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3.7
265 Reviews (265)
5 Stars
53
4 Stars
107
3 Stars
59
2 Stars
25
1 Stars
21
Conditions
3.4
Value
3.8
Layout
4.3
Friendliness
4.5
Pace
4.3
Amenities
3.9
77.3%
Recommend this course
196 out of 265 reviews
Read Reviews
Average Rating
Avg Rating
4.3
53 Reviews (53)
5 Stars
21
4 Stars
27
3 Stars
5
2 Stars
0
1 Stars
0
Conditions
4.1
Value
4.3
Layout
4.5
Pace
4.5
Amenities
4.1
StaffFriendliness
4.7
96.2%
Recommend this course
51 out of 53 reviews
Read Reviews
Average Rating
Avg Rating
4.0
78 Reviews (78)
5 Stars
24
4 Stars
37
3 Stars
9
2 Stars
6
1 Stars
2
Conditions
3.7
Value
4.0
Layout
4.4
Pace
4.4
Amenities
4.0
StaffFriendliness
4.6
85.9%
Recommend this course
67 out of 78 reviews
Read Reviews

About

Holes 18
Type Public
Par 72
Length 7003 yards
Slope 132
Rating 74.0
Book a Tee Time at
Lions Paw
Powered by GolfNow.com

Course Details

Year Built 1990
Fairways Bermuda Grass
Greens MiniVerde Grass
Golf Season Year round
Architect Willard Byrd (1990) Nai Chung Chang (1990)

Rentals/Services

Carts Yes
Clubs Yes

Practice/Instruction

Driving Range Yes
Bunker Yes
Golf School Academy Yes
Teaching Pro Yes
Putting Green Yes

Policies

Credit Cards Accepted VISA, MasterCard, Amex, Discover Welcomed
Metal Spikes Allowed No

Food & Beverage

Bar, Grill, Restaurant

Accolades

  • Golf Advisor: Top 25 Most Improved U.S. Golf Courses (2021 #16)

Reviews

3.7
265 Reviews (265)
Advanced Filters
Overall Rating
Recommended
Handicap
Age
Type of Golfer
Gender
Played On
Reviews 26
3.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Im positive you know what you doing there but keep greens in condition that you can put on them at least.

Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Layout Good
Friendliness Good
Pace Average
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 21
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Staff very frienfly, except for one!

Played the course esrly afternoon and the starter/bag guy, Joe was funny and very Nice. Very Nice course, good conditions. I forgot me cell phone and should up to retrieve it. It had not been found. Inside the lady at the pto shop was helpfull taking my information but posssibly the pro or director of golf showed up and gave me a speech on how to not do this again, in a very condescinding way. Warned me to not check in the carts! I guess a 56 yeard old retired police officer looked like à criminal. Not impressed.on the very positive note, going outside one of the starter, an african american, sorry I did not see his name, took the time to call my cell on 2 occasions and found it. Extraordinary service!! He should get is bosses job, or at least SHOW him how to treat People with respect.

Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 6
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Better than was expecting

Read the greens were terrible, not so. Very fast and playable. Bunkers need a little TLC. Overall a fun layout. Will play again

Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Good
Friendliness Good
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 6
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Good
Friendliness Good
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 1
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
3.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played

Back after a few years…

Was back after a few years following a previous positive experience. Pace was terribly slow and course was pretty dried-up with no maintenance of the sand traps.

Conditions Fair
Value Average
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Poor
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 4
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 5
Handicap 10-14
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Perfect weather
Used cart
Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Good
Difficulty Moderate
Played On
Reviews 5
Handicap 10-14
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Perfect weather
Used cart
Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Difficulty Moderate
Played On
Reviews 6
Handicap 5-9
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Perfect weather
Used cart

very nice course

great views, course condition was great, staff was exceptional

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Fairly Easy
Played On
Reviews 9
I Recommend This Course
3.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Conditions Fair
Value Average
Layout Good
Friendliness Good
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 1
Handicap 5-9
Skill Advanced
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Previously Played
Perfect weather

Lions Paw is back

I played with my son and his best friend and was surprised how nice the conditions were. Tees and fairways were very good and the greens were in very good shape. Well worth the money and a great and challenging golf course.

Difficulty Extremely Challenging
Default User Avatar
Commented on 08/16/2022

Thank you very much for the nice Four Star review of Lion's Paw. We truly appreciate your patronage and we hope you will come visit us again soon.

Played On
Reviews 6
Handicap 15-19
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a month
I Recommend This Course
3.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Perfect weather
Used cart

Lions Paw Needs a Drink

Enjoyed playing Lion's Paw of the Big Cats. It was very firm, both the greens and the fairways. They could each use some softening up. It was very difficult to assess yardage as there were only markers embedded in the fairways, and it seemed like not on every hole. Thanks to an extra discount from GolfPAss it was a very good value.

