• By Todd Luck
• Posted Monday, May 18, 2020

Tanglewood ranks among best golf courses in NC

Business North Carolina Magazine included the Tanglewood Park Championship Golf Course in its top rankings of golf courses in the state.

The course ranked 82nd in the state’s Top 100 Golf Courses. It was 24th in the Top 50 Courses You Can Play, which covers the state’s best public and semi-private courses. It was ranked fourth place for the Best Bang for the Buck among Triad courses.

The picks were made by the NC Golf Pro Panel, which is made of golfers, writers, and business people who’ve traveled around the state rating the state’s best links. This was the magazine’s 25th annual report of the state’s best 100 courses.

Tanglewood’s historic Championship Course opened in 1958 and was designed by legendary architect, Robert Trent Jones, Sr. It hosted the 1974 PGA Championship when Lee Trevino beat Jack Nicklaus by one stroke. The course was also home of the 1986 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, which was won by future PGA Tour standout Billy Mayfair.

The Senior PGA Tour’s Vantage Championship took place there from 1987 to 2002, and was won by such notables as Lee Trevino, Gary Player, Hale Irwin and Larry Nelson. It was the first "million dollar purse" on the Senior Tour and remained the richest prize purse for several years.

The Championship Course is built on gentle, rolling hills surrounded by the picturesque nature in the County’s largest park. Five sets of tees lets golfers of all abilities experience this historic course.

The course underwent an extensive renovation by Robert Trent Jones II and Richard Mandell in 2018, including converting the greens to Champion Bermudagrass from bentgrass, rebuilding and repositioning all of the bunkers, and creating new play angles and options on many holes.

“It has a wonderful variety of holes, which make it fun and challenging to play,” said Tanglewood Golf Professional Michael Wilcox. “And the course is surrounded by the beauty of Tanglewood Park.”