Creek at Carolina Trace Country Club

Although the course was in typical early spring condition, there were none of the standard amenities we expected; no water coolers, no place to get food or drinks at turn, no cart people with food or drinks, no ball washers, no coolers. Also, there were several people out “spraying boundaries” and we had to hit into or around them on 12 of the 18 holes we played. This was quite annoying and I still can’t figure out why they felt the need to do this in front of where we were shooting all day.

This course is a good course, but overpriced. I can't justify their reg price of $70. I've never played their Lake course - but at 120, it better be in perfect shape (which I doubt, based on their Creek course). I still hope to go back, I enjoyed it...but as the title reads - "hot deals only."

Flew into Raleigh for work and found the course on golfnow. Looked good and had good reviews, so I booked the time. Upon driving into the community, I was reminded of the course I grew up on, it is a beautiful area.

Checked and everyone in the proshop was welcoming and helpful, as i had never been there before. Made it to the driving range and had a good warm up. Was luckily paired with a local golfer, who gave me great local knowledge on every tee box and we had a great time.

The course is beautiful and in great condition. Only reason I gave it 4 stars is because the greens have a little way to go to be in great shape, but they were true. Played from the blue tees for my first time there and found it a decent challenge and really enjoyed the day.

Look forward to another opportunity to be here and play again!

First time at Carolina Trace, played the Creek course. Fairways and the greens were in good condition considering it's winter and heavy rains over the last couple of weeks.Had the course to ourselves able to take advantage with that extra moment on the greens to help with scoring. The front nine are fairly forgiving and receptive to good scores, back nine is more challenging so score early and then hold on to par to finish within stride .

Lots of leaves. Good conditions for time of year. Would love to try in prime season. Very small greens, interesting challenge

The fairways and tees were in good shape, I had the course to myself (save one threesome that let me play through), the weather was lovely but there was only one thing wrong.

Freshly aerated greens. I realize this process is necessary, but if I'm going to be paying premium dollars to play a course could we get a heads up on aeration? There was no aeration alert posted when I purchased my greens fee. Had I known the greens were freshly aerated, I wouldn't have played when I did.

One thing that wasn't mentioned on Golf Now when I made the purchase was the Dress Code, I wear shorts with an elastic waist band,due to weight issues from taking steroids. The dress code wasn't mentioned on Golf Now when I made the purchase,but I did talk to the Club Pro and he did let me go ahead and play. I'm recommending that Golf Now put this info on for the courses that require it.

With Regards

Gary Crafford

We had the course to ourselves which was great. We played the creek course and the more scenic one is the lake course. The creek course is not very

challenging from the ladies tee. I will play the lake course next. It looks to be more interesting and was certainly more crowded!

Good variety of holes on this course. Course was in great shape when I played - greens were still in good shape. Looking forward to going back now that I am familiar with the holes - especially #18. Great sandwich selection after your round in the clubhouse!

Enjoy playing this course but you should bring your own drinks and snacks. Course doesn't return to club house to start the 10th and the halfway house is always broke/out of order. No refreshment cart either. Just be prepared on a hot day.

If you cannot keep your tee shot straight... you are in for a long day. Narrow fairways are lined with unforgiving woods. The creek side course has a very wonky layout. Not a fan of that...not to mention to don't end up back at the clubhouse at the turn.

That said, the greens are soft and allow you to attack the pin. Difficult slopes make reading the breaks tricky as well. A few times our group disagreed on the break...still not sure how the birdie put leaked to the right.

Ended up getting the creek course rather than the lake course. There is a huge difference and I won't play creek again. The greens are all about the same size regardless of par and super small. The bunkers are full of rocks to the point I didn't even play from them and I didn't like the layout. No one was on the course either - everyone was playing the lake. The lake course rates harder and longer and has pure white sand in the bunkers. Greens were in decent shape for this time of year but not as nice as the lake. Don't waste your time at the creek course.

Had an 8:21 tee time, and arrived early enough where the only person other than some maintenance crew I saw at the course, the Pro Shop attendant, suggested that if I was at the tee by 8:15a I could go off. She described how to get to the tee, and after hitting a few balls (+$4 for a small bucket) departed for the tee. The first tees for both courses are nearby one another but not differentiated, so I mistakenly hit a ball off the #1 of Lake. Then the groups started to arrive at the tee and helped me sort things out. Finally did hit one off Creek #1 and was off. Pace of play was fine, until I ran into a 4some on #8. Couldn't figure out where they came from, but they let me through on the next hole. Course had a lot of standing water, I noticed, surprising given the low rain levels we have experienced. Ran into another twosome that was oblivious to my arrival waiting for them to finish. Clearly local folks, having their own golf carts, just start playing on empty holes, practicing away while paying players wait for them to finish.

My biggest gripe was the close proximity of cart paths to the greens. I knocked three shots OB on three holes off cart paths that were less than 10 yards away from the green. That's poor design and annoying. That, combined with the seemingly endless flow of cart driving members leaving their homes and traversing the golf course paths to get to the club house combined to make this a less than enjoyable round.

My husband and I waited a long time to play this course. We teed off at 2:30. There was nobody in front of us so we played right through with no delays. We just finished the 14th hole. When we got to the 15th hole there was a group of 5 in the middle of the fairway. We sat and waited and didn't know what they were doing. They were just standing there. Finally when we got tired of waiting, we drove past them and then saw two more groups of 4 in front of them. We don't know where they came from. None of them said a word to us. Because of this we didn't finish our round. Very disappointing. All in all the course was beautiful and we will play it again.

There are too many fine courses in the sandhills area to waste your time here. Fairways full of weeds and many greens were diseased. Not enough interesting holes. Played as a twosome stuck behind a foursome of septuagenarians for 5 hours with no course marshall to assist. No water stations anywhere on the course and course doesn't bring you back to the clubhouse until 18, we were dying of thirst. Would never consider playing here again.

The course is beautiful and well maintained even during the winter months. Greens were marvelous. No wait on any of the holes and friendly staff in the club house. Local players were also helpful in offering tips for play throughout the course.

As the title says the course is priced right at $30 through golfnow.com. The course and clubhouse need maintenance and ugrading. Gas carts are beat up and have torn bumpers. The neighborhood surrounds a large lake with small docks for mostly canoes and pontoon boats. 15 to 25 years ago it probably was a first class facility but time has worn the neighborhood course. When checking in the staff was not friendly in fact gave us no instructions about range balls, which course to play, the direction to go the. Trek coirse, and on top it of all our gas card ran out of gas between holes 10 and 11! Somebody's not paying attention! But as I said for 30 bucks it was fine