As a mountain golf retreat, High Meadows Country Club pretty much has it all, yet its relaxed vibe makes it a relative secret in the N.C. High Country.
Start with the setting in spectacular, yet remote Roaring Gap, a beautiful getaway accessible only via a twisting two-lane road, half and hour from an interstate. Then there’s the club’s George Cobb layout that winds over and through hills and valleys, pristine streams, ponds and lakes, offering a stiff challenge without the likelihood of losing a dozen golf balls in the process.
The mountain-themed clubhouse features fine dining in one formal room overlooking the course and a more casual atmosphere in another separate room, also with a view of the 18th hole, which finishes along a lovely, trout-stocked lake. Perhaps best for a post-round sandwich is a comfy downstairs grill room.
Late this year, the club will open a new indoor-outdoor facility at the practice area, allowing golfers to work on their game regardless the weather conditions. Members will be able hit out from heated bays that can also be closed and used with simulators.
That’s right, High Meadows is one of the few N.C. mountain clubs to keep its golf course open year-round. The club also has the requisite fitness, pickle ball, tennis and swimming facilities. The dining and activity amenities are especially important considering Roaring Gap consists of a historic church, three golf clubs and large overgrown convenience store.
Founded in 1964, at about 3,000-foot elevation, High Meadows blends in nicely with its surrounding community, which includes many residents making it their primary residence.
In recent months, the club is emerging from its leafy shadows with a new vibe creating more activity at the club while maintaining the tranquility cherished by its members.
High Meadows aims to recruit new members to a club that was already surprising affordable with initiation and fees far below comparable upscale exclusive golf clubs in the Triad, Raleigh, Durham, Asheville, Wilmington and Charlotte. For members living 35 miles or more away, the costs are competitive with many semi-private clubs.
In 2024, High Meadows’ new vibe gained notice with the hiring as club professional of longtime Old Town Club staffer Tommy Gibson, the 2021 and 2022 Carolinas PGA Player of the Year.
Robin O’Neil came to the club after several years at Hilton Head Island-area clubs as general manager during the summer. O’Neil is overseeing creation of a new casual dining room and added food and beverage options, driving membership, marketing and facility maintenance and making property enhancements.
O’Neil credits superintendent Jordan Harris, a former assistant at Sedgefield and Primland for maintaining the course’s pristine conditions.
Gibson quickly upgraded the pro shop layout, added new merchandise and equipment and designed a new club logo.
Still, the course remains the showpiece, beginning with the fun, creative design by Cobb, whose portfolio includes Quail Hollow and the par-3 course at Augusta National.
From the back tees, High Meadows is a stiff test of 6,700 yards with several dramatic elevation rises and drops leading to a 72.1 rating and 130 slope. But with five other sets of tees — the front markers measuring just 3,970 yards — the course is playable for scratch players and high-handicappers alike. Only two dozen or so bunkers come into play, but serve strategic purposes.
The greens, a mix of bent and Poa annua that has flourished over the years, range in variety and size, and run true and fast with care taken to avoid impossible to stop downhill putts. The ample fairways, lined by dense trees are divided vertically in color with a “European” style mowing pattern. Several trees were recently trimmed to provide more shot options and sunlight to the fairways.
One of the most unique shots comes at the par-3 11th, which features a dramatic uphill shot to a large green, all but the pin hidden from view on the tee. From the 186-yard tips or 168-yard white tees, the shot can require a long iron then a moment of suspense on the drive to the putting surface.
At 12, a par-5 stretching to 495 yards, players are treated to a spectacular approach to a green with the property’s largest lake serving as the backdrop framed by woods on either side.
No hole may be as fun as the par-4 No. 13, where a good drive carries a plateau and cascades down a steep grade, leaving only a wedge to a small green protected by two bunkers with a pond on the right with U.S. 21 in the distance.
The finishing hole, a 497-yard par-5, features two small lakes, one to the right, coming into play mostly on the second shot; and another to the left, grabbing errant second shots as well as protecting the green on approaches. From the clubhouse deck atop a hill to the right of the green, members can watch players conclude their round in a beautiful setting.
Highlights on the front nine include the 427-yard par-4 sixth, where drives must be accurate to avoid fairway bunkers on both sides with the approach turning slightly left to a small green.
At No. 9, only 333 yards from the tips, big hitters can go for the green off the tee with a required fade, though two small lakes to the left of the green — directly straight from the tee — and dense woods to the right, make double-bogeys common for gamblers.
