Golf around the Yadkin Valley, NC (Elkin area)

[Joel Zuckerman]

Any Tarheels or intrepid travelers able to shed some light on these 3 GG's?

Pilot Knob Park C.C.
 Cross Creek Country Club
Cedarbrook Country Club

Got an invite up there in early June, and am curious if it's worth the 10--hour RT by car....thanks in advance!

[Jed Peters]

Depends on the company!!!!!

[Joel Zuckerman]

Thanks for the pithy comment..but where's the 4-1-1 I desire?

PS--It will be a solo jaunt, so the company will be acceptable.

[Jay Kirkpatrick]

i've played cedarbrook a bit.  its not bad... an old ellis maples that plays over gently rolling terrain.  i certainly wouldn't drive 10 hrs to play it though.  if you can work it out, i'd try to play roaring gap just up the road.  that's the best course in the elkin area.

[Roger Wolfe]

A trip to Elkin that included Roaring Gap, High Meadows and Primland would be worth a 20 hour drive!

[Lester George]

Joel,

Sometime in the near future I hope to be starting Contentment Golf Club near Trap Hill/Elkin.  Sorry I cant help out yet.  Ballyhack is only 1.5 hours up the road, but you will have to let me know if you want that one.

Lester

[Chris_Blakely]

Any Tarheels or intrepid travelers able to shed some light on these 3 GG's?

Pilot Knob Park C.C.
 Cross Creek Country Club
Cedarbrook Country Club

Got an invite up there in early June, and am curious if it's worth the 10--hour RT by car....thanks in advance!

Courses that I have played in the area include:

Cedarbrook Country Club (State Road, NC)
Olde Beau Golf Club (Roaring Gap, NC)
Pilot Knob Park Country Club (Pilot Mountain, NC)

I enjoyed all of these courses for different reasons.  Both Cedarbrook and Pilot Knob Park are fun older courses.  Cedarbrook is an early Ellis Maples course build in 1962 and 1969.  Pilot Knob Park is a Gene Hamm course built in 1963.  I walked both Cedarbrook and Pilot Knob Park and found it not that difficult to walk the gently rolling terrain.  Neither Cedarbrook nor Pilot Knob Park is overly long from the tips.  They use the natural contours of the land well and have medium to small undulating greens.
OK, now for Olde Beau GC, this course is my secret sin.  The course is a mountain course with huge elevation changes and is not walkable or at least I would not recommend walking it.  It is a mixture of target golf, some holes with less constraints offer width off the tee and most holes have moderate to large elevation changes.  If you like fun filled thrilling tee shots, greens perched on hill sides, check it out.
Here are the websites of the three courses:

http://www.cedarbrookcountryclub.com/

http://www.pilotknobparkgolf.org/

http://www.oldebeau.com/

Chris

[Brian Marion]

Any Tarheels or intrepid travelers able to shed some light on these 3 GG's?

Pilot Knob Park C.C.
Cross Creek Country Club
Cedarbrook Country Club

Got an invite up there in early June, and am curious if it's worth the 10--hour RT by car....thanks in advance!

Joel, you're talking my neck of the woods, or at least where I grew up.

None are "worth" a ten hour drive to play, though I can think of very few courses I would drive 10 hours to play anyway. (fly yes, drive no) I would let my "invitation" be my guide. Is the inviting friend worth a ten hour drive? ;-)

If so,

First - Cross Creek - I used to be a member here back in the late 1990's. A solid track and even better after a recent redo by Kris Spence who took an ok course and made it good.

2nd place- Pilot Knob GC - My home growing up and a place I got into a LOT of trouble at certain times and with certain daughters. :-)  Nothing spectacular but a good course that holds a very special place in my heart. You'll have fun, just leave the architecture mindset at the clubhouse. i have a picture of the course in my office and I'm staring at it right now as I type. Good times!

3rd - Cedar Brook - Can't say much as it's been years since playing it. Not bad though, similar to the two above in that it won't blow you away but it's a good time.

While in the area - I also suggest:

Primland
Tanglewood Championship -
Oak Valley GC
Bermuda Run
Old Beau

[Bob Montle]

Played Cedarbrook today (Ellis Maple 1946) and was very disappointed, even with $20 green fees.  Bland layout and poor greens.

I can only remember two or three holes - they all blend together.  Rolling terrain, blind tee shots on too many holes, all slightly dog-legging.  Not a bad course if the greens were halfway decent, but ...

Sand bunkers block 1/3 of the front of at least half of greens with pins in the front of these greens directly behind the bunkers, and the greens sloping severely back to front.  Land 15 ft past the pin and bring it back - the ball will roll into the sand.   Bring it in low to the back of the green - you cannot keep your putt on the green.  Only way to play was to roll the ball onto the opposite side of the green from the pin which leaves a 30 ft putt with a fifteen ft break.  IF you can get it to stay on the green.  We tried to lag to within ten ft below the cup and hope to sink our comeback.  Whoopee.  ZERO fun at all!

To be fair, it was setup for a Saturday - Sunday tournament which might explain the pin placements.  But no excuse, really.

In addition, some greens were skinned so bald that an almost level ten ft putt would break five feet.
Others were shaggy and slow.  Add bumpy and COVERED with ball marks.  Really sad.

How is this for a selection of par 3's:  154 yds, 150 yds, 149 yds and 151 yds.  (From the whites, 6304 yds)

Like I say, a huge disappointment.
Not in the same league as Old Beau, Oak Valley or Tanglewood.

