NorthStone Country Club

NorthStone opened in 1997 at Huntersville, north of Charlotte, to a design by P. B. Dye. It is the newest course on this list by seventy years, and it plays like it: a par 72 of about 6,850 yards from the back, with fourteen sets of tees running from 4,400 yards upward, Mini Verde Bermuda greens and Meyer zoysia fairways.

From the longest Dye tees the course is rated 73.8 with a slope of 147, which puts it among the hardest in North Carolina and harder than the great majority of courses in the state.

What it asks of you

A slope of 147 is the number to think about. It means the course punishes a high handicap disproportionately, which on a Dye design usually comes down to forced carries, severe green surrounds and very little margin either side of the correct line.

Fourteen tee sets are the answer the club provides, and they are not decoration. The gap between 4,400 and 6,850 yards is enormous, and a visitor who picks by ego rather than by handicap will have an unpleasant afternoon. This is a course where choosing one set forward is the single best piece of advice.

Zoysia fairways are worth a word for anyone who has not played them. The ball sits up cleanly, which flatters the strike, but the turf is dense and a club that arrives steeply will bounce rather than dig. Sweep it.

What players say about it

The points below summarise what recurs in public reviews on course sites and booking platforms, of which there are a good number. These are other people’s opinions, not ours: we have not played the course, and we name and quote no one.

What comes up in its favor

• The ratings are high and the sample is large, which for a course of this age is a reasonable signal.
• Conditioning is described as very good, fairways and greens alike.
• The views and the routing through wooded, rolling ground are consistently praised.
• The range of tees genuinely makes it playable for a family or a mixed group.
• The course was named best in the region by the local business press.

What comes up against

• Slope 147 from the back is severe, and reviewers who tried it say so.
• The Dye idiom divides players: what one calls demanding another calls unfair.
• Access is restricted: this is a private club, and a guest needs an arrangement.
• Carolina summer heat and humidity make a midday round hard work.

Getting there and when to go

The club is at Huntersville, about twenty-five minutes north of uptown Charlotte, near Lake Norman.

The season is effectively year-round. April, May, September and October give the best conditions; the summer is hot. Guest arrangements are made with the club.

Green fees

Guest conditions are set by the club. See the club’s own site.

How this page was made

The factual frame comes from public sources: OpenStreetMap for the location, the club’s own site for the architect, the opening year and the grasses, and public course records for the par, the tee sets, the rating and the slope. The opinion section summarises public reviews read in September 2026; we report recurring themes rather than individual voices, and we reproduce no quotations.

We have not played this course, and this page is no substitute for a round. The club has not paid for this page, has not seen it before publication and has no say over its content. If you know the course and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.