I played Carolina Crossing (formerly Carolina Downs) near Rock Hill yesterday for the first time. I had heard it used to be in poor condition, and then was bought by two local businessmen and renovated. The course, although a good value for the money ($38 Saturday AM), is a little paradoxic. What do I mean by that? Well….

First the good: very friendly staff, the fairways were plush and in great shape. The greens were fairly smooth and consistent.

Now the bad: the greens were consistently the slowest I have putted on all year. It was very difficult to get the speed right on putts. I was amazed by how slow they were, and this was at 7:45 AM after they had just been cut!

Also, the layout of the course is a little odd. The vast majority of the holes are narrow doglegs, probably because the course is also extremely short, only 6000 yards from the BLUE tees! Several blind shots, and a few fairways slope downhill AWAY from the dogleg, so even perfect tee shots end up in the rough. Local knowledge is important here. The fairwyas are also very close to each in opposite directions on several holes, so errant tee shots can cause a problem.

Considering all, I’d give the course a thumbs up for the price, and I’ll come back, but I sure hope the greens are faster next time. Give the course a try, but consider yourself warned.