Madolyn1203610

Folks... this is one of my very favorite courses in this part of NC. This time around, I was really disappointed, and the Oak Hollow staff can only blame themselves. Firstly, my partner and I arrived 45 minutes early, so I asked if we could get an early start. An emphatic ‘no’ was the reply, as they were fully booked. Ok, I get it. So as we waited for our tee time, a couple walked up to the started and told him that they weren’t on the list, because the manager just agreed to work them in (the started actually looked over at us sheepishly). After we did get on the course, there were 2 groups ahead of us - 1 group of three and 1 group of five. Both groups had players very new to golf, which is great. It’s not great that rangers and other course personnel kept riding by, and saw these folks hit numerous mulligans and go back and forth across the fairway retrieving errant shots. No one said word one to them about pace of play or courtesies. They also didn’t encourage either group to allow us to play through. Ultimately, the front nine took 3 hours, so we left and probably won’t return for quite a while. Needless to say, I’ll spend my money (and time) elsewhere for a while.

Nice staff. Better than average conditions. Needed drinking water/refill coolers on the course for a rather hot July day.

This is simply a lovely experience all the way around. The topper might be a starter/ranger who was charming and on his rounds took time to stop and briefly chat with us about the pace of play, conditions, and our general feelings about our round or if we needed anything. Excellent.

Course average (at best). Facilities DISGUSTING . Staff grumpy. Food sketchy. Carts barely able to keep up in them thar hills!
It was pretty awful. For the money, there are dozens of better choices in the area, so drive on to the next course.

Love the course, but please get the back 9 straightened out. It's always under construction or partially off limits.

I met some golf pals from Raleigh, and this course was in the perfect middle spot for travel. Good start.
The carts seemed newer, so that was cool. That was about as good as it got, unfortunately. We were placed behind a 5-some that didn't care about pace. There was a single player behind us, so we asked him to join us and fill out our 4-some. There was then a 3-some behind us that failed to see the problem with hitting into us. A course ranger came by at least 5 times, stopped to observe, but failed to do ANYTHING to speed up the 5 guys ahead of us OR slow down the 3 dudes behind us. Really annoying. Five + hours later, we rolled into the clubhouse. The course itself was the color of hay and pretty dead everywhere.
The food was cold and the sodas were warm.

I'm thinking that we won't go back.

First of all, let me just say that I could normally not afford to play this course, but when a GolfNow offering popped up for $30/person, I jumped at it, as it's usually $60-80/round. The guys who were paired with us were much the same, as they won a round as a gift at some event, but get this - they still had to pay $25 each to share a cart. Really, NCSU? REALLY?? That being said, let's get through the obvious - the course was incredibly beautiful and pristine. Some of the vistas were breathless. The natural and native areas throughout the course are superbly placed and absolutely increased my enjoyment. The onboard gps was perfect! What lessened my enjoyment was the lack of instructions from the staff (who knew we were first-timers) - we weren't advised where to buy snacks, where to go to grab our cart, that we were paired with anyone and to wait for them. Also disappointing was the unusual number of golfers on the course with boom-boxes blasting bad country music - seems like a course ranger would occasionally meander by to check on such things but none was ever around. Overall, it was really good. Better customer service would have made it just about perfect. I'm "one and done" mostly because I'll probably never find a deal like that again. There are great golf deals out there, but NCSU obviously likes to weed out us scrubs by regularly asking a king's ransom to play Lonnie Poole. BTW - I'm a big Wolfpack fan and broke 90 on my outing.

We were excited to play a different Raleigh-area course. The Neuse was lovely to look at and very challenging. My girlfriend and I were paired with two gentlemen who were delightful to spend a few hours with....but not FIVE hours. Seriously, course management was not a priority at The Neuse. Point in fact - there was a twosome behind us and a FIVESOME ahead of us. Who allows that?
Assure me I can finish 18 between 3 1/2 to 4 hours, and I'll be back.

This was my first try at Lochmere, and I thoroughly dug the course (literally in some cases). There is obvious thought put into the layout of each hole. The clubhouse folks are as nice and accommodating as they could be! I'll be back. Great value.

My golf partner and I have decided to spend more money, in order to enjoy a better flow of play on better courses. Four $38 around, RGA stood up to our challenge. When there was slow play ahead of us, staff members made it a point to ask us if this was bothering us. When it finally became too slow, we called the clubhouse and a ranger was out there immediately to move things along. That's worth the price of admission. I'll be back to play RGA soon and regularly.

I paid more than I usually do for a round of golf, in order to not have to wait in line, because the joint was over-booked and still not be finished within 5 hours. I wanted to find a place that not only was the course in great shape, but the course management/flow of play was important. I got exactly what I'd hoped for. We completed an excellent round in well under 4 hours. WELL DONE, Crooked Creek. We will be back!