Golf Across North Carolina
Golfers seeking top golf destinations across North Carolina’s diverse landscape face the daunting – but fun – task of choosing between the mountains, the coast and the hundreds of miles of additional prime real estate connecting the two, in the region called the Piedmont.
Esteemed golf course designer Donald Ross created gems in all three regions. His Pinehurst No. 2 golf course has hosted multiple U.S. Open Championships as well as some of the world’s most prestigious amateur tournaments. Ross’s Linville Golf Club near Grandfather Mountain is annually ranked among the state’s top 10 courses. He also created Wilmington Golf Club, a municipal course in this port city that sits along the Cape Fear River. In total, Ross, considered by many purists as the game’s most influential architect, was responsible for nearly four dozen of North Carolina’s 430-plus courses.
It also speaks volumes for North Carolina that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, the game’s top-ranked golfers and aspiring course architects, chose the state’s alluring terrain to build the first domestic golf courses of their respective design companies. Development is under way on Woods’ The Cliffs at High Carolina located just east of Asheville in Swannanoa. Mickelson is building River Rock Golf Club in the cool altitudes of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Cashiers.
Coastal Golf
Bald Head Island Club is one of North Carolina’s coastal jewels. Its 6,855-yard George Cobb-designed course winds through maritime forests and around freshwater lagoons. Getting to Bald Head Island, just off the coast from Southport, requires some extra, but worthwhile, effort. Access is via a 20-minute ferry ride. All belongings, golf clubs included, must be shipped over. The tenacity to get in a round needs to be carried over to the challenging course as well.
The Brunswick Islands area features more than 30 courses to choose from. Ocean Ridge Plantation in Sunset Beach features four of the best. Its four big cat-themed courses – Lion’s Paw, Leopard’s Chase, Tiger’s Eye and Panther’s Run – challenge both beginning and accomplished golfers. A fifth course, Jaguar’s Lair, is scheduled to open later in 2008.
The lighthouse-dotted Outer Banks also offer a number of prime daily fee golf opportunities, including Nag’s Head Golf Links and Sea Scape Golf Links.
Piedmont Golf
Pinehurst is the granddaddy of the state’s golf destinations. Massachusetts’ businessman James Walker Tufts bought 5,000 acres of scrubby pines in Moore County in 1895 and turned it into one of the world’s great resorts. Pinehurst now features eight top courses, including Ross’s famed No. 2.
Two of the additional top destinations in the Piedmont Region include the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club in Durham and the Ballantyne Resort in Charlotte.
Located on Duke University’s West Campus, the Washington Duke Inn is an AAA Four-Diamond award-winning luxury hotel. Golfers can take advantage of the Inn’s adjacent Robert Trent Jones-designed Duke University Golf Club. The course has hosted the NCAA Men’s Championships on two occasions.
Ballantyne Resort offers Queen City travelers upscale golf and the Dana Rader Golf School.
Mountain Golf
Three of the top golf destinations in North Carolina’s mountainous region include the Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa and the Eseeola Lodge at Linville Golf Club.
The Grove Park Inn in Asheville features another of the state’s layouts by Ross. Many of the game’s greats, including Nicklaus, Trevino and Player, have played this course with its adjacent historic Inn built in 1913.
The Eseeola Lodge sits near the foot of Grandfather Mountain outside Boone. A stay at The Eseeola provides access to Linville Golf Club, designed by Ross in 1924 and annually ranked among the country’s “Top 100 Courses You Can Play.”
Regardless of the region – mountains, coast or Piedmont – North Carolina offers an enviable selection of courses to tantalise the most discerning golfers.
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North Carolina Golf
Whether you're trying your hand at the professional courses of Pinehurst, teeing off against the backdrop of the Great Smoky Mountains, or rolling a putt along a seaside green, NC is a golfer's paradise.
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