Old Town
Old Town
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Course Type
Private -
GOLF Top 100 World Rank (2023-24)
84 -
Year
1939 -
Architect
Perry Maxwell -
Par
70 -
Yardage
7,037
Course Overview
With sweeping, cross-course vistas punctuated by tawny native grasses and an exemplary routing that twists around miles of creek beds, side-slopes and artistic bunkering, Old Town’s restoration portrays the enduring spirit of classic golf architecture. Perry Maxwell built this inspired North Carolina layout on a former R.J. Reynolds horse farm. The manner by which Maxwell draped the fairways across the rolling landscape resulted in few level lies. No wonder former Demon Deacon Lanny Wadkins called it the best course for training serious young players. Wake Forest’s golf teams practice at Old Town, which gives them a huge home-field advantage as few collegiate golfers are accustomed to putting on undulating Maxwell greens or consistently hitting approach shots from uneven stances. The club’s longtime green chair analyzes every minute detail of the design during his annual walks around the property with former Wake grad, Bill Coore. A 2023 bunker restoration project and the conversion of the greens from bent to Bermuda has the course climbing even higher. (Photo: Jon Cavalier)
3 things to know
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Hole everyone talks about
The 14th, a short, scoreable par-4, has been a favorite of Maxwell-ites for as long as the course has existed. -
Best non-golf amenity
The club’s ties to the Wake Forest golf team, which practices here. The Demon Deacon connection is hard to miss with photos of many Wake Forest greats — Arnold Palmer, Billy Andrade, Webb Simpson — on the clubhouse walls. -
Insider tip
The club has a prominent Augusta National connection. It was founded by the Babcock Family, a group of 20th-century tobacco magnates who had ties to Reynolds and Co., a New York-based investment firm. Through Reynolds and Co., the Babcocks overlapped often with one Clifford Roberts — the founder and first chairman of Augusta National. When Roberts heard the Babcocks were thinking about forming their own golf course, he implored them to hire the designer Perry Maxwell, who had recently recontoured the greens at Augusta National. This is how Maxwell became the designer behind Old Town, which remains one of the country’s favorites among the design community.