Lonnie Poole Golf Course

I’ve played this golf course twice while visiting the area (from Chicago), once before the clubhouse was built and once after, and find the pricing to be entirely appropriate for the quality of the layout, conditions and facility.
The course itself is an exceptional design with nice variety of holes, spectacular views, and a rough, bold character that requires strategy and nerve. Sloping fairways demand well-​placed tee shots. Greens are accessible but misses can be costly. On both of my visits, the putting surfaces were fast and true.
Some of the reviews here don’t make sense to me. The range had grass hitting areas and pace of play seemed normal; we finished in just under 4 hours with no pressure (on a Saturday). Regarding price and conditions, Lonnie Poole was built only a few years ago — carved out of wild, uneven terrain. It can take time for a course like this to mature. Dozens of sand bunkers don’t just appear overnight. And when a gorgeous clubhouse is added in a second phase of development, it’s completely natural for prices to nudge upward. Some may expect this to be a cheap municipal just because it’s affiliated with a public university, but that’s not the case here.
Lonnie Poole is an excellent golf course and a first-​rate facility; well worth a visit.

Great layout/​design. TERRIBLE pace of play. They overbook the crap out of this course. Only play here if you have 7+ hours of free time.

Golf is the last sport that is about honor.
Played the golf course today, and honestly was extremely disappointed.
I do not care about the cost as a rule, played Tobacco Rd. yesterday.
I just feel that the pro shop should have enough honor to tell people that the course is in HORRIBLE SHAPE. the fairways were burnt bare. No grass, as was around most of the greens. To pay a premium with no warning, shows no honor and lack of class.
BILL

Over priced and way over rated. This is a very challenging course that is fun to play but it’s obvious the university is over charging the public to pay for a course that was mostly likely built with tax payer dollars. I guess they need to pay for the new club house they built… which is very nice.
The driving range sucks and you are always… I repeat always hitting off of mats while they have perfectly manicured grass right in front of you. $ 12 for what they call a large bucket of balls is highway robbery. I guess they know that there are only a handful of public ranges in the area so they are taking advantage of the market. A guy that worked there told me they raised the prices because of the amount of people coming to the range. That is very definition of greed and if you are going to charge a premium then you dam well better at least let people hit off the grass.

I wish I could give it more stars then 3, but that is all they are going to get because of the condition of the course. Lonnie Poole is currently redoing a ton of their bunkers and we played it on a Saturday morning and two of the holes were pretty much closed to all players. 8 — a par 3 was closed, and 7, one of the signature holes in my opinion out there, a long part 5 was played as a short par 3. That is really unfortunate because I think that 7 would play as a great one from what i could tell.
I’m surprised they have left the course open as they do this work, instead of closing it down for a few weeks and then just opening it back up when all the work is done. The guys at the clubhouse were pretty helpful, and they did give us about a 7 dollar discount on our rate for golf, but I think that you need to make it clearer what you are getting into when you make those tee times.
We were happy with the condition of the greens. — they all rolled pretty smooth and were about the same speed all across the course. The GpS was helpful, but ours and the other one in our group woudl be in the same spot and have about a 10 yard difference according to the carts.
18 is a really nice hole and has a good view to finish. I think that if you are going to have holes closed, you need to provide some complimentary range balls or something especially for those that are there during your most expensive time on a SAturday morning.
I think that we will take a look at the course again during another trip back to NC and make sure we play it when all the holes are open.

Disgusted. I have lived in Raleigh my whole life and grown up on NCSU’s campus, as my father is a tenured professor there. He is a member at Lonnie Poole and a dedicated customer of this course since it’s opening. I arrived in slacks and a plain top with closed toed shoes as did my male partner. We are both over the age of 30. We simply wanted to hit a few balls on the driving range thirty minutes before close. No discussion was allowed — we were abruptly turned away from business due to my male partner wearing a non collared shirt. A beautiful day wasted, business lost, and a sour taste left in the mouth of loyal NCSU/​Raleigh locals. It amazes me how behind the times the sport of golf continues to be. Where am I… in the antebellum south? Should I also check the race of my partner before I patron this course? My father was so upset he is considering canceling membership. I expect these old south rules of formality from the ultra conservative country clubs of Raleigh, but this is a public college campus course for Christ sake and were talking about hitting some practice shots on the driving range. What a disappointment NCSU.

