Carolina Trace Country Club

Today's adventure brings us to @carolinatracecc just outside of Sanford, NC. This is in a gated community and is made up of "The Lake" and "The Creek" courses. I played the Lake course. Initial Impression: When you enter off the road, you check in at the Guard Shack. The female security officer who greeted me was full of energy and smiles. She was excited to be at work today. It's a hilly and twisting road to the clubhouse. The pro shop is located below the clubhouse here. I was greeted by an extremely positive and humorous older gentleman by the name of Scott. He is the cart person and starter this day. The positive interaction didn't stop there as the gentleman in the pro shop was just as kind and welcoming as everyone I've met so far. Sorry, I forgot to obtain his name. Course: Designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. It's not a cakewalk. As other courses in Tn that I've played, it's wet and dormant right now. The greens were in immaculate condition, but the slowest I've played so far. That's no fault of theirs because of the time of year. There's quite a few large bunkers here and some water that absolutely comes into play. The elevation changes here are more prominent than at Anderson Creek. Tee shots require some accuracy so as not to strike the many houses, the course cuts between. The fairways were soft and gave no rollout. I, however, did not have a single ball plug in the fairway. Bunkers were firm wet sand, which made it easy to play from. Learn how to use your wedges bounce. Wind was just as strong as it was yesterday. Two to three clubs if you're into its teeth. Giving up 30 yards off the driver is rough even if you hit the middle. I was struggling so bad today with the irons, wedges, and my putter. I called it quits after 9 holes. All due in part to frustration. I wasn't going to let my temper overshadow a great course. I was the only person on the course until I hit the 7th hole. Final: I will definitely recommend this course to anyone. I want to play it during the summer months. Then, I can fully take in what it has.

Carolina Trace Creek Course was a beautiful welcoming golf experience! The staff, and cart guys, beverages cars girls was very nice and everything about this course truly amazing! Dave, was an amazing host and truly gave us a first class experience! Thanks for having us and thanks for the opportunity to play one of you’re amazing golf course! We will be back again!

I give Carolina Trace three stars because the venue was beautiful for my wedding. But the organization and communication between staff was completely off. First, the chairs and archway were not set up properly after discussing how we wanted it arranged two months prior. Second, after assuring me that they had two easels that we could borrow I was told the night before that one was broken. Luckily for amazing bridesmaids they had to go to Walmart the day of my wedding to buy an easel. Third, my MIL paid for everyone to have champagne at their table even kids because they charge kids for champagne…. When we were about to do the toast there was no champagne on anyone’s tables. Forth, the staff had asked if I needed a knife to cut the cake and said yes. Well when the DJ announced it was time to cut the cake me and my husband walked over and noticed that no knife was at the table so I had to grab my MOHs knife to cut the cake. Fifth, I was told that there was no plates on the dessert table so all of our guest were literally having to put the dessert in their hands. Sixth, there was no staff collecting any dirty plates even at the head table. Seventh, we paid $1800 to have prime rib and the prime rib was precut and it was sitting under a heat lamp just drying out my FIL had to go over and turn the heat lamp off so that it wouldn’t dry out anymore. Eighth, the last one… after paying Carolina Trace $8,220 and that’s not even including the $1800 prime rib there was other parties going on during the time of our wedding so I’m sure all this happened because of it being short staffed. When a wedding is going on and there’s 74 people there I would expect you put the wedding first especially since we paid a lot of money to have a good service. I get that weddings have hiccups and I was only hoping the set up was the only thing that would happen but it just snowed balled. Thats just some of it the list goes on.