Best Golf Courses In North Carolina

Best Golf Courses In North Carolina

The best golf courses in North Carolina are predominantly located in the Sandhills area, which is famous for the quality and quantity of its golf courses. But there are some fine layouts to be found elsewhere in the Tar Heel state as we explain.

Dormie Club

• Location: West End
• Designed by: Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw
• Par: 71
• Yardage: 6,883 Yards
• Green fee: Private
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The fairways are wide, bordered by sandy waste areas, so the difficulty is on the tricky greens, with the 7th a reverse Redan green. On the uphill par-5 17th (above) golfers have to carry an enormous bunker, the designers’ tribute to Hell's Half Acre at Pine Valley, which runs across the fairway short of the elevated tiered green.

Forest Creek Golf Club (North)

• Location: Pinehurst
• Designed by: Tom Fazio
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,209 Yards
• Green fee: Private
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Forest Creek has 37 holes, including the South course which opened in 1997, and the North, of 2005. There is also a short 37th hole to decide tied matches, if needed. The North is considered the superior of the layouts, both of which are the work of Tom Fazio. The North’s holes predominantly run through forest, but 15 (above) 16 and 17 play around and over a lake.

Mid Pines Inn and Golf Club

• Location: Southern Pines
• Designed by: Donald Ross
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 6,723 Yards
• Green fee: $95-$235
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The restoration by Kyle Franz in 2013 of Ross’ 1921-built course, has been widely lauded and has enabled the course to regain its previous lustre and reputation. This is not a course designed to beat up golfers, or to test the very best to the utmost, but one which will provide enjoyable and suitably testing rounds for club golfers, with a series of risk-reward options allowing golfers of all abilities to determine their own challenges.

Mountaintop Golf and Lake Club

• Location: Cashiers
• Designed by: Tom Fazio
• Par: 70
• Yardage: 7,127 Yards
• Green fee: Private
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This course is a blast to play – as it was to create. Well several blasts, as part of the layout had to be dynamited through rocks. It is a beautiful tree-lined course, with many elevation changes – the opening two holes both drop 100ft from the tee are a good introduction to what you are about to experience – and several holes play over a gorge.

Old Town Club

• Location: Winston-Salem
• Designed by: Perry Maxwell
• Par: 70
• Yardage: 6,863 Yards
• Green fee: Private
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Perry Maxwell’s design, which debuted in November 1939 is seen as one of the final creations of the Golden Age of Golf Architecture. Bill Coore, who, with Ben Crenshaw, was brought it to renovate the course in the 2010s, has declared that “much of Old Town's brilliance stems from its undulating terrain and routing. It has always served as the cornerstone for my early understanding of what extraordinary golf architecture was all about.” Greens and fairways are undulating, so expect some awkward stances and devilish putts.

Pinehurst No 2

• Location: Haven
• Designed by: Donald Ross
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,588 Yards
• Green fee: Members and resort guests only
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The renovation by Coore and Crenshaw in 2010 of Ross’ 1907 design reinstated some of the sandy character of the original. Out went rough, back came sandy waste areas, which also widened the fairways. The famous, or maybe infamous, turtle-back greens require deft placement of approach shots as they can have a habit of landing on the green and rolling off. This is a walking-only course.

Pinehurst No 4

• Location: Haven
• Designed by: Gil Hanse
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,227 Yards
• Green fee: Members and resort guests only
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Pinehurst No 4 has gone through several reincarnations from Donald Ross original 1919 course, by Robert Trent Jones, Rees Jones and Tom Fazio. The current layout is is by Gil Hanse. He has sought to reinstate much of the original character of Ross’ vision, as has happened at No 2, with sandy waste areas, natural looking bunkers and several risk-reward holes, especially coming down the stretch.

Pinehurst No 8

• Location: Haven
• Designed by: Tom Fazio
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,099 Yards
• Green fee: Members and resort guests only
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Tom Fazio was commissioned to design this as Pinehurst’s 100th birthday present to itself, and for this reason, it is also known as The Centennial. It is over hillier ground than the other seven courses and includes wetlands, which gives rise to designs such as the version of a cape hole at 14 (above).

Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club

• Location: Southern Pines
• Designed by: Donald Ross
• Par: 71
• Yardage: 5,877 Yards
• Green fee: $105-$265
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The four-time host of the US Women’s Open, most recently in 2022, has generous fairways, but some demanding green complexes, such as on the par-3 13th (above), which require accurate approach play. Miss these fairways and you may well find yourself playing off, as well as at, pine needles.

Quail Hollow Club

• Location: Charlotte
• Designed by: George Cobb, redesigns by Arnold Palmer, Tom Fazio
• Par: 71
• Yardage: 7,521 Yards
• Green fee: Private
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The closing three holes are the most famous here, and known collectively as the Green Mile. The 16th is a 506-yard par 4 to a green by a lake’ the 223-yard par-3 17th (above) which is nothing much more than water and a deep peninsula green, and then 18 is a long par 4 with a stream running along the left side. A regular PGA Tour venue, most recently for the annual Wells Fargo Championship, Quail Hollow hosted the US PGA Championship in 2017 and will do so again in 2025.

Roaring Gap Club

• Location: Roaring Gap
• Designed by: Donald Ross
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 6,455 Yards
• Green fee: Private
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A mountain-top course where the green on the 340-yard 17th (above) is perched out on a bluff a 1,000ft above the valley and offering views for miles across the Carolina foothills. The course is not demanding off the tee, with only two doglegs and precious few fairway bunkers, but makes up for it on the highly contoured raised greens.

Tobacco Road

• Location: Sanford
• Designed by: Mike Strantz
• Par: 71
• Yardage: 6,557 Yards
• Green fee: $99-$225
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Mike Strantz has laid out a visually stunning course with bold, imaginative designs which, while paying homage to the Golden Age architects, provide huge variety and more than a dash of their own quirkiness. Sandy waste areas, dramatic elevation changes, greens teetering on the edge of land which falls away steeply to a sandy conclusion, blind shots, an L-shaped roller coaster green, a wide kidney-shaped green, clever optical illusions, greenside bunkers with not so much steps as staircases to enter and exit – all these contribute to hole designs you will feel you have not encountered anywhere else.