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Description

Located off Lawyer's Road in the Matthews / Indian Trail area, this course lives up to the 'lake' in its name, with water coming into play on many holes, including the signature par 5 14th hole -- with 2 shots over the 12-acre lake. It is a semi-private course and one of the few Charlotte area public courses with Crenshaw bent grass greens.

Notes

Memberships are available. They also have season passes where you can buy a bundle of weekend or weekday rounds. If you plan to regularly play here, they are a good deal, giving you $10 off the typical rack rate. The original clubhouse burned down on the 4th of July back in 2012 -- I was one of the last people to leave the clubhouse that day when I still had my membership. A new one was finished in 2016 and now includes an event facility that can host weddings and banquets. The Lakeview Grille looks over the 14th tee and 18th green and has shaded outdoor seating.

B-Man's Take

This course was once my home course, back in 2011-2012, and for over two decades I lived only about 5 minutes away. I still get out to play here frequently with friends who are members and I know the nuances of this course better than almost any other in the Charlotte area. Between the tree-lined tight fairways on some holes, the water hazards / sand bunkers on others, and the slick, sloped, undulating greens, your swing needs to be under control to keep the ball in play and your score down. I started to have better success here in recent years, once I learned to stay away from trouble and not hit driver on every par 4. Some holes can still get me, though, including #12, a very long, narrow par 4, and #9, another long par 4 with an approach over a creek, uphill to the toughest green on the course. My favorite holes are the exciting par 5's #14 and #18 with water in play for more than one shot. In the summer of 2020, the course hired a new superintendent (Mike Stell formerly the asst. super at Quail Hollow Club) and rededicated itself to keeping the Crenshaw bent grass greens in great shape year round. They have done a great job bringing Emerald Lake back to the upper echelon of public courses in Charlotte and have added great event hosting capabilities. One final note: the course uses dynamic pricing so the rack rates are fluid based on demand. Your price may vary from round to round.

Links

Most Recent Reviews

• 6/30/26 - Review by GinMillDJ

  "Worth playing"

  Greens - 6 out of 10 (Greens were very soft and about 40% of them had many ball marks on the green that golfers did not repair. Fairways - 9-10. Considering the heat and dry conditions. Really good. Bunkers - 8-10 Tee Boxes - 6-10. Serviceable. Pace of Play -Very good. Ranger kept a good eye on pace.

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• 6/13/26 - Review by JBradshaw49

  "Average"

  I haven’t played here in a while. I think the price is steep for the conditions. I was a little disappointed in the front nine. There were multiple greens in poor condition, including three that were under repair. The back nine was in better shape. The guys in the club house were cool, the cart girl handed out some free ice pops which was clutch. I would play again.

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• 5/8/26 - Review by Twitch

  "Worth playing"

  Overall the course is in good condition. First time playing there - there are definitely a few site lines you will need to get familiar with which will help you score. My main criticism is the lack of par 3 variety - I believe I hit the same club on at least 3 (possibly all 4) of the par 3 holes. They are doing a lot of tree removal on the course which will provide some real benefits once complete.

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• 4/13/26 - Review by Dean

  "Average"

  I've always enjoyed this course, but the conditions are not great right now. Greens are very firm (too firm) and full of poa annua, so while the speed is ok, they're very bumpy. Fairways are dry and hard and not much rough - goes from fairway to dirt on most holes. Not terrible, but far from the best around. I'll give it another chance later in the year.

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• 4/6/26 - Review by GinMillDJ

  "Great course"

  Course is coming in nicely. Fairways were a 9/10. Greens 8/10. One small negative. All the par 3’s have temporary hitting mats and they’re all playing forward. But other than that it’s great bang for your buck.

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Updates From the Forum

• 03/23/22 - B-Man replied to "Aerification Dates - 2022"

  Emerald Lake: 4/19 Emerald Lake uses DryJect aeration (instead of core) for their Bentgrass greens. Here's a primer on what that means.
  View this thread

• 03/11/21 - B-Man posted "Emerald Lake and the new 'dynamic pricing' courses are using"

  This article went out on Golf Wire today and describes how Emerald Lake uses "dynamic pricing" with their online tee time rates. Interesting read to understand how this works. The golf industry is becoming more like airlines with fare prices.
  
  Demand-based pricing and focusing on their most profitable hours drives growth
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• 06/15/20 - B-Man posted "Emerald Lake drops GolfNow"

  Saw this email come in last week and I've heard many folks complain about TeeOff getting bought by GolfNow:
  
  
  "After a long relationship with GolfNow, we have decided to part ways. Emerald Lake Golf Club will no longer have tee times available on any third party website. Some of you may have even noticed that GolfNow.com is showing that our course is closed, which is inaccurate. We are open for play!
  
  The lowest rates available (including our Daily Deals) can now be found exclusively on our website"
  
  
  Courses are finding that they can manage their own tee sheets now. I wonder if that's recency bias though -- with the heightened play due to golf being allowed during the pandemic.
  I still see a need for tee time aggregators, especially for last minute golfers like myself. When you don't care where or how much but just need to quickly see which courses have openings, these aggregators are very helpful. When you have to go to each course's website to check for openings, it might take you 10 minutes to find one.
  View this thread

• 07/22/16 - BetterThanMost posted "Pace of Play at Emerald Lake"

  Got this email from Emerald Lake today:
  
  "To further enhance your experience while playing Emerald Lake Golf Club, we are now launching Operation P.O.P. (Pace Of Play). With this new program, we are committed to getting you around our golf course as quickly as possible. We understand that people do not have 5 hours to spend on a golf course nowadays, so Emerald Lake has paired up with the Carolina Golf Association to institute a 4 hour and 12 minute pace of play. Along with this new operation, we have also added the following measures to help "speed up play":
  -We are cutting the rough half an inch to make it easier to find your ball.
  -We are bringing food out more frequently to the course to cut down on your turn time.
  -We hav! e hired rangers at problem areas to help spot errant golf shots."
  
  I think this is great and much needed at Emerald Lake. My last several rounds there have been excruciatingly long.
  View this thread

• 09/29/14 - Nancy & Fred posted "Renaissance & Emerald Lake & Tega Cay"

  Played Renaissance 9/28 and the greens are in terrible shape. Many dead spots and various lengths of grass on the greens. It's impossible to putt and feel that anything you're doing is going to make a difference as there is too much interference with the state of the greens for any putt to be accurate. The fairways were fine. The bunkers were actually very nicely kept and well-raked. I felt like someone there felt so bad about the greens being terrible that they thought they would at least make the bunkers playable.
  Emerald Lake, which we played two weeks ago had bad greens as well. Almost as bad as Renaissance. Lots of crab grass on them and the crab grass didn't get mown down with the other grass so many putts you're putting through pieces of crab grass sticking up. Plus, lots of ! dead spots. The back 9 was better than the front, but not great.
  It's a shame. These both used to be decent courses (Emerald Lake used to be really nice). It's been one of the rainiest and cooler summers in the 15 years I've lived here. If you can't keep your greens up this summer, when will you be able too? Plus, they were both way too expensive for what you get - even on tee off or golf now - I think we paid $70 bucks for 2 people for Emerald Lake and $50 for Renaissance. If we had just paid at the club house we would have given up and asked for our money back. Not sure how that works on the discount web-sites. They need to charge a lot less if their courses are in such bad shape.
  Tega Cay was really nice. Worth any extra money.
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