aimtobreak80’s Review of Emerald Lake Golf Club on 11/2/16

Emerald Lake Golf Club

Date: 11/2/16 Wed Morning
Overall Rating:

"Worth playing"
Conditions: Good - normal wear/tear
Pace: 3 1/2 Hours
Cost: $29
Username: aimtobreak80
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Both good news and bad news. The good news is that the new pro shop is open and operating, and the new clubhouse (currently under construction and scheduled to be completed in one month) shows promise of being quite impressive when finished. The physical layout of the structures is serviceable and the driving range extends from the parking lot to them with dramatic effect. The practice green, driving range, fairways, and greens were all in good condition and very “green”. In my personal opinion, Emerald Lake could soon become one of the top courses in the Charlotte area if they continue on their current track. Now, the bad news. The grounds superintendent evidently is taking the declaration of a drought to heart, to the point of over-watering the course. This was apparent throughout the entire course, but particularly on the back side of the No.1 green and the rough along the fairway and cart path leading uphill to the No. 9 green. With respect to the former, there was no immediate area for relief from casual water, and while “playing it where it lies” I suffered the expected result of soggy ground and my chip didn’t even make the putting surface. On number 9, neither my playing partner nor I was able to get our approach shot anywhere close to the pin because of the “fat” shot induced by the soggy ground. The other bad news is more of a personal issue where, once again, a course does not have a tee base in the middle range of my recommended Play-It-Forward yardage – the red tees are at the low end, and the white tees are at the high end. I chose to play from the latter, and felt further penalized when I discovered that five out of the eighteen tee boxes had the white and blue tee markers exactly coincident with one another. At least the weather and playing companions were pleasant. Otherwise, it would have been a very poor golfing experience.