River Oaks Golf Club

This course is a hidden gem. The layout is excellent with large changes in elevation and beautiful fairways. The greens are well placed and manicured to perfection. It has several challenging holes and the views are amazing. Definitely one of my favorite courses to play.

Due to green conversions to Bermuda the course will be closed from mid-june to mid-september, and is currently operating on 16 holes due to reconfiguration on 2 holes. Its Puzzling to me as to why they want to do all this and spend so much money yet continue to operate the place like a $20 Goat Track course! The Carts are just plain nasty and and worn while the clubhouse bathroom is alway nasty and unsanitary! Membership prices could be increased by 50% here once reopened if they would hire some energetic clubhouse staff, and make a couple improvements their current processes. . The 2 longtime current guys quit caring years ago thus why everything around the clubhouse suffers. The Range Balls may be some of the worst I’ve ever experienced as many are 10 yrs old and or cracked. Current course conditions are great and I hate to see the Bent Grass Greens being converted.

Have play here 4 times this year, and hoped it would get better once hot weather arrived, however it’s still fairly rough! I have played golf regularly for the past 40 years and have never experienced a Course that is more mismanaged. By this I don’t mean the course being uncared for, I mean everything else! The Course has no website. Once you arrive You pay inside, no info is required nor recorded and then you then go get you a cart out front. None of this is attended, so when fairly slow you could simply park and load a cart then play without even paying. There is never any starter, and the course has no Ranger. Each time wehave visited we had to scan thru like 4 to 6 carts to find you clean enough to use. Most had spilled drink, tobacco spit, and various other issues making them just plain nasty. Probably the dirtiest cart fleet I’ve seen! It’s been this way each time we’ve been here. All they seem to do is clean out the trash and possibly rinse off the floorboards each evening.
As for the course itself, it’s a strange layout for sure. The front 9 is very attractive given its tree-lined, except the par 4 hole #9 of which we are not a fan! Strange hole for sure, someone said it was once a short par 3 before being ruined! The back 9 is just plain odd. Hole #10 is a waste of land.. very narrow very steep uphill fairway. You can drive it down the middle to the 100 yard marker however your ball may roll back down the hill some 60-70 yards due to the hard fairway with very worn/this grass from all the uncontrolled cart traffic dumped into this area. Same goes for the front and left of this green, worn grass from carts May allow your ball to come back down into the fairway! 90% of the trees have been removed for all the land from holes 13 thru 18 so your basically playing on and open hillside and then an open creek valley! There is also a Shooting Range (yes Guns) adjoining the greens of holes 12 & 15 which can be a bit unnerving! Most of the approaches to all 18 holes on the course are more worn than they should be due to no cart ropes nor cart stakes.. many regulars drive right up to green side which compacts the soil. The last 100 yards of hole 18 is as hard as dried clay due to ALL carts flowing thru this area. The Bent Grass Greens here are hit or miss depending on the week, but I’ve heard they get to be really nice once summer heat arrives.
Each time we’ve been here the small main bathroom in the clubhouse was just plain nasty as well as the aforementioned carts. All this reflects badly on River Oaks.

Have played here several times in the past 10 months. Interesting course layout for sure, but has several just plain goofy holes! Lots of effort has been put into upgrading the course in recent years, and once late summer arrives it now has pretty good fairway grass and good bent grass greens. The primary issue that hinders the course conditions at River Oaks is total lack of cart control and zero marshaling of the course, even when busy! Of all the courses I have played in my 57 years River Oaks has less cart control than any of them. Zero ropes or stakes and 70% of the regulars drive right up to the greens and park, same for tee boxes! Folks leave the c parts and park 5 to 10 yards from most greens and on many tee boxes! Therefore the soil and grass (if any remains) is heavily compacted & worn! This has a substantial impact on your round & score and also affects the visual attractiveness of the course! The Clubhouse is your basic no-frills concept, that has a small bar & grill however the food options are very basic and a bit pricy!

First time out to River Oaks in several years. Course was in fantastic shape. Probably in the top four or five places I've played so far this year as far as conditions go. Tees, fairways, and greens all were great. Bermuda rough was thick in some places, yet more playable in others. Maybe my only knock on the course was the inconsistency of sand in the bunkers. Some had soft, white sand, while others had harder brown sand. The elevation changes and doglegs require accuracy and correct decision making off the tee. Greens are large and receptive, but you have to put your ball in the proper section if you want a chance to score. Fringes and run up areas are mowed tight and require precise chips and pitches. Pace of play was good; there were only a few groups on the course early on a Wednesday morning.

Pace of play was very slow, course was packed. Greens were very fuzzy, they putted OK, but balls didn't react like they normally do when approaching the greens, especially on pitch shots around the greens. They were not cutting the greens down due to the heat. The heat was nearly unbearable, 91 degrees and very humid.

My only gripe was getting paired up with another two-some back to back days. I griped about looking forward to spending some quality time with my son for a round at least one of the days. The owner basically told me they were slammed & there were nothing but four-somes playing. He met us in the parking lot & told me just to call him in the future if I wanted a round for just us two & he'd see what he could do. As far as I'm concerned if I"m paying to play there it should be my choice if I want to pair up or not. But, it's a nice course for the money.

This mountainy course is off of Rt 40 in Statesville, NC. Greens were excellent and were true to the course. Tee boxes were in great shape for this time of year. Staff was very friendly and no one bothered us on the course. I"ve played here a couple times and the tee boxes were different each time. It's challenging enough for me to want to come back again. I'd recommend this course!!

Course is very well manicured and even though it was wet it was still in great shape! We did have to wait on every hole but that was due to frost (can't control mother nature) and it wasn't a long wait maybe five minutes each! Will definitely be playing here many more times!

Thanks to the staff and the maintenance team for keeping the course in great shape!
David Lail

Great course Nice bent greens Fun and not long

Course was in good condition. Greens held an approach shot well. However, greens were very slow and rolling not quite true. (I think they need to be rolled.) Fairways were in good shape. Certainly a challenging course. Shop staff was very friendly and helpful.

3rd time playing this hidden gem! Wish we had found it years ago. Great layout & very well maintained. Good little bar & grill too! Looking forward to the next round.

Well maintained, consistent greens, scenic, hilly, varied, and challenging. Club house and amenities are more than sufficient but not flashy. As far as the course conditions and layout, its similar to courses that cost at least twice as much to play. A great value, will definitely come back very soon.

Course is currently in the best shape that I’ve seen It since it first opened many years ago. I have always liked this course, quiet scenic course with many challenging holes.

I used to play here years ago and always loved the challenging layout. Lots of unique holes with great elevation changes. I had not been here in 4 years and was pleasently surprised to find a top notch clubhouse and A1 course conditions. Even though you could still see signs of aeration on the greens, they rolled fast, smooth, and true. And balls checked good too. They've taken out a lot of trees and it's in the best shape ever. Fairways are plush. If I had to nitpick anything negative, it's only that they didn't have water coolers out on the course. This is my favorite golf course of all time and I'm glad to see someone has put some money and effort to make it as great as it could be.

I played this course last year in the Spring and just yesterday. The transformation that was starting last year has accelerated The course's conditions will be peaking in a week or two. The owner is sinking money into the course and you can tell. There are several blind shots that requires thinking about what to hit and sometimes hitting less than the driver on several of the par fours. The greens are beautiful and can get quite fast. Well placed approach shots and pitches are a requirement to keeping the score down. Many long shots to the green end up with a pitch from the bottom of the hill. Challenging and fair.