Rates:

Greens Turf Type:

Practice Area:

Description

Located in Mint Hill off Hwy 218, this semi-private club is a Tom Jackson design and offers a very challenging layout with strategically placed bunkers, several ponds, and Crenshaw Bent Grass greens.

Notes

Course offers membership deals and is a great place for a golf outing.

B-Man's Take

This used to be one of my favorite courses in the area and I have played it a ton over the years. The Bentgrass greens have started to age and so they tend to suffer a bit during our hot summers here, especially with lazy golfers not fixing ball marks. The rack rates are some of the highest in Charlotte making the course a very low value option compared to other courses. It does have some of the nicest white sand bunkers around town. This course will also test your range, as you'll likely need every club in the bag. There are many holes where you'll want to use something other than driver off the tee. My favorite holes: the two par 5's that bookend the round -- the 517yd birdie-able first hole and the likewise birdie-able 528yd finishing hole. Hell-holes: too many to list, but look out for the two-tiered green on the par 3 fourth and the trouble-laden par 4 10th hole. I suggest finding a member and playing under the guest rate, since this is otherwise a pricey round of golf.

Links

Most Recent Reviews

• 9/30/23 - Review by Rico80

  "Never going back"

  Great fairways but the greens here are absolute ridiculous, they should not charge anywhere near $79 bucks as this place isn’t worth it. Terrible terrible greens, some are near unplayable. I will never play here again and grew up in the area playing this course. I will also recommend to everyone I know who golfs to avoid here. They think because they are in a decent neighborhood they can charge these prices. Don’t play here, save your money!

  Read The Review

• 8/13/23 - Review by cswan14

  "Below average"

  Returned to Olde Sycamore on 8/13/23, had last been out here in early June. The good: -Was able to get a 7:57 tee time 3 days out. Seems like this is the only course you can do that in Charlotte, probably because they're at a higher price point than everyone else. -Most of the conditions were great, tee boxes/fairways/bunkers were all in great condition. -Got through 18 in a hair under 4 hours which is awesome. -Staff were all friendly, cart guys even dropped a cart behind my car while I went inside to check in. The bad: -The greens are in horrible shape. It looks like no one has repaired a ball mark in the 2 months since I last played here. They were also really soft so every shot that hit the green left a large mark which probably contributes to the poor conditions. -The $100 weekend cost is too high for the conditions of the greens. All in all, this course was always on my list if I was scrambling for a morning tee time on the weekend and everything else was booked. Unfortunately the greens are in such bad shape I'll pass until they get them repaired.

  Read The Review

• 4/12/23 - Review by B-Man

  "Worth playing"

  Been awhile since I've gotten back out here. I used to play this course frequently about 15 years ago or so, but not so much anymore. Olde Sycamore is one of the last holdouts among public courses in Charlotte with Bentgrass greens (Stonebridge, Emerald Lake, Highland Creek, Carolina Lakes are among the others). As greens fees have gone up the past few years, it's been more difficult for Bentgrass courses to compete with the nicer Bermuda ones (e.g. Rocky River, Skybrook, Mooresville, Verdict Ridge, Warrior, etc, etc). So while I would say Olde Sycamore is in very good shape for Olde Sycamore, it is just middle of the pack for your public golfing dollar. In fact, it's pricey for what you get in comparison to the market. It was $55 for a weekday morning and I've heard from folks that it can push $80-$90 on weekends. That's outrageous, if true. Back to the conditions, the greens were fine. There were several greens with bare dirt spots but most were near the edges and holes were cut to keep them out of play (No. 11 was the worst example). No ball mark issues for now and the greens were lush. The speed was decent. Not really fast or slow. Fairways and tees and bunkers were fine. There was some work being done to clear trees and other brush (Hole No. 5) in some places, but we didn't encounter any issues. Layout-wise, this track is unique. Tons of doglegs and layup tee shots. If you are a long hitter, you don't have to hit driver literally all day, but definitely shouldn't on Nos. 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, and 15. That's 2/3 of the par 4's and 5's! I remember I used to like that when I didn't hit driver very well. Now though, the course doesn't play to my strengths as much. The course has a mix of everything with the doglegs, elevation changes, ponds and fountains, creeks and rocks. It plays *very* different from the Gold to the Blue to the White tees. As for the tough holes... No. 3 is a tricky target tee shot with OB right and trees left and then a valley in the fairway where you want to land a good drive. That leaves you with an uphill approach to well bunkered green. No. 15 is similar on the back nine. Downhill par 4 with the fairway running into a hazard, then a long-ish uphill approach to a big green with bunkers all around. The par 5's are all gettable though and the par 3's are fairly benign. Generally speaking, if you are swinging well you will get rewarded here. Overall, this is a fun course to play and it brings back memories for me. So I will return once or twice a year. Now's a good time to play it but don't pay $70+!

