Red Bridge Golf & Country Club | B-Man's Guide to Golf in Charlotte

"Never going back"

9/30/23: Review by Rico80

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...

Description

This course opened over the 4th of July weekend back in 2009. It is a very scenic layout that seems to be well-sculpted from the natural terrain out in Locust, NC. For now, there are very few homes built and I'm sure that eventually they will change the nature and aesthetics of this quaint course. In the meantime, it's a quiet but adventuresome round of golf. Over the course of 18 holes, you face many different challenges, from long, forced carries to shorter, target golf approaches. There are plenty of water hazards in play with ponds and creeks. The greens feature "velvety MiniVerde" grass, which is well-suited to the warmer climate to stay in top shape year-round.

Notes

The temporary clubhouse has a nice large deck for enjoying a drink on the 19th hole. Not sure when the permanent one will be built. The parking lot and many of the cart paths are gravel still and haven't been paved yet. Within a year of opening, they re-routed the front 9 and it was a welcome change. Your round used to start with a short par 3 (now the 5th hole) requiring only a wedge shot.

B-Man's Take

This course is one of the most unique in the area and most people will either love it or hate it. It is a fun layout with 5 par 5's and 5 par 3's. Several greens have multiple tiers or challenging slopes, making for some occasionally diabolical pin placements. Many holes also feature significant elevation changes and rolling hills, almost like a mountain course. The 18th hole is notorious for being one of the longest and toughest holes in town. It is 619 yds from the men's tees (650 from the tips!) and requires an uphill, hazard-crossing final swing of at least 120 yards. The 17th hole made me say "wow" -- a short, downhill, dogleg right 326 yd par 4 that has small green protected by a water hazard. You have to play target golf on some holes, but most have generous landing areas for your tee shots and approaches. Overall, my rounds here tend to be memorable and the course is definitely a must play. The weekday rack rates are fairly low and Red Bridge is one of the best values in town for price/conditions.

Tee	Par	Yardage	Rating	Slope
Championship (Blue)	72	6735	72.5	138
Mens (White)	72	6402	70.2	128
Senior (Gold)	72	5768	67.3	115
Ladies (Red)	72	4913	68.1	123

Tee

Par

Yardage

Rating

Slope

Championship (Blue)

6735

72.5

138

Mens (White)

6402

70.2

128

Senior (Gold)

5768

67.3

115

Ladies (Red)

4913

68.1

123

View the complete scorecard for this course

Most Recent Reviews

9/16/23 - Review by cswan14

"Great course"

Finally made it out to Red Bridge and man is it a different course than anything else in the area. After a par 4 1st, there's a run of 3-5-5-3-5 on the next 5 holes that is definitely unique. You want to find the fairway because the rough is thick and will punish you for your misses. Many greens have mounds surrounding them that will also kick you left or right if you miss...and if you hit the greens they were playing very fast. Water is found throughout the course but I avoided it, and only found 2 bunkers that were very well maintained. Fairways and tee boxes were all in excellent condition as well. It was a unique and challenging track, but I'm not looking forward to the day that construction is complete on the surrounding homes...many holes will have houses right on top of them (each cart has a warning to not cut the corner on 3 as there's a house right at the dogleg). Took 30 minutes to get there from East Charlotte, so not nearly as far as Eagle Chase...a really easy drive down Albemarle Rd. Everyone out there was nice when we interacted, and I'll definitely return!

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7/15/23 - Review by Mike

"Great course"

They had just aerated the greens earlier in the week so they were still not grown back in fully at the time we played. So the greens were less than optimal, but it's just the way it is. I was still able to 2 putt even from reasonable distances, so it wasn't that bad. The course was strangely damp for 12:45PM and onward, and I don't recall there being any rain in the morning. Although maybe there was an isolated shower. The sand was wet and the fairways had some damp spots. I can only guess they're increasing watering to fend off the heat. That said, it didn't really impact scoring. My score is all...me....with several holes of just awful play that likely separated me from shooting in the 90s (typical, right?). Had a lot of fun as usual at Red Bridge. I don't recall this course ever really disappointing. It's in 9-10 shape, but the wet sand and damp conditions along with aeration were the reason for the 8. The aeration is both temporary and necessary.

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5/7/23 - Review by B-Man

"Great course"

Good to be back at Red Bridge after almost 2 years. They had some maintenance issues in the summer of ‘21 and so it had been awhile. I still love the layout and a few of the holes stand out as very unique to Charlotte. I was playing in TheGrint Tour’s two day Spring Sizzler event (Oak Valley was the day 1 course). We were playing the Black tees (just under 6800 yards) and that was a first for me, playing the tips here. I’m not a long hitter so this made it extra challenging for me today. From the Black tees, several tee shots require a 220-240 yard carry to reach the fairway (!). With houses and backyard fences now guarding the dogleg on the par 5 third hole, it can be a very intimidating tee shot. Speaking of those new housing developments, Out of Bounds stakes now encroach very quickly on the left side of holes 3 and 4. With the layout featuring five par 3s and five par 5s, it feels fun and score-able (just not from the tips!). A few years ago, they redid the bunkers British Open style on the signature par 3 9th hole and it’s a very picturesque hole now. The short downhill dogleg right par 4 17th is still my favorite though. Lots of risk reward on both the tee shot and the approach, with a creek and a pond threatening those shots. The 600+ yard par 5 18th is the longest hole in the Charlotte public golf landscape. From the tips yesterday, the GPS on TheGrint app showed it playing 627 yards (!). After my tee shot got into trouble left forcing me to punch out, I managed to reach the green in *five* but missed my bogey putt. [sigh] The Bermuda greens were quick and in good shape overall. Although most looked like they had been raked (?) when they were last aerated and most had several old cup scars, they rolled true. A few of my competitors thought they were bumpy but I guess everyone’s mileage varied. For the price, conditions and the fun factor in this layout, Red Bridge is worth playing and in the top 15 tracks in the area.

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4/18/23 - Review by skwahder

"Average"

A little disappointed in conditions. The front 9 greens appeared to be recently verticut. The grooves affected your putts, but they left the waste, cut grass on the greens. This made you putting difficult to read putts as the loose grass and the cut lines into the grass. As always there the tee boxes need plenty of growth.

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4/11/23 - Review by dalewt43

"Worth playing"

First time playing Red Bridge Golf Club in over 10 years. I was surprised by the build up in the area and the sign on the back door requesting golfers not cut the corner on #3 due to houses. Course conditions were good. #3 fairway had a burst water pipe which made the fairway about unplayable but that we the only water situation on the course that I saw, which was pretty good considering the downpours we had over the weekend. Tee boxes were thin on grass at times. Greens were good. Approach shots held the greens well and putts tracked pretty good. Sand traps were average. It seemed like pace of play was slow but we finished in 4:39 which is only 9 minutes over the posted pace of play. Course was very busy today. I will go back and play the course again. Very good value for the price.

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