Elizabeth City, NC

There is only one 18-hole golf course in Elizabeth City. But what a course it is.

The Pines at Elizabeth City is a championship-level course that has been around since the 1940s, and underwent an extensive makeover in 2005. It has re-emerged as one of the premier courses in the mid-Atlantic, a golfing gem that Golf Digest magazine compared to the legendary Pinehurst No. 2.

The Pines originally opened in 1947 and was the work of golf course architect Fred Findlay, a Scotland native who designed dozens of courses in the United States in 1930s and 1940s. His work at The Pines was hidden from the view of the general public for decades, as the facility remained strictly a private club.

Then in 2005, renowned course architect Tom Clark, who has designed courses played on the PGA Tour, gave The Pines an impressive facelift. While the original layout through the pine thickets was left largely untouched, Clark added several sets of new tee boxes to each hole, sprinkled three new ponds throughout the course, rebuilt the greens to meet United States Golf Association specifications, added new sand bunkers, improved drainage and installed an automatic irrigation system.

The result is a 7,017-yard beauty of a course that has been met with rave reviews since it reopened. Golf Digest proclaimed that, “every hole is a unique challenge.” The fairways are wide and forgiving, but the elevated greens are small and fast. The course provides a variety of challenges for golfers of all skill levels.

While greens fees can be pricey for a course of this caliber, The Pines offers discounted rates to residents of Elizabeth City and the immediate vicinity. If you tee off after 1 p.m., the resident rate can be as little as $35, and military members can play for $32.

For a more casual golf outing, there are two 9-hole par-3 courses in Elizabeth City. Knobbs Creek Golf Course measures 931 yards and is an ideal place for beginners to learn and for experienced players to work on their short game. It is not an easy course, with narrow fairways and water coming into play on eight of the nine holes. Par-3 golf also is available at Matthew Creek Golf Course.