What Type of Greens Does North Ridge Country Club in Raleigh Have?

This is a question I am going to answer time and again as I now know the importance of greens. Every time someone asks me if I want to play at a private country club my first question is always, “what type of greens do they have?” Today, I played the North Ridge Oaks course and can confirm they have bentgrass greens. I was told one of the courses, the Oaks or the Lakes, will go to Champion Bermuda next year but I cannot remember which course is converting.

An interesting note about the bentgrass on The Oaks course is the fact that it is much more durable than the bentgrass at Hasentree. When I hit a wedge into a green, with spin, at Hasentree, there is a huge ballmark that is often difficult to fix because it spits so much of the green away from the ball. That is definitely not the case on the North Ridge The Oaks course.

I had five or six shots under 120 yards that would leave craters at Hasentree and they hardly left a mark at North Ridge. This makes me believe this is a hybrid bentgrass with a strong root structure. I almost want to believe there was some bermuda in it as the putting did not take as many breaks as our bentgrass greens at Hasentree.

Part of my putting struggles had to do with playing a new course but there were several putts that were perplexing in that I read way too much break and they hardly moved at all, which is what tends to happen to me on Champion Bermuda.

I had one of my best ball striking days of the year which made me enjoy the course even better. If you are considering joining a course in Raleigh with bentgrass greens North Ridge would be a good choice. That said, you better have a 200 to 220 yard club in your bag as there are some very demanding tee shots in which you cannot use your driver.