North Carolina golf isn;t all about the Sand Hills and mountains. Indeed, the once desolate region known as the “Outer Banks’’ has become one of the more popular destination on North Carolina (and the Southeast) for golf, with some of the game’s more highly-coveted courses in the Tar Heel State.
According to the North Carolina Golf Panel – now in its 27th year – three Outer Banks courses remained among the Top 50 “You Can Play’’ in North Carolina: Featured at No. 17 is The Currituck Club, followed by Kilmarlic Golf Club at No. 27 and Nags Head Golf Links at No. 33.
These courses, along with a handful of others, have helped transform the Outer Banks into an outdoor sportsman’s paradise. Throw in spacious accommodations and a plethora of off-course activities and you have a destination unlike any other.
The Rees Jones-designed ’s Currituck Club, now No. 58 in North Carolina’s Top 100, plays among 600 acres of dunes, wetlands, maritime forests, and sound seascapes.
Every time golfers tackle historic Nags Head – touted as North Carolina’s No. 5 Best Short(er) Course – they find themselves facing a different challenge. Crafted by Bob Moore, Nags Head plays hard along the inner waterway on the southern end of the Outer Banks, where capricious breezes off sound-side waters create different playing experiences every day. With its coastal winds, rugged shoreline, island holes, seaside vistas, and tees and greens separated by rolling dunes and wild sea grass, Nags Head bears far more than a passing resemblance to the famed Scottish golf links.
You rarely need a driver at Nags Head, but you do need local knowledge, meaning it’s better played more than one time in order to figure ot its quirks.
Home to various golf cottages located near its entrance, Kilmarlic is a popular Tom Steele design nestled along the marshland of the Albemarle Sound. North Carolina’s No. 85 course in the Top 100 is a wonderful mainland design amidst 605 beautiful acres of maritime forest providing a pure OBX layout with water and wetlands virtually in play at all times.
Located just across the Wright Memorial Bridge, The Pointe is the first in a sequence of golf courses — layouts close to the sounds and ocean but more parkland in settings. The course is also said to be the first in the country to have the A-1 bent grass — a dense, disease-resistant strain — installed across its corridors. Meanwhile, The Carolina Club’s positioning as the first design heading into town from the north and last one on the way out makes it the ideal play on either side of your OBX golf getaway.
For the complete list of the Top 100 Courses for 2022, Top 50 Courses You Can Play and other rankings, visit NCGolfPanel.com.
Feature Photo: Nags Head Golf Links
Photos Courtesy OBXGolf.com