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Description

This residential course near Huntersville lives up to the Creek in its name, with water hazards coming into play on 10 holes. Highland Creek was designed by Clifton, Ezell, and Clifton with extra care to preserve the natural beauty of the area. The neighboring community provides an upscale backdrop set well back to offer plenty of open space. The course remains one of the few public courses to feature Bentgrass greens.

Notes

Highland Creek came under new management in 2014 with Pinnacle Golf Properties and memberships & discounts can now be shared across its former sister courses in the old Carolina Trail -- The Divide, The Tradition, Birkdale, Skybrook, Tega Cay and Waterford.

B-Man's Take

I used to play this course quite a bit with a friend who lived in the neighborhood. The Carolina Trail demise took a serious toll on the course conditions over the last decade. At times (particularly 2016-2018), the course was virtually unplayable. Recently, the news has been better and although the Bentgrass greens can still suffer in the summer heat, the course has been kept in much better shape year round. In my golfing career, some of my toughest rounds have been played here. Easy to lose golf balls in the namesake creek, which runs along seemingly every hole. You must be accurate off the tee and with approach shots to stay out of trouble here. Otherwise, you're in for a long round. My favorite hole is #18, the signature 487yd par 5 finishing hole that is reachable in two provided you carry the water all along the right side with 2 shots. Several hell-holes for me on this course, but in particular the 419yd par 4 4th hole is a brutal dogleg left because of a narrow target for your approach, guarded by trees and bunkers. The 560yd par 5 12th is also a brute, with two tough-to-hit fairways and an approach over water.

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Most Recent Reviews

• 9/10/21 - Review by MGOBLUE

  "Average"

  Love this layout and we had beautiful weather for early September. My only issue was that the greens had recently be aerated and were incredibly bumpy as expected. No where on their website was this mentioned when my buddy booked our last minute tee time. If this had been known we would have gone somewhere else. I'll be back after the greens heal.

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• 6/14/21 - Review by BRR

  "Worth playing"

  Greens were still recovering from aeration and were a little slow. Course was in good shape otherwise. This course requires accurate shot making. Anything offline or off-distance is penalized. Scrambling skills are necessary. I enjoyed the course. I'll definitely be back.

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• 4/30/21 - Review by MGOBLUE

  "Great course"

  First time playing here in several years. The greens were good, still some signs of recent aeration, but putted pretty smooth. Tee boxes, bunkers and fairways were in good shape. I love the layout of this course, it was one of, if not my favorite Charlotte area course until it fell on hard times. Hope the bent grass greens can hold up to summer weather here in the Carolinas. Not sure why they didn't go to Bermuda greens like everyone else seems to be.

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• 9/21/20 - Review by Jonny

  "Average"

  I played this course on a Monday in September, it was sunny and about 70 degrees but a very strong & gusty wind, maybe 20 to 25 mph. I had never played this course before so that certainly impacted conditions of play and my experience overall. I would say, the front nine on this course is much better than the back nine. The back has many holes with blind shots, extreme dog legs, many berms with rolling hills and fairway and green side bunkers that are not easily visible and can make it difficult playing the first time. In general the course is OK. The tee boxes and fairways are good. There are some narrow fairways on many holes where you are heavily penalized and risk going into the high rough on fairway lined creeks. The greens were mixed, OK on some holes but on most of them pock marked with un-repaired ball marks. The pace of play was good on a Monday afternoon, I was playing solo and had a twosome in front of me and a solo in back of me. I was able to play 18 holes in about 3 hours. The toughest hole is the Par 5, 18th that plays 460 yards but you have water at about the 150 yard mark which is a challenge. The Staff is nice, the gas carts were clean and in good order. Visually, it's nice with ponds, creeks and branches running throughout. The cart paths wind through the housing area, I crossed under 3 tunnels where the road goes over. When you come off the 17th green and drive the cart path you come to a large lake and the road forks. There is no sign. There was a nice man walking his dog and he said "the 18th tee is that way'. Otherwise I would have had no idea I needed to go left. It's a decent value overall I would say. I got the GolfNow discount at $38 bucks. It's about 45 minutes from my house in Fort Mill, SC so it wasn't really an exceptional enough experience to make me feel as though I would want to play it again as there are too many better choices that are much closer to where I live.

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• 7/22/20 - Review by B-Man

  "Worth playing"

  Played this in a scramble tournament so not a regulation round. The Bentgrass greens are still doing okay. Just a crap ton of unfixed ballmarks on every hole. The greens are very soft and average speed. The downhillers will roll out a bit but you'll need to take a good whack at the uphill ones. Conditions around the rest of the course were fine, though many bunkers have not been touched by the maintenance crew. This seems to be a trend around some of the courses here lately. Without the rakes, courses should be giving the bunkers some love every day. All in all, this course is in about the best shape it's been in the past few years, but it still ranks in the lower half of my Charlotte rankings due to the conditions / $$$ value combo.

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Updates From the Forum

• 05/03/23 - B-Man posted "The 10 Best Golf Courses in the Lake Norman Area"

  I wrote this article for The Best of Lake Norman Podcast and will be on the show later this month to talk about it. I rank the 10 best golf courses in the Lake Norman, public and private. This article serves as a preview to my Top 10 list for Axios Charlotte of the Top 10 Public Golf Courses in the Charlotte area, which is coming out later this month. Spoiler Alert: 3 of the courses on the Lake Norman list also make the Charlotte Top 10 list. Here's the article: 10 Best Lake Norman Golf Courses (Public and Private)
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• 03/23/22 - B-Man replied to "Aerification Dates - 2022"

  Highland Creek: 3/28-3/29
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• 09/28/18 - B-Man posted "Highland Creek closing next week"

  Highland Creek sent a letter to its members this week that it is closing October 1st in an attempt to fix the greens. However, the letter did not say for certain whether the course will re-open. It simply said, "We will monitor progress and make a determination later in the fall whether reopening the course is a viable option."
  
  I'm not optimistic. Courses usually have a definitive plan to replace their greens (typically with Bermuda) when they reach this age and condition. HC's letter does not say they have the funding or support to replace the greens. So this sure sounds like the end of the line for what was once one of the more prestigious public tracks in Charlotte, in my opinion.
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• 05/05/18 - Rob glaz replied to "Highland Creek"

  So highland creek is still crap? I got the entercom golf pass hoping those courses would be in better shape after the managment change
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• 04/30/18 - CHRISTOPHER BUHSE replied to "Highland Creek"

  Played there on 4/29/18 and it was in such bad shape. Even if the green fees were free, it would not be worth it. It's a shame as its a great layout. Conditions are horrible and don't see them improving without a lot of time and money.
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