  Read The Review

• 3/31/23 - Review by Hunter

  "Average"

  Course was in OK shape given the amount of rain we have gotten. Several areas with drainage/moisture problems. A few tee boxes were aerated and sanded. Bunkers were solid and greens were in better shape than typical at this course and rolled decent.

  Read The Review

• 9/16/22 - Review by KirklandSpecial

  "Average"

  Tee boxes - above average Fairways - excellent Greens - below average Played the course more times than I can count in the last 5 years. The greens were the best the crew can make them, but more than half of them have dead spots. They put the flags in the best spots, but there was no avoiding the dead spots. Tough for bent grass greens to survive the summers down here. I hope they change to hybrid Bermuda like much of the area has I’ve the years.

  Read The Review

Updates From the Forum

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

  Olde Sycamore: 3/14-3/15 and 8/15-8/16
  View this thread

• 07/04/11 - roy replied to "Olde Sycamore"

  I had the honor of playing with THE B Man today at Olde Sycamore. Overall the course was in good shape, fairways rolling and the greens were true throughout the round.
  View this thread

• 03/04/11 - Wade replied to "Olde Sycamore"

  I played Olde Sycamore last year and will play that again. I might drive over to Pinehurst and play a few rounds there. Any reccomendations? I am looking at Hyland Hills, Tallamore, Southern Pines. I am trying to stay within a budget of $50 per course.
  View this thread

• 02/12/11 - DrSchteeve posted "Range Balls"

  So here was my experience at Olde Sycamore yesterday.
  
  Heading out to the range, about to use the token I bought for a bucket, I noticed there were quite a few balls on the range already. I pocketed the token, headed to the range, and began hitting balls. Called to pick up my partner who had just checked in, I got in my cart, having left several clubs leaning against the club rack in front of the balls I was hitting. When I returned, a course employee was on the range, buckets in hand, picking up all the balls on the range. He asked me if I “paid for those balls” to which I answered, “they were here when I came out”, at which he picks up the balls and puts them in a bucket and walks off.
  
  I have played golf for over 20 years, on every ! course from exclusive club to downtrodden muni, and I have never seen this, and never had this type of confrontational event on a range. Usually, course employees are giving out free buckets if they happen to cross a golfer while they have some balls in hand. I have played at Harbour Town in Hilton Head, and when asked what to do with the bag of balls not used (because there were plenty of balls on the range to hit), have been told “Take them, they’re yours”.
  
  I understand that there is an alternative view - that I was "stealing" balls by hitting balls that I hadn't paid for (even though somebody did). I just haven't seen this in over 20 years of playing golf. Not likely I'll be going back to Olde Sycamore anytime soon.
  
  View this thread

• 08/28/10 - DrSchteeve posted "Greens update 08/28/2010"

  Personally checked or played (except where noted):
  
  Verdict Ridge: punched "about 2 weeks ago" - still quite bumpy, along with some bare spots that haven't responded to the punching
  
  Olde Sycamore: punched about a month ago, unfortunately divots from poorly repaired ballmarks mar the surfaces significantly - in other words, they look ok, and in general are in good rolling condition, but there are just too many ballmarks so almost any putt is likely to hit a ballmark (or 2)
  
  Emerald Lake: punched about 10 days ago, still top dressed with a lot of sand, along with other issues certainly not rolling true
  
  Skybrook: some really nice smooth areas on many greens, but also bare spots and many plugs of (presumably) poa anna, overall not bad
  
  Highland Creek: very spotty, bare areas galore, one green (#15) gone by report
  
  Red Bridge: mostly in very good condition, only a few greens with some isolated issues (Red Bridge greens are mini verde per clubhouse); definitely the best greens of all these (except Cleghorn, see below)
  
  Cleghorn (this from a month ago) - in Rutherfordton, a hike, but perfect Bermuda greens (and fairways), best overall conditions I've played in all year (and maybe ever)
  
  Hope that helps somebody...
  
  
  View this thread