Back to Holly Ridge in Archdale. Putting greens and driving range are under construction. There…read moreis a large stinky fish kill in one of the lakes. But otherwise we had a good day on the links. They have an inside golf simulation room , restaurant and full bar.

Might wanna SWING by here if you're a golfer in the Triad area, as this course has something for…read moreeveryone! Holly Ridge features quality golf on a well cared for course that is especially forgiving to golfers who may struggle in the "hit the ball straight" department, as well as a pretty good restaurant on PAR with sports bars in this area. For the golf, Holly Ridge is a typical piedmont course in that there are several altitude adjustments in play throughout your round. Long ball hitters can find themselves at an advantage on holes where there is a descent to the green if they can hit over the hump. The courses main hazards are water which usually come into play off the tee as opposed to on an approach. Beginner golfers who struggle to get the ball in the air consistently might find this challenging. If left and right is your problem, you might find some forgiveness here, as there are usually neighboring fairways or sufficient rough to where finding an off-line ball is easy. There aren't many points on the course where the woods are close enough to make a ball hard to find. The greens in my experience roll pretty true, I have had some days where they are extremely fast due to how sun baked they are. Holly Ridge is home to my third best round, in which I shot an 80. They have recently installed GPS into the carts as well, so you'll always know your distance to the hole, which is really nice. Before that, it was hard to figure out your distance without an app, as there aren't many markers. That said, the GPS can be annoying, as it will yell at you and even disable your cart if you get too close to the green for too long. For the grill, more than sufficient for a ninth hole turnaround. Good hot dogs, ample beer selection at fair prices. Ordering is available from the newly installed units in the carts. If you're looking for a full meal, this is a great place, as they have a decent size menu featuring mostly sandwiches, chicken, salads, burgers, etc. It seems that locals come here just to eat, which by the food taste and price point, sounds good to me! Overall, I really like Holly Ridge. I've been coming here for many years, and have watched this course really come into its own after some renovations a few years back. Of course, the price went up a little with that, but I think the experience is still definitely worth the weekend rate. FORE!

You'll be hard pressed to find a better all around golf experience in the great state of NC…read more My second time here and was invited by Matt H to join three others, Chris C and J O'Grady. This was the first time for the others but they have all played other Stranz courses, like Tobacco Road, True Bill & Caledonia. Like any other course, you'll experience some challenges your first time around and after that, you will play some holes completely different. This is rural Carolina golf in Randolph County and it feels like it. The word is of all the Stranz courses, this was his favorite and it's easy to see why. It's so plush and green, the natural landscape is scattered with boulders that are designed to create exceptional views. I especially like there are 5, yes FIVE Par 3's, all reasonable short and accessible. The Waterfall hole #15 is a work of golf art, just spectacular. It was a great experience from the beginning. Ron, the starter and car attendant helped us with our bags and was very friendly and professional. Jack & Keith in the clubhouse got us checked in quickly and directed us back to Ron to give us the low down on current course conditions, pace of play, cart operation etc. They are EV's with GPS included. When Ron told us about the 'out of bounds' play guidelines and recommended we not go in the woods and mentioned rattlesnakes and copperheads, that got our attention.

Had fun. Course updates are great. Staff couldn't be better. Not sure how any golfer could rate…read morethis course anything less than a 5* experience!

We had a satisfactory day of golf, but the course is not in great shape. A lot of sand on the…read moregreens. They have sprayed herbicide all around the course in the tree line. The mowers were rumbling around on multiple holes. It was like playing in a Mad Max dystopia.

Played this course Friday afternoon. When called to make our tee time on Thursday was told by the…read moregirl that the greens were in great shape. Upon our arrival on Friday, saw that all the greens had sand all over them. Must say we were sadly disappointed. This course has so much potential to be like it used to be. They have invested money in redoing the greens and they will eventually come around. The fairways definitely need some attention. We paid $34 which should've been less due to the greens being in the shape they were. I wish I could speak with the owner of this course. Would love to see this course be a must play course in our area. The bunkers and sand trap need to be right and weeds need to be pulled out of it. There's just little things that you can do to make this course better. I know it takes money so maybe sponsors and investors can be sought after in order to get this course in the great shape that it once was.