This is a very difficult cart course that is in very good shape. Many would consider it a bit tricked up with a crazy number of bunkers.
The pro shop is under construction, so I won’t go again until completion.

The only reason I gave this more than 1 star is because the course itself is fairly nice and has a few great views of downtown Raleigh. My experience is nearly identical to Ryan S. in that although the course wasn’t very busy, we were absolutely harassed by the rangers. When we went to make the turn they told us that we were playing 15 minutes behind pace and asked if we would mind skipping the turn and not getting any food or beverage to make up for pace. Even though the only group behind us was our second group and there was no one behind them, we obliged. Then on the 10^th hole, a mere 10 minutes after being told to skip the turn a ranger drove up to us to tell us that we were running behind and that we should try and pick up the pace. Then, I kid you not, on the 11^th hole, a mere 10 minutes later, we were told again to pick up our pace. Keep in mind you can see if there is anyone behind you on these holes and not a person was in sight.
Now everyone makes mistakes but when I went to speak to the staff they were indifferent and were not helpful at all offering typical responses like ‘Well sir we just have to try and keep pace going.’ I filled out a comment card and asked them to e-​mail me so that I could elaborate on my poor experience, and no response despite leaving multiple ways to contact me.
Not too mention it’s the most expensive course in the area, despite the fact that their pro shop is a double wide trailer.
Plain and simple if you don’t mind the service being poor, it’s a very nice course with some really nice holes. If you’re looking to be treated like a paying customer, I would take your business elsewhere.

Fantastic course. Best Public course in the triangle hands down. The pace of play has really improved, and the new clubhouse is going to be great.

Great course with super views of the city. We were not rushed or pushed by the group behind us at all. And I play slow/​awful! Was very fun will go back

I would like to give this course a higher rating b/​c it is in excellent shape but our group had a miserable time. On our visit the course was not crowded and no one was pushing us, yet the rangers continually pestered us to play faster. Stopping to watch us on a number of holes and continually making us uncomfortable. When I brought up this complaint to the clubhouse they offered no apology and simply pointed me to a comment card. I will not be playing this course again. There are simply way too many courses around here where they treat you much better.

This Arnold Palmer golf course is quite a challenging design. The course offers some beautiful views of the downtown Raleigh skyline from NC State’s Centennial Campus. Some of the bunkers have grass traps within them, so shot placement is absolutely necessary. High risk/​high rewards shots can lead to large numbers popping up on any player’s scorecard. The only reason it does not get FIVE stars is that some of the holes require you to backtrack on the golf cart paths to reach the following holes. I NEVER enjoy a ride head on into a group of golfers anxious to tee off on the whole I just finished.
Other than that, this course is great!

This is one of the hardest courses I have ever played, but also one of the most fun. It plays very long and is alot of trouble throughout the hole; enormous fairway bunkers, hazards, and woods. Now I’ve played alot of courses that are just stupid hard, and difficulty does not equal fun alone.
Here, the course designers really thought the set up through and made it a really fun track. It is fun because the trouble is usually stacked on one side so there is a lot of strategy involved. If you can set yourself up safely, you can score well. My one gripe is that there are some blind shots on a few of the holes, but I guess if you play more than once that problem disappears.
I can’t really say much about the course condition because I played in the winter/​early spring so the fairways and rough were all yellow, plus it rained the day before. Also, the greens were being aerated so I can’t fairly judge those. BUT the greens are firm and slick. Even with all these things, the course was in very playable condition so I could only imagine how nice it is on a «good» day.
I had read other reviews that were complaining about the pace of play. We got stuck behind a slow two, but they let us play through and we had no problems after that. Alot of the reviews were complaining about the pace on the weekends, and pace is a problem anywhere you play during the weekends so I would not let that keep you away from this track. Also, other reviews said if you’re over an 18 hcp you should avoid this place. My buddy I play with is over an 18 and he still really enjoyed it too. Oh and its a really good value too for $ 35 twilight on weekdays. Bottom line, play here if you get the chance.