[Tom Fagerli]

Played Cedarbrook today (Ellis Maple 1946) and was very disappointed, even with $20 green fees.  Bland layout and poor greens.

I can only remember two or three holes - they all blend together.  Rolling terrain, blind tee shots on too many holes, all slightly dog-legging.  Not a bad course if the greens were halfway decent, but ...

Sand bunkers block 1/3 of the front of at least half of greens with pins in the front of these greens directly behind the bunkers, and the greens sloping severely back to front.  Land 15 ft past the pin and bring it back - the ball will roll into the sand.   Bring it in low to the back of the green - you cannot keep your putt on the green.  Only way to play was to roll the ball onto the opposite side of the green from the pin which leaves a 30 ft putt with a fifteen ft break.  IF you can get it to stay on the green.  We tried to lag to within ten ft below the cup and hope to sink our comeback.  Whoopee.  ZERO fun at all!

To be fair, it was setup for a Saturday - Sunday tournament which might explain the pin placements.  But no excuse, really.

In addition, some greens were skinned so bald that an almost level ten ft putt would break five feet.
Others were shaggy and slow.  Add bumpy and COVERED with ball marks.  Really sad.

How is this for a selection of par 3's:  154 yds, 150 yds, 149 yds and 151 yds.  (From the whites, 6304 yds)

Like I say, a huge disappointment.
Not in the same league as Old Beau, Oak Valley or Tanglewood.

The back nine is OK with a couple strong holes- 13 and 17 are solid. The problem is the front nine is ruined with the second green (if it is fast and never is) ball rolls back to you continuously, the goofy short layup on the par five 4th as the lake is too large, and then the worst hole in Surry Co the 5th. The greens are overall very steep and if fast they would be unplayable.
Golf in this area has really been impacted by the economic downturn in the 2000's and has not recovered. The three clubs mentioned originally- Cross Creek, PKP and Cedarbrook-have all suffered large membership losses and resorted to almost unrestricted non-member play to survive.  Although the local,economies are much much better, golf doesn't seem to have been helped as $25-30 rounds including cart fee are the norm.

[Bob Montle]

Tom, have you played Yadkin Country Club?  I drove up there today to check it out with a friend and we were blown away.
Forget Cedarbrook, Tanglewood and Oak Valley.  This is my new local favorite.

It's public now, and very low key with a small pro shop.  They don't have a lot of money for maintenance but we were amazed at the condition of the fairways and greens.

It's not long (about 6500 from the back) but well laid out through the rolling terrain. No two consecutive holes go in the same direction and very few double back. The par threes are of varied distances and directions.

The bent grass greens are firm and fast but not too fast.  After the first few holes where our approaches bounced and rolled off the back edge, we learned that we needed to bounce the balls onto the greens.  And boy was that fun.  One par 3 (about 170 yds) was completely guarded in front by a 40 yd wide bunker.  Ray went around it (Redan style) by hitting his 5-iron so it landed 20 yds to the right of the green and about 20 yds short and was thrilled to see it kick left and end up 10 ft from the pin.  We each hit 3-4 shots with different clubs just to see which gave the best bounces onto the green.

We were having so much fun trying to figure out where to place our drives and where to approach the greens that we didn't even keep score.  We agreed that we cannot remember when we last had this much FUN playing a golf course.  And one I had never heard of before yesterday.

It has to be a hidden gem.  The green fees are $18 on weekdays and $25 on weekends but it was almost empty this morning.
Crazy.

[Tom Fagerli]

Tom, have you played Yadkin Country Club?  I drove up there today to check it out with a friend and we were blown away.
Forget Cedarbrook, Tanglewood and Oak Valley.  This is my new local favorite.

It's public now, and very low key with a small pro shop.  They don't have a lot of money for maintenance but we were amazed at the condition of the fairways and greens.

It's not long (about 6500 from the back) but well laid out through the rolling terrain. No two consecutive holes go in the same direction and very few double back. The par threes are of varied distances and directions.

The bent grass greens are firm and fast but not too fast.  After the first few holes where our approaches bounced and rolled off the back edge, we learned that we needed to bounce the balls onto the greens.  And boy was that fun.  One par 3 (about 170 yds) was completely guarded in front by a 40 yd wide bunker.  Ray went around it (Redan style) by hitting his 5-iron so it landed 20 yds to the right of the green and about 20 yds short and was thrilled to see it kick left and end up 10 ft from the pin.  We each hit 3-4 shots with different clubs just to see which gave the best bounces onto the green.

We were having so much fun trying to figure out where to place our drives and where to approach the greens that we didn't even keep score.  We agreed that we cannot remember when we last had this much FUN playing a golf course.  And one I had never heard of before yesterday.

It has to be a hidden gem.  The green fees are $18 on weekdays and $25 on weekends but it was almost empty this morning.
Crazy.

Bob- happy to hear that you enjoyed YCC. I live across the road from it. Used to play it all the time. It is a lot of fun and when in playable condition- that means not losing balls in the rough every hole- there are few better places to play as you have lots of different shots to hit.  When the greens are as you found them you will have a great day. In the 2000s before it was sold, it was maintained very nicely. Then it went thru several yrs of neglect and sadly probably cannot recover. Dirts, rocks, ruts, weeds, sticks, leaves- these conditions ruin it for me. I play it maybe 3 times a year. I keep hoping it will improve but the owner paid triple what it is worth and his estate is expecting to get that out of it when sold. I don't see that happening on 30 rounds a day at $18. However it is much better than what it was 3-4 yrs ago.