Conditions Average
Value Excellent
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Difficulty Moderate
Played On
Reviews 3
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Customer service is impeccable

From arriving at Lions Paw and being greeted by the attendants (all were amazing!) to speaking with the starter who didn’t talk down to you to stopping for water before our round to stopping for a sandwich at the turn to getting a cold one afterwards (btw Chrissy is wonderful).. this is a great place to golf.

Holes are well maintained. Some high grass areas probably due to it being so wet. This is now our favorite place to golf in The Sunset/Ocean Isle area - hands down!

Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Default User Avatar
Commented on 08/11/2022

Thank you very much for the awesome Five Star review of Lion's Paw. We are so happy you enjoyed your visit. We have been working diligently to provide our guests with a fun and memorable golfing experience and we certainly appreciate the feedback. Be sure to visit the other Big Cats course as well!

Thanks again!

Played On
Reviews 4
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
3.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Needs Work

Greens were in so, so shape. Sand traps were horrible. No sand and hard packed. Several had standing water. You could tell they had no work done too then for a while.

Conditions Average
Value Fair
Layout Good
Friendliness Fair
Pace Good
Played On
Reviews 4
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser

Well worth the money!

From the outset we had an excellent outing. The staff were excellent and very understanding when we had a player not show for our reservation. We were among the first few groups out and the pace was great. Things slowed down briefly but the course ranger made a correction and it picked back up.
The only complaint of the day was that the sand traps were so dry and hard they weren’t playable. In years passed we’ve spent twice this to play the Big Cat courses, for the money this exceeded expectation.

Conditions Average
Value Excellent
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Default User Avatar
Commented on 07/28/2022

Thank you very much for the nice Four Star review of Lion's Paw. We truly appreciate your patronage and feedback. We are happy to hear you enjoyed your round! The heavy rains of the past couple of weeks definitely impacted the sand traps during your visit, but we are hard at work getting them back to normal and they should be in very good condition going forward. Thanks again and we hope you will come visit us again soon.

Played On
Reviews 13
3.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played

We had a 4 some in front of us ( we were a 2 some ) that were playing screwy games the entire time and would not allow us to go around them. Very poor management that doesn’t send starters out to check on the pace of play

Conditions Average
Value Average
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Poor
Amenities Excellent
Default User Avatar
Commented on 07/26/2022

Thank you for your feedback on your recent round at Lion's Paw. We do have a course marshal on duty for each day at all of the Big Cats courses (Barring any unforeseen circumstances) and I did confirm that we definitely did have a marshal on duty on the day you played, but it sounds like he did not do a very good job of communicating with your group. Based on our tee sheet, we were very busy that day and it's likely there was no open space beyond the group in front of you, but, even if so, that certainly should have been communicated to your group. We apologize it took longer than you expected to play, but this can sometimes be the case, especially on a busy day with mostly foursomes on the course. I have passed your feedback along to our golf director and asked that he review with all course marshals the importance of maintaining good communication with our guests, especially on a very busy day. Thank you and again, we apologize for the inconvenience.

Played On
Reviews 3
2.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Perfect weather
Used cart

Super Slow Greens

Greens needed to be mowed or rolled. Very slow compared to surrounding courses.

Conditions Fair
Value Average
Layout Average
Friendliness Good
Pace Excellent
Amenities Average
Difficulty Moderate
Default User Avatar
Commented on 07/21/2022

Thank you for taking the time to review your recent visit to Lion's Paw. We apologize you did not catch us at our very best. The heavy rains of the past couple of weeks have hampered some of our maintenance efforts. (Summer Rates reflect this fact) But we are committed to taking whatever steps possible to offer our guests a fun and memorable golf experience. We hope you will visit us again soon and see our continued progress.

Played On
Reviews 1
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
3.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played

Good value

When searching for a tee time in the area most courses were $75 to $100 for an am tee time. While the course isn’t in as good shape as it was several years ago it’s still a quality layout. Greens were in good shape as well.

Conditions Average
Value Good
Layout Good
Friendliness Good
Pace Good
Amenities Fair
Played On
Reviews 1
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Default User Avatar
Commented on 06/24/2022

Thank you very much for the nice Four Star review of Lion's Paw. Please be sure to check out the other three Big Cats courses as well..

Played On
Reviews 130
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
Top 500 Contributor
First Time Playing
Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Good
Friendliness Good
Pace Good
Default User Avatar
Commented on 05/16/2022

Thank you very much for the nice Four Star review. We really appreciate it and we hope you will visit us again soon.

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