*****Sadly, King Carter Golf Club closed in 2018*****
Earlier this week temperatures were mild but as the week went along it got pretty chilly. A couple mornings were 24 or 25 degrees when I first woke up and the temperature on Saturday morning was forecasted to be about 27 degrees. So, it had all the makings for a frost delay.
Hoping to avoid frost/frozen greens I headed towards the coast, to play King Carter Golf Club. The forecast there seemed more mild. King Carter is in Virginia’s Northern Neck and for those who aren’t familiar, the Northern Neck is a peninsula with the Potomac River to the north and the Rappahannock River to the south.
I booked a 11:16am tee time on Golfnow for $45 and left a bit after 9am, for what was about a two hour drive. After getting off the interstate it was maybe 45 miles on multiple state and county roads to get to the course. So, King Carter is not an easy course to get to from Charlottesville. In fact, I don’t think it would be very easy to get to from any large city in Virginia, as no major roads run into or out of the area! The drive turned out to be nice as I passed by numerous farms, wineries, and quaint towns.
King Carter is a community course, but it is well done in that respect. The homes are set far back from the course and do not regularly come into play. Most of the first eleven holes are open (with views of the other holes) and a couple holes almost had a bit of a links feel to them, without many trees. There are plenty of bunkers at King Carter, with many holes having at least two or three around the fairway and then some greenside as well. Because of all the sand, the course had a good look to it. For reference, I played the black tees at 73.6/137/6802 (par-71).
The 1st is a mid length par-4 that is very forgiving off the tee and on the approach. The hole played deceivingly back up a small rise so I came up short on my approach and made bogey, even with a solid iron from the fairway.
The course goes from gentle to demanding fairly quickly as the 2nd and 4th holes are long par-4s that require a mid to long iron approach, and the 3rd is a long par-3. There are a mix of open and wooded holes before you get to a tough stretch on the back nine. The 12th through the 18th are more demanding, tighter and have some elevation change.
The 12th has a blind tee shot, the 13th has a fairway that slopes hard from right to left, and the 14th is a short par-3 with a small green. The 15th is a big dogleg left, the 16th is a short par-4 with a split fairway and the 17th plays to another elevated green. If you asked me I would have said Mike Strantz designed the last few holes!
Overall, there are plenty of different design elements here, such as multiple split fairways and a shared fairway. The only things that I didn’t care for about the layout were just three par-5’s, a few too many elevated greens for my tastes and that the par-3’s didn’t mix up the distances much.
The conditions were just average, but this isn’t the time of year when courses are in tiptop shape. The bermuda grass in the fairways was dormant, but it did provide quite the contrast to the still-green rough! There were a few dirt patches and weeds in various spots on the course, too. The bunkers didn’t look raked recently and the greens were slow and didn’t hold lines very well.
While I had a nice day and a nice drive, two hours was a long way to go to play King Carter. The course is a pretty good modern design, but I think the course’s remote location will discourage many non-locals from checking it out.
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):