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Description

This former Carolina Trail course is about 10 miles south of the NC-SC border on I-77. It was designed by PGA Tour star Hale Irwin with the tee box names honoring his Major championship victories. Nestled along the Catawba River, this layout plays difficult off the tee with marshes, wetlands and plain ol' water hazards threatening on a majority of the holes.

Notes

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

B-Man's Take

Nice course, but tough. If you are having trouble with wayward tee shots, stay away from Waterford or bring several sleeves of golf balls. I've played this course in a couple of tournaments and one 36-hole day on my own. The holes are all very unique and exciting to play, but you've got to be accurate off the tee. This course was in great shape every time I played it. I consider it the best maintained of the 4 main Carolina Trail courses (that excludes Highland Creek). My favorite hole is the 548yd par 5 2nd hole, simply because I play it well. The #1 handicap, 423yd par 4 13th hole lives up to its billing. Heavily sloped fairway is tough to land, then you have a long approach to a sloped green protected by a bunker and creek/ditch.

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Most Recent Reviews

• 2/10/26 - Review by Dean

  "Great course"

  Greens are in excellent shape - very full and smooth and speed is decent. Fairways are great for being dormant, and most tees are in very good shape and bunkers were excellent. Fun layout with a wide variety of holes. Great customer service in the pro shop and snack bar. We played in 4 hours on a busy day. Would highly recommend Waterford. Very good experience.

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• 9/18/25 - Review by GinMillDJ

  "Great course"

  The only other muni course that I’ve played this year that were this good, is Eagle Chase. Fairways were great. Bunkers had real sand and were in great shape as well. This will stay on regular rotation.

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• 2/25/24 - Review by The Good Son

  "Average"

  Course was in decent shape. Some holes didn't drain very well, so a couple muddy fairways were chewed up by carts. Greens were rolling well, despite the occasional ballmark that wasn't fixed. They did have a frost delay (~30mins) that slowed down the pace of play with the course getting a little jammed. Hole 13, Par 4 was the sole cartpath-only hole.

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• 4/24/23 - Review by Jonny

  "Great course"

  I've played this course many times since I retired about 2 years ago. Especially so since COVID. This year, I decided to become a member. As a Senior, I like this course because you really can't get into a lot of trouble. There are some creek crossings but not too much water comes into play. Not too many fairway bunkers and not many around the greens. The fairways are wide open, it's well maintained and a great value overall. They have a Starter, Friday to Sunday and the pace of play is well maintained. On a busy day, they have a Marshal who will cruise the course to ensure pace of play. They are always willing to give you an update if it's going to be backed up The greens are well maintained and they change the pin placements regulalrly. It's always well staffed and the food is good with lots of options. You can call ahead from the 9th tee and they will have your food ready at the turn.

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• 6/20/22 - Review by B-Man

  "Worth playing"

  This was my first round back at Waterford in many years. I had heard good things about conditions recently and they were in fact pretty good, especially the greens. The Bermuda greens were all in good shape, pretty consistent and fairly quick. The size, slopes and undulations in the greens make them challenging to putt but in my experience they roll true. Tee box conditions were just okay, fairways were fine but some had rough spots, bunkers were good, but oh boy, the rough! Perhaps it was because of the U.S. Open last week, but the Bermuda rough had not been mowed throughout the course, even around the greens, which made those shots very penalizing. In some cases, you had to walk right near your ball to find it because they tended to settle down in the grass to where you could barely see the top of the ball. The one thing I remembered about this layout that is still true – it's very easy to lose golf balls here. Every hole feels tight and sloped, with trees, brush, creeks, rocks and other unplayable areas awaiting errant shots – many of which are blind. Several guys in my group hit seemingly good shots that bounded into trouble anyway. The "rub of the green" was evident throughout our round and it felt very British Open-esque. There are some fun holes in this layout with risk-reward choices to make. So if you know the risk (because you've played here before or have a GPS phone app like TheGrint), then it's cool to try for the reward on some of those shots. The par 5's on the back 9 along with some of the short par 4's were my favorite holes. Pace of play was not good. Our group had a 1:10 tee time and times were running about 10-15 minutes behind when we started. We finished just after 6:00, a shade under 5 hours. While the price was great ($56) considering the condition of the greens and course overall, I won't be in a hurry to come back and play Waterford again. With so much trouble on every hole, it can be a frustrating round of golf.

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Updates From the Forum

• 10/30/19 - IM4DHERD posted "Panthers buying Waterford"

  Panthers buying Waterford Golf Club in Rock Hill
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• 08/14/14 - B-Man posted "Carolina Trail Courses"

  Most of you should be seeing much better reviews lately for the former Carolina Trail courses. They are starting to really come back in shape, which is great to see.
  
  I received two emails yesterday - one with a $10 off coupon for any of the 5 former courses - The Divide, Waterford, Tradition, Highland Creek and Birkdale - and one from Waterford. Here's the full text:
  
  NEW OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AT WATERFORD GOLF CLUB
  As you have probably heard, a foreclosure process was recently completed with respect to Waterford Golf Club. As a result of that process, effective August 1, 2014, Romspen-Waterford LLC is now the owner of the facility.
  
  The new owners are committed to returning the golf ! course to its rightful place as one of the best daily fee facilities in the Charlotte area and have retained the services of Traditional Golf Management to operate the club. We understand that this has been a very volatile environment and we are confident that the new ownership and management will provide the much needed stability that this club needs. We are currently working on both operating and capital plans that will allow us to show continuous improvement in the facility and service levels at the club.
  
  We are excited to begin the process of restoring the course to the quality that was enjoyed years ago. We look forward to earning back your business and seeing you on the golf course.
  
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• 05/30/11 - Jamie replied to "Waterford"

  Played Waterford yesterday (5/29/11). Course is in pretty good shape, but the greens were unusually slow. Actually they were probably the slowest I have ever seen there. Fairways were pretty good. There were several bunkers with standing water, but the fairways played hard and fast - weird. Overall, I give it a B.
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• 07/31/09 - Ruthless replied to "Waterford"

  Played on SAT AM. Wet, and a Few Greens were shot...Course was in OK shape, and Cart girl did not show til 17th hole. Coupon online for 37 bucks, otherwise I thought it was AVG at BEst...If it was in good shape, it would have been sweet. Bunkers were perfect.
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• 06/08/09 - J.D. replied to "Waterford"

  Played yesterday afternoon. Greens in great shape, fast as usual. They got a lot of rain the last few days and it was cart path only, but this was more of a precaution. (Several players were ignoring the cart-path only, with no damage.)
  
  There was a bit of drainage problems in some of the bunkers -- #2 fairway bunker being the worst I saw, but overall the course was in decent shape.
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