TPC Piper Glen (Charlotte, NC on 03/10/18)

I started an Instagram account last year as a way to show a few of my golf course pictures, and to see photos of courses that I want to play. Little did I know that it is a way of networking within the golf community! There is a usual group of members that I’ll interact with and it resulted in an invite to play a couple private courses in North Carolina this weekend! I wasn’t able to attend the Friday festivities with the Instagram crew, but made it down on Saturday.

Every time I see “Charlotte” and “golf” mentioned, there is bound to be a comment about how bad the public golf is in the area. That’s not necessarily my experience, as I’ve played four courses in the area and thought they were all fine. But, as I’m sure you know by now my golf course standards aren’t very high! Charlotte isn’t a golf destination like Pinehurst or the coastal areas in North Carolina, but if you are a public player then I wouldn’t let what you read scare you away from golfing while in town. Anyway, today was about some private options!

I was up early on Saturday for the 4.5 hour drive from Charlottesville to Charlotte! The drive wasn’t all that bad, besides some construction on I-85 before I got to the beltway. Our first course of the day was TPC Piper Glen, which is an Arnold Palmer design. For those that may not know, “TPC” stands for Tournament Players Club and there are multiple TPC courses scattered throughout the world. These courses typically have a tour event there (PGA, Web.com, or Champions) or have had one in the past. From what I read, TPC Piper Glen hosted a Champions event back in the 1990’s to early 2000’s. It is always fun to play a tour course!

We were the first group off and played from the blue tees which are 71.4/133/6526. The course opens with an easy, short par 4 that is only 354 yards. I like being able to hack it around on the 1st hole and still be able to have a chance for a par! And, if you can keep it sort of straight, the first seven holes shouldn’t give you much trouble. I was a bit uncomfortable over the ball but managed to have some birdie and par looks early on. Tee shots move both ways to begin, so if the shot shape doesn’t fit your eye then you might want to lay back. In typical Palmer style you can typically play your misses off the tee. As you progress through the round, the course makes you miss on one side.

I think TPC Piper Glen starts to get more tricky in the middle section. The 8th through the 14th is a pretty good stretch of holes, and it becomes clearer on these holes that the course was designed for really good players! These holes have some nice variety and start to test your game.

The 8th through the 10th have water in play on every shot and there is a lot that can go wrong! The 8th is a 153 yard par 3 where you’ll want to draw an iron to avoid a water hazard. If you overdo it then you’ll be dropping somewhere. On the 9th you have to dodge hazards right when hitting your drive and left when hitting your approach. Then on the 10th, a hazard runs down the left side of the hole. If you aren’t careful (like me) you can even chip it into the hazard, because it is so close to the green!

The 11th and 12th can require some deft touch around the greens before you play the 13th, which is the longest par 4 at TPC Piper Glen. The final hole in this “tricky stretch” is the 14th, which is my favorite hole. It is a 363 yard par 4 that is straightaway to the green and has a great look, as the hole rises ever so slightly to the green. You can hit whatever club you want off the tee, as long as you can find the fairway. If you can favor the right side of the fairway that is best because trees overhang on the left side. The green is small, guarded by water and slopes from front to back. What should be a birdie hole actually is one of the tougher holes on the course!

When I think about the Palmer courses that I’ve played over the years, I found TPC Piper Glen more difficult than the average Palmer course. Generally speaking, I found that there was more strategy needed here when picking lines for the approaches. Plus, the overhanging trees almost force you to shape a shot. At 6,900 from the tips, I think TPC would have been an entertaining course to watch a Champions event. With that in mind, I think the design is pretty good and would have made for good TV, with plenty of lost ball trouble starting on the 8th hole!

The conditions at TPC were good, even for a winter round. The bermuda fairways and tees were starting to green up and signs of spring were everywhere! I had nice lies in the fairways and the greens rolled extremely well. Nothing wobbled off line! In fact, the greens were the talk of our round because they were so fast! There was no way to keep shots on certain sections of the greens and I was forced to pick lines that just didn’t seem natural to me. With the greens this fast, you almost had to know where the ridges were when standing in the fairway and try to feed approaches off those slopes. I know some people like super speedy greens, but they were too quick for my taste. But, I’m guessing the members like that type of speed. From what the staff was telling us, the course will be converting the greens to bermuda in the near future.

It is hard for me not to like a Palmer course, and TPC Piper Glen is no exception. As an added bonus, I had some good company for the round! There are other Palmer courses that I like better, but I don’t think you’d go wrong if you can play here.

#1 (354 yard par 4):