Hickory Knob State Park

Have played this course several times over the past 4 yrs. This is the worst condition I've seen and it is borderline unplayable. Tee boxes are poor, fairways play like first cut on good course, greens were horrible. Sandy, patchy inconsistent. Bunkers are barren, mud pits. Pace of play was slow. Course manager did try to help keep groups moving. Staff was friendly. Just wish they would attend to waht was once a nice course.

Staff friendly as usual, fairways in great shape. Greens were a little bumpy due to recent aeration but putted okay.

We’ve played several times here at Hickory Knob. We enjoy it’s challenges and always greater with a smile in the pro shop. Course is in good condition.

The course is in excellent shape. The fairways and greens are outstanding. The only thing wrong with course is the lack of sand in the bunkers.

Usually find state park courses a good value and average course design and conditions. Course layout has too many poorly designed holes. Bunkering was good, but greens were largely uninteresting, Definitely need to hit the ball straight. Conditions weren’t horrible but nothing to write home about,. For $25, you got what you paid for.

Staff polite , course in great shape , carts in good condition, rakes missing in sand traps COVID but sand bottles on carts everyone touches !!! New concrete on cart paths !!!

I love playing golf near the lake and I can’t believe it took me this long to visit Hickory Knob. The course has plenty of beautiful views overlooking the lake along with the picturesque fairways made loosing balls in the water worth it. I will definitely be back many times.

The course was cart path only after some rain on Sunday and I do know why. My playing partner has a prosthetic leg and we got him a handicap flag so that we could go slightly off path, but never onto the wet fairways or near the greens. At most we would go in the intermediate rough between fairway and path, but still that was wet but we are always respectful of the course. On TWO occasions we had a person from other groups yell out to us ‘Do you know it’s cart path only?’ To which we replied as nicely as possible that he only has one leg and we do have a blue flag. One gentleman approached us later to apologize because he didn’t notice his leg or flag. The other guy was basically a jerk and went on his way. In my opinion, mind your own business if you don’t know the circumstances of others. I don’t ride up behind people complaining about them not repairing ball marks or dragging their feet. So to the older gentleman who decided that he needed to be honorary Marshall, keep to your group please.

Only nine holes open due to repairs on cart paths. This backed up play. Paths we're chewed up from prep work for repair and was a major obstacle getting around cause it was cart path only. Add to that the repair crews worked on the open nine anyway and major equipment was running/noisey, interrupting play. Crew were play music and used women restroom. On the good side, the lake view is beautiful and there was some challenging holes to play. We will likely not come back here even if course is repaired, unfortunately.

Front nine was the only one open and it had half of the court trails removed while the back nine was close. And it was cartpath only because it was still wet after a couple of days of rain.

A course I play about once a year and although the weather was terrible the round was enjoyable. I need to get back in the summer. Conditions were good, better than most for winter golf, decent lies on the fairways/chipping areas, I was in five bunkers and all were good except one. Greens were OK, rolled pretty quick but a few had some weird grass growing. Front nine has some tough holes, besides #1 the other 8 need all your attention. Back nine plays a little shorter and more manageable, 18 is a tough closing hole. Struggled in at an 85, 11 & 2.

This course layout is wonderfully varied, and can be a brute if one doesn't select the correct tees to play (readily apparent when playing the long 4 pars coming in - 9 & 18). Even though none of the 5 pars are reachable in two shots, the key to preserving one's score lies in hitting precise high iron shots into the greens (especially if pin in front) as most of them are severely slopes (and so very much faster than appearance would suggest).

Conditions could be improved (greens and tees fine, but fairways soggy, bunkers thinly filled, and cart paths decrepit), but will suspend further criticism since traversed in the dead of winter. Playing here is an absolute test, and certainly not a "walk in the park"!