Rating NCSU's Lonnie Poole Golf Course

Using Tom Doak's method of rating golf courses where does the Arnold Palmer Design stand among all North Carolina golf courses?

Feb 17, 2023

The 11th hole at Lonnie Poole Golf Course with the emerging Raleigh skyline is most likely the signature hole of the golf course on the Centennial campus at NC State University.

“Walkability” is one of the nine golf course rating categories used by renowned golf course architect Tom Doak—who has been selected by Pinehurst Resort to design its No. 10 course, expected to be open in time for the 2024 US Open.

“Getting the greens and tees close together is an underrated skill,” Doak wrote in a 2016 essay for LINKS Magazine. “A great course allows you to enjoy the scenery as you stroll around. There aren’t any 9s and 10s (scale of 1-10) on my list that can’t be walked easily.”

Lonnie Poole Golf Course (LPGC), my home course layout located on the NC State University Centennial campus in Raleigh, can be walked as I do nearly every time I play there, more than 100 rounds a year.

While I enjoy playing LPGC, on Doak’s rating scale, the Arnold Palmer Design layout—in my humble opinion—has a negative “walkability” factor because of several holes where walks from a green to the next tee either has enough yardage for an extra hole or the slope of that yardage resembles an uphill mountain climb. By the time you’re at the end of the round, you may be at the end of your rope on the “tired” scale.

To cut down on walking time, several walking “shortcuts” have been cut but most of those paths are filled with lumps of grass, tree roots, and washed crevasses which make for treacherous maneuvering to avoid stumbling while your cart and the clubs within are bouncing, reducing the life of both.

Many a push cart have been destroyed and clubs have been scarred for life on these paths. Using the concrete cart paths is not the most direct route and can add time to a round much to the despair of course rangers who suggest the shortcuts to speed play along.

NOTE: Fixing of the shortcuts is on a list of course improvements. We understand money is available to scrape and sod the shortcuts. The project is sitting on a NCSU administrator’s desk awaiting the go-ahead.

Back to that humble opinion: My feeling is the course was not designed for walking. When LPGC first opened, because it is a public golf course, the fee to play included the use of a riding cart—encouraged very much to keep the pace of play ahead of schedule—but walking to play golf is an important part of the game. As one regular walker says, “Golf is not a race; it’s a journey.” Racing around LPGC is not an option, and the journey is filled with bumps and bruises if you walk.

The course is not part of a residential development and could have been designed with the walker in mind. But it wasn’t. The course is walkable, but “walkability” is definitely a negative at LPGC.

In Doak’s rating system, he has nine standards, six to give the rater a chance to boost the course’s overall score and three to bring the course back to reality, allowing the rater to decrease point totals.

The first six categories, used to add points for a course rating, are Great Land, Great Holes, A Great Routing, Great Greens, Great Hazards, and What Makes It Different; the last three are Playability, Good Playing Surfaces, and Walkability, all used for subtracting points.

Doak starts every course with a “3” rating, adding and subtracting as he goes through his categories. So, with LPGC, I’ll subtract a point for “walkability.” On the Doak scale, after deleting a point, the total is now “2.”

The other two “minus” points areas: Playability and Good Playing Surfaces. Playability is a break-even when it comes to rating LPGC; no minus points. There are six sets of tees and two hybrid layouts, allowing players to travel the length suited for their abilities.

No matter which sets of tees are played, the toughest parts of the course are the approach shots to the greens, most of which require uphill, high arching shots protected by front covering sand bunkers. Or the play is down hill to greens that run away from you. There are few chances to bounce and roll balls onto the greens, a trademark of many Arnold Palmer Design courses.

Good playing surfaces is also a breakeven category at LPGC; no minus points. “Most golfers place a great deal of importance on conditioning,” writes Doak. “I generally weigh it much less than others because it can change so much from year to year or day to day.” That’s true at LPGC and many other courses so don’t look at it as a negative when fairways are soaked because of poor drainage or when “over-the-top manicuring … is a function of budget … and rarely has an impact on the Doak Scale rating.”

Currently the sand bunkers are being manicured and heavily raked which is a good thing, but this happens maybe twice a year. The rest of the time, the bunkers are a liability, but the budget function gets the course a ratings break.

So, after three categories, after starting with 3 points and subtracting 1 point for walkability, and breaking even on playability and good playing surfaces, the total score remains 2. Onward to the other six categories.

GREAT LAND: We’re not sure. The golf course seems to be spread over lots of acreage but some of the natural areas of the course, a couple of creeks and streams, were not usable because of environmental concerns. The layout offers hilly terrain with many ups and downs. The golf course location on the NC State University campus is terrific but nothing special. It’s where is could be located, close to campus. No points added.

GREAT HOLES: Maybe the best hole on the course is the second hole, a downhill par three that plays 235 yards from the competition tees to 160 yards from the most forward tees. The two-tiered green (lower tier in the back) makes for interesting and thoughtful play no matter where the pin is located. This hole will be eliminated and rebuilt/relocated but not duplicated when it’s turned 90-degrees to the left with the green nearly next to the third tee, a plus for walkability but a negative for Great Holes. Still, though, LPGC does offer some great holes.