Tobacco Road is a must-play design wickedly creative routing through sandy, rolling terrain with…read moredramatic elevation changes and brutal waste areas. Tight fairways, huge contoured greens, and signature risk/reward holes make every round an unforgettable test of imagination and shot-making. Best course I've played in North Carolina

CAUTION! Ridiculous and dangerous golf ahead!! If there is golf in Hell, I am pretty sure this is…read morewhere you play. I played Tobacco Road on Tuesday, July 8. It was an epic disappointment. This course is NOT a SERIOUS golf course. Sure, it's in the Golf Digest Best 100, but how it got there is one of life's mysteries indeed because it has nothing good going for it. Here is a list of the Bad: 1. Pro Shop - Nothing special 2. Driving Range - Inferior to a heavily-used muni course 3. Putting Green - Beats me because it was closed. 4. Directional Signage - Pathetic 5. Greens - Just acceptable, nothing more 6. Ball washers - None 7. GPS - Very humble. The display is only a tad larger than my Galaxy S24. Here is a list of the Ugly ... and I do mean UGLY: 1. You must book on line and pay a $10 booking fee, and then they pummel you with incessant emails and texts 2. Confusing tee locations. Call me a purist, but painted farm implements are not better than standard colored tee markers. 3. Blind shots are abundant. On numerous holes you literally cannot see the green even when you are 30 yards in front of it. In one case, their use of a 12-foot-long flag stick did little to help locate the hole. 4. While there are no "sand traps," there is an overwhelming number of "waste areas," so many and so large that you are permitted to drive your cart in them. And forget hitting cleanly from them because they are 40% sand, 40% packed dirt, and 20% ROCKS. 5. Bugs! Geeze the bugs!! Buzzing gnats were in my face (and ears and eyes) for the entire round. 6. Hazardous drop-offs from fairway to waste area. Exercise serious caution getting into and out of these suckers. Falling is a definite risk. And as a final point of pain, the Ranger insulted me when I calmly told him I did not like the course by asking me if I was married, then telling me that he felt sorry for my wife. Clearly, I did not like my experience, but fortunately it will not be repeated because Hell will freeze over before I return because I feel exactly like a guy below who wrote that he would have had more fun setting two $100 bills and a $50 on fire in the parking lot. Yep! I agree!!

I enjoyed this full amenity course. Very open and not too challenging. Greens were fast but thats…read moreexpected for November golf.

From the owner: Private Country Club with Golfread more

It's been just about a year since I played this course as it's over an hour from Fort Mill so we…read moremade the trek out there on 7/3/25. James was in town from NH so he and Ben put together a group of 12 for 18 holes of golf. This time the range was open. It's adequate but it sits way up a hill and they don't want carts up there so you either lug your clubs up/down the hill or pull the ones you want to hit. They is also a chipping green but no bunkers to practice from. There is NO Starter though there is a little building on the #1 tee but it's been abandon. The Pro Shop has a PA system with outdoor speakers so they announce your name and your tee time, ten minutes before. The B-Man has had this course in his 'top ten' for a while. When I played it last year it was #8, it's now number 2. The views around the lake are great. It's country golf in a rural setting and it feels like it. We saw some guys in their Lynyrd Skynyrd & ZZ Top tee shirts. There are some really beautiful Par 3's and nice and short Par 4's. I was challenged once again by hole #7. There is a big pond right in front of the tee box and water on both sides the fairway about 200 yards out with a very narrow fairway landing area. I still have scar tissue from the first time. If it wasn't so far away I would play this course a lot more. All 11 of the other guys just raved about and said it was 'worth the drive from CLT.

Course in great shape and the pace of play was excellent. Friendly staff and a decent rangeread more

I recently became a golfer and fortunately there are many courses to choose from near Whitsett…read more This golf course just so happens to be right down the road from me. I have been here several times and I always have a great time. Id like to first start off by saying the staff has always been very friendly with me and my friends when we play golf here. The restroom is decent can be hit or miss sometimes with cleanliness, but typically pretty good. The golf carts are wiped down and cleaned after each use. Now onto the course. I am not super familiar with golf, but from the courses that I have played at this one is pretty good. The fairways are cut nice, obviously not as nice as some courses in the area, but good. The greens are usually nice as well. Overall the course is taken care of pretty well. Two of the negatives I would like to note is that there is a restroom located in the middle of the course. Nearly every time I have had to make a stop at this mid course restroom it has been pretty disgusting. Usually the toilet paper is strolled across the ground, soaking wet and just nasty. I typically try to avoid using the bathroom at the mid course restroom because its very nasty. Id definitely recommend keeping tabs on the bathroom if the owner ever reads this review. In addition to the bathroom, the cart paths are not really cart paths. The paths they do have are pretty rough and not well maintained. Id also recommend improving these in the future. Next is the price. I think the price is okay for the most part. I would rather spend the same amount at other courses with nicer greens and fairways personally. I would like to see the prices go down just a little bit on this course. However, this course is close to home and much cheaper than Stoney Creek (obviously). Hope to see you on the course!

