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Description

This public course, formerly known as Renaissance Park, is located off I-77 near the old Charlotte Coliseum site and across from the Renaissance Park athletic complex. It's also across the street from a great practice facility (Leatherman's). The layout features a wide variety of holes, several with elevated tees or greens. The back nine particularly feels like a mountain course as it winds through trees and streams. In the summer of 2021, the course was renovated with new Bermudagrass greens.

Notes

This course is now operated by Ratcliffe Golf Services (RGS), which offers a variety of affordable membership options that include 4 other courses -- Charles T. Myers and the beginner-friendly Revolution Park (9 hole), Sunset Hills and Paradise Valley (Par 3).

B-Man's Take

I use to play here quite a bit when it was known as Renaissance Park. I had a few bad experiences with the conditions and hole closures though and waited for good feedback before I returned. Ratcliffe has gotten it mostly back in shape. The course is fun to play with all the elevation changes, especially on the back nine. It helps to know the layout because there are quite a few blind shots. The course plays long and has several tough required carries over water/marsh. One cool hole is the 220yd par 3 13th, with its elevated tee some 150 ft above the green. The toughest holes are probably the closing 3 - a 3 shot par 5 with an approach over a pond, then a sloping dogleft par 4 with the green down in a valley, and a blind tee shot par 4 with an approach guarded by another pond. In general, the conditions here (fairways, rough, greens) are just okay, but the layout is unique.

Links

Most Recent Reviews

• 8/13/23 - Review by jsud

  "Worth playing"

  The more difficult one of the 2 major Ratcliffe courses in my opinion. Fairways and greens had no major issues. A couple of greens could have used a cut but other than that, no complaints. Hole one is by far the most difficult on course. Recommend getting some warm up or stretching in before hand. Lots of elevation changes throughout the course so either club up or club down appropriately. Some of the cart paths are in need of some love but other than that very happy with overall experience. Cooler was taken on course with no issue

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• 5/20/22 - Review by Jonny

  "Worth playing"

  The last time I played this course was in 1999. It was somewhat new at the time and built on re-claimed property from a land fill. I was most impressed by the driving range and practice area for chipping and putting. Nearly every course I have gone to in the CLT area is challenged to keep real grass growing on the driving range tees but not this place. Over all this course is about what you would expect for a Charlotte area public course. The tee boxes are in decent shape, the fairways are spotty with grass that needs water and scattered bare spots. The cart paths are a disaster. Broken concrete and MIA in many cases, at times you're on gravel. Sometimes a challenge getting on the correct cart path from green to tee, the paths are not well marked. What I found exceptional was the condition of the greens. Not a single bare spot on any of the 18 greens. all well cut and rolling true. There are quite a few blind shots, up hills and severe dog legs. There is a fair amount of water and you'll be punished for missing the fairways. If you're distracted by the sound of gunfire, you might want to avoid this course as there is a nearby gun range. I played 18 holes with a cart for $34.00 bucks with the Perks + plan. Even though they have a dining room and kitchen, it remains closed due to COVID.

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• 7/19/21 - Review by jlong8004

  "Worth playing"

  Considering the greens are brand new you really can not beat the quality of this course for the price! Course has serious potential. I love the layout. The front 9 is fairly straight forward, what you see is what you get. The back 9, however, is a different animal entirely! Course management is a must on the back 9! Overall it is a great value at $37. Staff has really worked hard to bring this course back from the dead.

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• 7/16/21 - Review by RML2134

  "Worth playing"

  Saw they re-seeded the fairways and greens so I figured I'd give it a shot. Still your typical run of the mill municipal course. Very serviceable. Greens were extremely slow, but I'm assuming that's because they haven't rolled them at all since they re-seeded. Hopefully they pick up speed as they grow in. Other than that, course was in really good shape. Had a foursome with a younger kid in front of us, but still kept pace. Wouldn't mind going here again to get some work in.

