly emphasized by this panel (that's my reason why Duke is lower than Finley).

I first found Southern Pines Elks from the 2000 ranking - it was rated the #1 hidden gem.  Wilmington Municipal was on that list as well (around #4 if I recall correctly).

Pete