The 500 Club, Statesville, NC

I have never experienced anything at any other course EVER like I experienced today at Fox Den. We showed up at 1:50 for a 2:08 time time, paid for 9 holes and went back outside to get our carts. There were none to be found! We had to wait for over 1 hour before two carts finally arrived back at the cart barn. I have no idea why there were not groups bringing them back in every ten minutes or so, unless there were a lot of members on their own carts coming in (?).

After no one had teed off for an hour we still caught up to a group in front of us and began having to wait while there were three groups to a hole from holes 5 - 9. It is obvious as a private club that they will take your money and send you out (at least until they run out of carts!) no matter how many groups are already out on the course. No course management whatsoever! Take their money and pack them in like sardines!

It is actually a pretty nice course and is kept in pretty good condition, but this lack of traffic control ruins the experience. There was one guy in the pro shop and one guy running carts. No one working in the snack bar. I know it was a sunny, warm day in late February, but there had been several of them already in 2011 so they had to know that extra staff would be needed and more carts juiced up (there were about 20 carts in the cart barn but they would not run).

A well-run course should not just take money and keep sending groups out regardless of how backed up the course is. That is why you call for a tee time in the first place. There is a certain amount of time that must be allocated for a group to get off and maintain some degree of pace. If you expect people to come back the golf staff simply must do a better job of managing this. It is too nice a course to allow this kind of mismanagement to ruin things.

Great value. Clubhouse is now finished, but no restaurant yet. This will be an excellent place once all homes, new roads, restaurant, etc. are finished. The course itself is fully finished and is always maintaned well. This place gives you the feel of a golfing community will all the townhomes surrounding the course. A fun course that's diffucult in some spots, but gives you the opportunity to try different options like using an iron on a par 5, iron-iron approach on par 4's, etc.