Golf in NC

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North Carolina’s Newest Public Golf Opportunities

The name Lonnie Poole does not grab the same recognition in golf circles as, say, Arnold Palmer. But golfers in the Raleigh area of North Carolina are soon to be uttering Poole’s name, along with Palmer’s, with regularity.

Poole, the founder and chairman of Waste Industries and a graduate of North Carolina State University in the late 1950s, donated $3 million for the naming rights to his alma mater’s new golf course. Designed by Palmer, the Lonnie Poole Golf Course at N.C. State is tentatively scheduled to open for play in March 2009.

The layout on the university’s Centennial Campus will be the home course for the Wolfpack golf teams and also open for public play.

The current economic climate has proven difficult for the golf industry. It has led to a sharp reduction in new course construction. Golf-rich North Carolina – with its 400-plus courses – has not been an exception to that tough reality. The Lonnie Poole layout is one of the state’s few newly minted daily fee layouts on the immediate horizon.

Another Palmer design, Innsbrook Golf & Boat on the Albemarle Sound in Northeastern North Carolina, is among the other rare courses in recent months to schedule ribbon-cutting ceremonies. Opened in May 2008 in the town of Merry Hill, Innsbrook is currently open for public play, though long-term plans are geared to convert it into a private facility. The lengthy 7,463 yard course features five holes that skirt the Albemarle Sound.

A current trend in North Carolina – and across the country – is the renovation of existing courses. The Golf Club at Ballantyne in Charlotte reopened for play in September 2008 after four months of extensive updates to its layout. Course renovations included enlargement of several greens, expansion of all tee boxes and a total overhaul of its second hole. The club also constructed new putting, chipping and bunker practice areas, and renovated its existing driving range.

Another extensive course renovation made its debut in August 2008 in the North Carolina Mountains. Architect Kris Spence led a $9 million course overhaul at Lake Toxaway Country Club in Brevard. Guests at the club’s Greystone Inn are provided access privileges to the golf course.

But it is the Lonnie Poole Golf Course at N.C. State that is the flagship for new public offerings in North Carolina in 2009. Academic motivations were a prime driver for the new layout. The course will serve as an on-site research location for the university’s nationally recognized Turfgrass Management degree program. It will also house N.C. State’s Professional Golf Management program, an academic and playing discipline that prepares PGA-sanctioned golf professionals.

Richard Sykes, the golf coach at N.C. State for more than 35 years who has coached PGA Tour standouts including Carl Pettersson and Tim Clark on his Wolfpack teams, also finally gets a home layout to call his own. N.C. State was one of the few remaining large universities without its own campus course.

N.C. State graduates Brandon Johnson and Erik Larsen serve as lead architects with the Arnold Palmer Design Company. Both have played significant roles in the design of the par-71, 7,210-yard course.

There is an additional strong Wolfpack tie-in with the Lonnie Poole Golf Course. College basketballs fans likely recall North Carolina State Coach Jim Valvano’s “Cardiac Pack” capturing an unlikely national championship in 1983. Valvano lost his battle against cancer in 1993, but his inspirational story has provided hope to countless others fighting the disease.

The Lonnie Poole Golf Course will be the new home for Jimmy V Celebrity Golf Classic for Cancer Research. The event is set for August 2009. Valvano’s V Foundation, created prior to his death from bone cancer, has raised more than $80 million for cancer research.


Explore Golf.VisitNC.com for detailed information on courses, offers and more!

By Patrick Jones

added: January 16, 2009

updated: April 17, 2009