My first round of 2013 (January 1st) was supposed to be in the Myrtle Beach area or a little north of town before my drive back home. My plans for an early morning tee time fell through and it was going to be tough to get out as a single at a couple of the places that I wanted to play. I wanted to try to get out at Cape Fear National but they could not get me out until around noon and that would have made for a late night. I wanted to get back at a reasonable hour so I decided to hit the road and see if I could squeeze in a quick round somewhere along the way. I figured with the gloom and rain in North Carolina that I might be able to get around pretty quickly. I picked River Ridge going on just a couple google reviews and a brief glance at their website from my phone.

I was headed north on I-95 and split off to hit up River Ridge. It was not that bad of a detour for me as I ended up taking I-85, which I think is a less traveled interstate, after my round. I was only the 3rd car in the parking lot when I got there so it worked out perfectly as I cruised around in a little less than 3 hours even while taking my time. I played the black tees at 72.4/138/6701 and it turned out to be a little more of a challenge than I would have thought. The course played long because of the conditions, but the added challenge came off of the tees. There were quite a few tight holes where I would have liked to lay up off the tee, but they were either too long or back uphill forcing me to hit driver. The course puts an emphasis on accurate driving so a score could get out of control quickly here because of the abundant trouble. One of the nice things about golf in the Raleigh area is the elevation change on the courses. River Ridge features that elevation change on over two-thirds of the course and the elevation change is well done. There are a couple semi blind shots, but many times the driving area is visible even with all the uphill and downhill.

The course starts out with a placement hole and then a par 3 that could allow for a birdie depending on the pin location. Then it changes character as the 3rd hole is a long par 4 that plays a couple clubs uphill and the 4th is a long par 5 that had a hefty forced carry to reach the fairway. The 5th is a short par 4 that had an undulating fairway. This resulted in a hook lie for me to try to get at a green that required a cut. The 10th is a mid length par 4 with trouble all down the left side and the 13th had an awkward tee shot. I think the 16th and 17th holes have (and will) spoiled many rounds. The 16th is a 485 par 4 that requires a perfect tee shot to try to hit the green, guarded by a hazard short of the green, from long range. The 17th is a long par 3 that played a club uphill. The 17th had a hazard all down the left and a small pond short right of the green. If I was to play the course 10 times I probably would double one of those holes maybe 7 out of the 10 times. Basically, these holes are as tough as anyone could ever want to play.

Even though the course was tough, it had a good mix of design elements. Besides the elevation change the course featured some risk/reward holes, rock features, and big slopes around the greens which allowed for creativity. I normally do not like really tough courses, but I thought River Ridge was fair. For $30 the conditioning was good. I played after a bit of rain so the course was soft and muddy in some spots and the greens were a bit spongy. Although the quick greens were not the smoothest surfaces that I putted on,  they rolled better than they looked. In fact, the greens did not look good at all as some of the greens had spots that were different colors. Some of the fairways had a lot of divots so I would bet that the course gets a lot of play. I would not put this course on anyone’s “bucket list” but it was a great challenge and an even better value. I ended up paying a lot less money than what I would have paid to play in Myrtle Beach. I am glad that I stopped and my time here salvaged what could have been a disappointing day.

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