This is one of the those courses you won't be wowed by in terms of the fairways. At times you…read morecouldn't tell where it ended. Nothing fancy. Greens were in good shape which is important. They did space people out well even on Black Friday which is usually packed everywhere. Four of us played for under $100 which was awesome. Would play again and is great for golfers looking to have a fun time and bit pay $200 for the day.

The Old North State Club is five stars. I still have dreams about playing this course. I grew up…read moreplaying golf here in my middle and high school years. Old North State was about a one-hour drive from our house in High Point, so a round of golf here was an all-day affair. My dad would often treat his friends to rounds here and even my mom came out and played. We'd also take relatives from out of town here, whether it be for a meal at the clubhouse or a round of golf. This place was awesome. To date, Old North State remains one of the best-conditioned golf courses I've played on. The course conditions were better here than at a premiere bucket-list course like Pebble Beach (granted, Pebble sees way more volume). Old North State is situated on Badin Lake. It's known for having North Carolina's best finishing holes. Nos. 16-18 all border the lake. I have a framed and captioned picture of them, from the pro shop, on the wall in my office. The property itself is embedded in Uwharrie National Forest. It's really scenic and beautiful. We'd occasionally see deer on the course. I vividly recall seeing some crossing the fairway on No. 4 and seeing one moving around in the trees around 17 green and 18 tee. I also remember seeing a skunk, I think in the same area. Old North State was designed by Tom Fazio, one of the world's greatest golf course architects. From the tips, the course is pro-length at 7,102 yards with a 75.1/143 rating/slope. My dad and I would routinely play from the whites, the distance and rating/slope of which have varied over the years. Generally, from the whites, the course measures about 6,200-6,300 yards. At 6,219 yards, the rating/slope was 70.9/132. I consider it a challenging, but fun track. If you play from the appropriate tees, this course is playable for all skill levels. Aside from the finishing holes, several other holes have views of the lake including Nos. 2, 4, 7, 9, and 14. The greens on those holes either sit next to or are nearby the lake. The toughest hole is No. 9, a long par-4 (452 from the tips, 389 from the whites) that really tests your accuracy. My favorite holes were always the finishing holes. 16 is a difficult downhill par-4 that takes you down to the lake (amazing view). 17 is a par-3 over the lake. 18 is a curvy par-5 that runs alongside the lake; a great risk-reward hole. You can either try to take a shortcut and hit your ball over the lake or play it safe and lay-up on the fairway. My dad would often grab some old balls from his bag and we'd hit a couple off the 18th tee out into the lake just for fun. I always looked forward to the turn and grabbing a delicious hot dog from the halfway house. I'd typically get Gatorade from the beverage cart. I once accidentally broke an iron at the driving range. Along with the range, practice facilities include a practice putting green and a practice chipping and bunker shot area. The practice bunker is big. The range has Titleist range balls laid out in pyramids for all golfers to use. I played in a club tournament one time. I believe it was a July 4th tournament because each of us had to carry around a small American flag. Based on our handicap, we got extra strokes. I forget how the game was played exactly, but I remember I had nine strokes remaining after I finished 18 holes. That meant I could keep playing until my nine strokes were gone, so we went back to hole number one. I ended up parring the 1st (par 5) and 2nd (par 4) holes and sticking my flag in the cup on No. 2 to signify how far I'd gotten. In this particular tournament, the players who traveled the farthest won. I ended up winning. I can't remember if I finished 1st or what, but it was a lot of fun and one of the prouder moments I've had in golf. I recall several of the employees (mainly cart attendants) attended nearby Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer. At the time of writing this review, Old North State has hosted the Atlantic Coast Conference men's golf championship 22 out of the last 24 years, including this year (2019), and will host again next year (2020). My parents' alma mater, Wake Forest, has won 18 ACC titles and 22 individual championships. My alma mater, Georgia Tech, has won 18 ACC titles, including this year, and 15 individual championships. Wake and Tech are the two most successful schools in ACC men's golf. Go Deacs and Jackets!

I really can't express how terrible my experience with Old North State club was. The level of…read moreunprofessional conduct by their coordinator Tara W. and manager Brian was astonishing. Tara did not know any answers to simple questions about hosting an event, "Is outside food allowed?" "Is this date still available?" "What is the minimum for ordering food through the club?" Not only did she not have answers, she does not reply to calls or emails for weeks at a time. This is a terrible way to conduct business in general, but especially during these stressful Covid times when people are re-planning their events multiple times. Comparably, I have nothing but amazing things to say about other venues in the area like Childress Vineyards and Reid Farm that have been so professional and helpful during our search. Even for the venues that did not give me the answers I hoped for about food, timing, or space, I gave 5 star reviews due to their knowledge and timely responses.