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• 10/22/20 - Review by MGOBLUE

  "Average"

  My neighbor and I were the first to tee off at 7:40 and were finished by 11 so pace of play was not an issue as it was in my last two reviews. This was one of the first courses I played when I first moved here 25 years ago and it was our home course when we played in the Charlotte Golf League in 2000? I love the layout , the links style front and the parkland style back are so different. My only complaint was the condition of the greens. They were being mowed ahead of us and were still incredibly slow and many had bare spots, #13 and 15 were in the worst shape. I thought I had read on this website that this course was going to be shut down to be re-routed to make maintenance easier. Not sure if this is still going to happen but I hope they go with new greens too, Bermuda instead of Bent .

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Updates From the Forum

• 07/01/21 - B-Man posted "Harry Jones Re-Opening with new Bermuda greens"

  The Harry Jones course (formerly Renaissance Park) re-opens this Friday, July 2nd with their brand new Bermuda grass greens. Tee times are available ranging from $37 to $45 this weekend. If anyone checks it out, please post a review and update the group on conditions. Here's the email announcement:
  
  Harry Jones Golf Course Re-Opens Friday July 2nd
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• 04/15/21 - B-Man posted "3 Courses To Be Renovated This Year"

  Just got some very interesting and exciting news... three Charlotte-area courses will be getting new Bermuda greens this year:
  
  Harry L. Jones Sr. Course (formerly Renaissance Park)
  Tradition Golf Club
  Birkdale Golf Club
  
  Exact timing is not set yet but I should be able to confirm dates within a week or two. These will likely be summer to early Fall projects, similar to the renovation of The Divide last year.
  
  The Harry Jones renovation is one step in a long-range master plan that sounds amazing. I can't share details just yet but what I've heard so far sounds really cool!
  
  Stay tuned!
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• 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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• 09/03/14 - B-Man posted "Renaissance Park review - response from the course"

  I have a good relationship with Ratcliffe Golf -- they run Renaissance Park, Charles T Myers and Revolution Park, among other courses around town. Jason Rockhold from Ratcliffe responded to the recent poor review posted on this site. The full text is below:
  
  Dear Slowmofo,
  
  Thank you for your comments. We take our guest’s opinions very seriously and appreciate your candor in sharing any negative experiences you had. It is our goal to utilize your comments to make our golf course a better experience to all of our golfers that play with us.
  
  I would like to apologize for your poor experience with our fairways and a few of the greens at Renaissance Park. We are in the middle of some great projects that foc! us on equal coverage of water and leveling out some areas to make them more playable.
  
  Fairways:
  I have included a couple of photos (Photo 1, Photo 2) of the sodding process that has started Tuesday September 2, 2014 that is covering the areas of dirt to level out some areas that have compacted. We are working with the county to continue to make Renaissance Park Golf Course a great experience for everyone who plays it. In addition, we have purchased some new equipment to keep the fairway and rough length consistent and playable. These new machines help the grass grow as it adapts to the consistent length of cut.
  
  Greens:
  In addition to the resodding, we have recently installed a new water pump house to get better water coverage on t! he course. We will be aerifying our greens next week to get th! e ultimate use of this new tool. With the new pump house, we will get a stronger and faster recovery of our bent greens. As you know, bent grass greens typically experience problems of heat stress and wear during the summer. The desired growing conditions for bent grass are soil temperatures between 50-65 degrees and air temperatures of 60-75 degrees. As soil temperatures and air temperatures continue to rise into early fall, there is difficulty keeping these greens at optimal condition.
  
  Knowing this, we offer bounce back coupons for $20 off your next round of golf during this time period.
  
  We expect after aerification, a short healing period, and cooler temperatures to see great results from our end of summer projects.
  
  Please come back in a few weeks as my guest, there is no doubt you will see the positive results from our labors.
  
  Have a great day!
  
  Jason Rockhold, MBA, PGA
  Director of Marketing/PGA Instructor
  Ratcliffe Golf Services, Inc.
  rockholdpro@aol.com
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• 05/22/12 - weedwhacker3 replied to "Renaissance Park"

  New here but I have played it twice in a week. Not bad. I would descibe green speed as medium. Can be aggresive without flying past the whole but not really slow. Roll pretty true. Greens a little hard so not going to be fixing very many ball marks. As for the course it's in okay condition but I am not terribly picky. Called last Sunday morning at 730 A.M. and got a 4 out at 9 A.M. because it was wide open. Could have teed off earlier so apparently not very busy.
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