The most scenic hole is the 11th, a terribly long (665 yards from the competition tees) par five with the downtown Raleigh skyline as the backdrop. There are several holes I like such as the par four 5th hole and the par four 13th hole, two holes that get my goat more times than not. I’m not a fan of the 6th and 8th holes, both par threes, because of false fronts and not getting a clear view of the green on the 6th or any part of the green, except the false front, on the 8th.

But, are there really great holes at LPGC or are the holes just a collection of holes designed to fit the space? The latter comes to mind more than the former. The five par fives, depending from which tees you play, could all be played with driver, five iron, and eight iron to reach in three. Playing a three-metal for a second shot on the par fives will more than likely get you into trouble. The risk is more evident than the reward. All five are better scored when playing safe. Points for the Doak system? Add a point for great holes. Total now is 3 points with four rating categories to go.

GREAT ROUTING is not a strong point at LPGC except there is some but very little back-and-forth monotony, which Doak prefers to avoid. On the front side, after playing the first hole, you cross over two creeks to get to what I call the second golf course of holes two through seven. (There are three courses within the 18: holes 1, 8, and 9; holes 2-7; and, holes 10-18.)

It’s about 400 paces from the 1st green to the 2nd tee and about the same or more from the 7th green to the 8th tee which must be crossed over when going from the 1st green to the 2nd tee. Confusing? Even with plenty of signage, many a patron on this public golf course has gotten lost trying to find the 2nd tee and after that, trying to find the 3rd hole. The final nine is a little better except where the 17th tee is somewhat wedged between the 13th and 16th greens. There is a lot of unused space in that area of the 16th and 18th holes.

To the credit of the Arnold Palmer Design group, the golf course routing is a bit creative considering some land usage requirements. Two other golf course designers walked away due to the restrictions. For creativity, I’d like to give the course a point for Great Routing but I respectfully decline. Overall, the rating remains a 3 with three items to go.

GREAT ROUTING: Aerial view of LPGC shows a tale of at least two courses. Holes 2-7 are to the left of a creek running diagonally from the “R” in Raleigh while the remaining holes, 1, 8, 9, 10-18 are to the right.

Great Greens is another rating that’s confusing. The surfaces are usually terrific except during the healing periods after aeration. Smooth and consistent. But, there are very few pin placement options due to false fronts and rolling mounds around the edges. It is unusual that more than 50 percent of the greens surfaces can be used for pin placement.

Typical Palmer greens, as far as I can tell. “Great greens,” says Doak, “create opportunities for interesting recovery play, and to dictate strategy all the way back to the tee. They make every shot count.” I’d say this is abundantly true of the greens at LPGC. There are ample opportunities for recovery play, some unexpected, some torturous, some penalizing. Benefit of the doubt: Add 1.5 points for Great Greens. Total is now 4.5.

Great Hazards “sometimes are God-given but more often … they are created by the designer in the form of bunkers,” says Doak. “Golfers dig bunkers … when they have a bit of eye-catching style to them. …beautiful bunkers are only great bunkers when you put them in compelling spots that force the golfer to deal with them.” If you agree with Doak, you must say that LPGC has great bunkers, though maybe the most frustrating parts of the course. There are several bunkered and hazard areas that require shots of about 50 yards uphill to carry the hazards. Other than the sand bunkers, LPGC has few and non-descript hazards. With fingers cross behind my back, let’s give LPGC 1.5 points for Great Hazards. Total: 6.

What Makes It Different? Had to think of anything. It’s not really special though it is spatial. The fairways, especially the driving areas for the most part are wide, easily driven. There are very few flat surfaces in the fairways which can lead tee shots and approaches into areas of high fescue, leading to lost balls or impossible next shots.

The tees are not well constructed (not flat). The greens give you interesting angles to the pin when putting but have very few spaces for pin placement. Maybe the skyline of downtown Raleigh is what makes it different or special or maybe the overgrown rough at certain times of year, but there’s not enough “there” there to offer up points for the overall rating. Final score: 6 on a scale of 1-10.

To translate that to the annual top 100 golf courses in North Carolina by the North Carolina Golf Panel, Lonnie Poole Golf Course would be about 50th. In the 2022 rankings, LPGC is 57th. The 2023 rankings will be published in April in Business North Carolina magazine and on the NC Golf Panel website: https://www.ncgolfpanel.com/

As the golf course continues to mature and if improvements are made, if NC State University would look at the facility as a major asset and supplement the operating budget—currently from daily play greens fees, annual package plan income, corporate outings, range balls, cart fees and other sources as a public course would have—LPGC could improve its place among North Carolina golf courses and the value of the asset would grow. What’s suggested: an infusion of around $300,000 a year with increases annually.

Plenty of golfers enjoy playing Lonnie Poole Golf Course. I’m one of them. It’s a challenge; it can be fun; it can be frustrating. One day I’m shooting 77 with 31 putts and the next it’s 83 with the same number of putts and bad tee balls, approach shots, and sand play. Of maybe the 83 is due to 39 putts. As most who play there regularly, understanding the course and where to hit the ball, where to miss the green has become second nature, though executing those shots always remains a challenge.

My thoughts, using the Tom Doak method, are just one man’s opinion. If you play Lonnie Poole Golf Course, I challenge you to rate it yourself. Your comments are welcomed. Click the button and make comments public.

JIM TALK!

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