N.C. State’s Lonnie Poole Golf Course may be the toughest place to get a tee time in the Raleigh area. And there are at least three major reasons why.
First, there’s the layout, a signature product of the Arnold Palmer Design Co., which offers a broad-shouldered challenge, with pristine fairways winding over hills and through forest to large, undulating bent grass greens, often protected by huge bunkers and wild, native grasses.
Despite the course’s popularity, the tees, fairways, and greens are meticulously groomed, with the maintenance supervised by the university’s turfgrass management staff and students.
Second, there’s the overall facilities, which include a spacious, public practice areas, and a modern, multi-tier clubhouse with inside dining or outdoor seating with views of the downtown Raleigh skyline at The Terrace restaurant, a large pro shop and meeting rooms as well as a first-floor center for instruction and club fitting.
Third, there’s yes, location, location, location. The course is just a sand wedge off Interstate 40, only a few-minute drive from downtown Raleigh on N.C. State’s Centennial Campus.
In the capital city, Lonnie Poole is clearly the No. 1 public option. Interestingly, Lonnie Poole’s nearest rivals in the market’s elite public category are university courses at Duke and UNC.
“No doubt about it,” said Chip Watson, the PGA general manager. “There’s really not another golf course in that echelon.”
Watson said Lonnie Poole plays about 44,000 rounds per year, a figure it limits to prevent excess wear and tear. The course offers annual play packages, but no traditional memberships. Daily greens fees and cart for the public are $75 on Monday through Thursday and $100 on weekends. Walking is allowed, though a few long treks through woods connect some of the holes.
Stay-and-play packages are available through the university’s StateView Hotel, next to the Alumni Center, just across a street from the course.
The course is open seven days a week, though closed for maintenance on Tuesday until 11 a.m.
Most of the fairways are generously open — some deceptively wide — with manageable-length rough extending to the trees. Large white sand bunkers, sometimes framed by long native grasses, protect the fairways and greens, though bailout opportunities exist for most approaches.
Since the course’s opening in 2009, Watson said some original bunkering — including bunker islands with high grass— has been eliminated, and new forward tees were added to make the course more playable for beginners and high-handicappers.
“At first, the reputation was the course was way too hard,” Watson said. “The first 3-4 years, we worked really hard on that.”
Still the home of the Wolfpack golf teams has plenty of teeth, measuring 7,358 yards at par-72 from the back tees, with five other tee options ranging from 4,711 to 6,916 yards. A former host of NCAA Regionals, Lonnie Poole offers stout 74.6 rating and 142 slope from the tips that dips to 68.8 and 126 from the fourth set or Wolfpack tees that measure 6,127 yards.
If the five sets of tees aren’t enough, the scorecard supplies two tee combinations. Several holes require tee shots over ravines to uphill landing areas, reducing the roll of drives.
“We’d love to get some bigger events out here,” Watson said.
Lonnie Poole is the nation’s only university course designed by the Palmer’s company. The King visited a half-dozen times or so during design and construction. N.C. State graduates Erik Larsen and Brandon Johnson, working for Palmer, were the primary architects on site.
In addition to a new public practice area and putting green, scheduled to open in the fall, the course may continue to evolve. An I-40 exit, planned by NCDOT for the Centennial Campus when the course was built, has been scrapped. So, the 235-yard par-3 No. 2 hole, designed to fit with the exit, could be redesigned to improve the routing pattern sometime in the future, according to Watson.
From the plateau with the No. 10 green and 11th tee, players are greeted with a view of the downtown skyline, including the capital building.
The back nine, which covers on somewhat higher ground, plays from 100 to 200 yards longer than the front, and regulars believe it’s as much as three strokes more difficult. In fact, Watson said the toughest holes on the course during N.C. State and Carolinas Golf Association tournaments have been No. 11, a 665-yard par-5; No. 12, a 472-yard par-4; and No. 15, a 549-yard par-5.
But for mid-handicappers, the biggest challenge may come at 18, a 441-yard (from the third set of 6,498-yard tees) par-4 featuring a lake on the right off the tee, then a long approach over waste, fescue and sand to a green with a severe drop-off to the right and only a small bailout to the left that leaves a perilous downhill pitch.
Lonnie Poole is built on N.C. State land, but the course has a long-term lease. Carolinas Golf Group of Raleigh, which manages the facility, also manages six other facilities, including High Point Country Club, Starmount Forest Country Club and Pennrose Park Country Club in the Triad. Oak Valley, Salem Glen, Asheboro Country Club and Sapona were part of CGG’s past development and management portfolios.
