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From our Directory of the most recommended golf courses
Lonnie Poole Golf Course
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Rating: 3.2
Pace of Play
3
Greens
4
Service
3
Value
4
Design/Layout
4
Lonnie Poole Golf Course is a new Arnold Palmer designed course on the south side of Raleigh, between Lake Wheeler Road and Gorman Street. It's a par-71 layout on N.C. State's campus that measures 7,358 yards. It's a fairly reasonable priced golf course for the quality and location, with the students and "affiliate" getting better rates. The routing is parkland style with tree lined fairways, water in play on eight holes, a few doglegs, and ranges in yardages from 4956 to 7358 from the NC State Competition tees.
Published by: Brennan
Posted by: MCallaghan
Apr 9th, 2012
No doubt the hardest part of playing the course is the bunkers. For the most part, the sand is very soft and deep. Tough to get out. Lots of opportunities to get in and to have long shots to the green, even in bunkers near the greens. Islands of natural grass in the sand bunkers all over the place. Four-inch lips all the way around. I firmly believe that's a design flaw. A ball just barely in any sand bunker leaves you with no shot whatsoever. Deep edges on the forward lip is okay. The bunkers are so large that locating a rake after playing from within is a pain. The natural areas inside the sand bunkers make it difficult to locate your ball. I've been told the best method for playing out of sand bunkers is to avoid them. That's very true at this course. Holes 2-7 are wonderful tests, especially #3 and #5. Right now, #3 from the black tee is a 526 par four. The white tee is 501 yards. They may move the tees ahead a little or they may change par to 5, changing the total to 72 from 71. I think i hit the ball rather long for my 57 years, but even Saturday's tee shot from 526 left me with a 275+ shot over a natural area and a series of sand bunkers. (See photo above.) A neat six iron to the natural area with a good 7 iron gets you to the back of the green. The fifth hole is 459 yard par four with somewhat of an up-hill tee shot over a hill and then down to a green that's actually up-hill again. Go figure. Just getting your tee shot to the fairway is tough. I also like the 13th hole, a devilish 434-yard dogleg right par four. The entire right hand side of the fairway is trouble with a very large sand bunker and other natural grass and then a sand bunker on the right side of the green. There is no bail-out area to the left as a sand bunker sits just off the green on the left side
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Posted by: CLOVE
Jan 1st, 2010
Overall, I felt this course was very good, and will be better as it grows in. It has a fair amount of rock outcroppings, but is very open with many of the playing corridors being 100 yards wide, and will be one of the best in the Raleigh area,.
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Posted by: crank
Sep 29th, 2009
The course has been open for a few months at most, and it still has that new course smell. It is an Arnold Palmer design, and anyone who has played one knows that this means bunkers lining the fairway right in perfect driver distance from all tees. Gorgeous layout, with large greens where you can have extremely long putts, so being on the greens here is sometimes overrated. The course was awesome. Anyone who has played a young course knows that the fairways are left a bit long to protect them while the grass can take full root, but even so there was a definite difference between the fairway and the rough. I had a few balls sit so far down in the rough that it wasn't until someone was almost standing on them that you could see them. Difficulty wise it didn't have much besides the fairway bunkers, if you could avoid those you were ok, and it made up for this with length. A lot of fun, and if you are ever in the Raleigh area I suggest calling a week ahead to get your tee time. They go that fast.
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Posted by: Jxason
Sep 19th, 2009
This course will be a close second to Tobacco Road in terms of difficult once it's grown in and rated. Tough and long, but with nice wide fairways off the tee to blast away. Nice views of downtown, but you better keep your eye on your ball if you want to have a chance at scoring here.
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