Played 8/27/10. Took advantage of the NCGA discount i.e. free golf on my birthday. Otherwise I don't think I'd spend $70 to play here. They think they're a resort course, but conditions are really at ... Continue »

Played 8/27/10. Took advantage of the NCGA discount i.e. free golf on my birthday. Otherwise I don't think I'd spend $70 to play here. They think they're a resort course, but conditions are really at muni level, although I have to admit that conditions were better this year than when I played here a year ago.

Staff is brusk, and acts like they're doing you a favor by letting you play there. Started with the cashier who led of with a "what do you want?" attitude and then gave me crap about only playing there on my birthday when it was free. We teed off and as we were getting in the cart some guy (apparently the starter) came running from somewhere unseen and yelled at us for teeing off, and complaining that he was going to pair us up. He warned us it would be slow as a twosome but with no pairing in sight he let us go. There is no drink cart, but there's a snack shack at the turn, if you happen to catch the guy there on your way through.

The Poa Annua greens here have been recently replaced with bent, and they are still pretty firm. Unfortunately the Poa Annua is already invading the bent so there are a few bumpy spots. The speed is highly variable.

They advertise themselves as a links style course, which I guess is true if you consider deep fairway bunkers, and lots of humps and bumps in the fairway to ensure you never have a level lie. Being on the coast the wind requires a links style knockdown and a run-up shot on several holes. Unfortunately the run-up area short of the greens doesn't lend itself to rolling the ball onto the green. They've attempted to mow it close but its really bumpy and unpredictable.

Pace of play is always a problem here because of the layout. There are two consecutive par threes on the front, and having to walk the 16th and 17th doesn't help. Views of the ocean and bay are nice, and make the 5 hour slog more bearable.