I’ve played a lot of mountain golf courses over the years, and most of them blur together after a while: pretty scenery, tight fairways, elevation changes in both directions. Olde Beau is not one of those courses. I could sketch you the routing from memory a year after playing it, hole by hole, and that’s about the highest compliment I can pay a golf course. Memorability is a rare and underrated quality in course design, and Billy Satterfield built it into every corner of this property when Olde Beau opened in 1992.
Perched atop the Blue Ridge Mountains in Roaring Gap, North Carolina, at roughly 3,200 feet above sea level, Olde Beau Resort & Golf Club is a semi-private resort community that pairs one of the South’s great golf experiences with the kind of long-range mountain views that most golfers never encounter in a round of golf, anywhere. I’ve stood on tee boxes from the Blue Ridge to the Rockies, and I can count on one hand the courses that let you see this far into the distance while you’re also trying to figure out how to keep your tee shot on the short grass. The course plays through more than 1,500 feet of elevation change from its highest to lowest points, which means the views aren’t a gimmick tacked onto one signature hole; they’re baked into the entire round. PGA TOUR veteran Curtis Strange, a man who has seen his share of mountain golf, called Olde Beau “one of the greatest mountain courses ever built,” and after playing it myself, I’m not inclined to argue with him. Check out the view behind the 15th green, which plunges deep into the Yadkin Valley. Olde Beau’s buried behind the green.
The name itself has a nice story behind it. Olde Beau is named for Beau, the faithful bulldog belonging to original developer Billy Satterfield, proof that even in an industry obsessed with pedigree and prestige, sometimes the best courses are named after the best dogs. GOLFWEEK Magazine once recognized the course among its “Top 50 Development Courses in the Southeast,” which tells you the folks who evaluate this stuff for a living see what Strange and I both saw.
From the Gold Tees, Olde Beau stretches to 6,458 yards playing to a course rating of 72.1 and a slope of 136, numbers that reflect both the elevation and the shot-making demands that are built into the routing. I found the Blue Tees at 6,036 yards (70.1/133) to offer a good challenge and still let me leave with a little dignity. With five sets of tees and a par of 72 across 18 holes, there’s a tee box here for every game, which matters on a course where the terrain itself is already asking plenty of questions.
As you would expect when playing a true mountain golf course, Olde Beau has its share of holes that require a touch of precision off the tee. One of its many charms is that you’ll be presented with the opportunity to hit several different clubs on your tee shots throughout the round, including driver, fairway woods, and mid-to-long irons.
My favorite hole was Number 17, a 464-yard par 5, dogleg left. For the majority of players, it’s a three-shot hole, considering you can’t hit much more than a long iron off the tee. Play your tee shot left of the rock (you’ll see what I’m talking about). The layup shot is most critical on this hole; there’s about a 150-foot drop down to the green, and if you’re like me and hit a good fairway wood, you won’t see where the ball lands until you get down there. The approach shot is back uphill onto the putting surface. Number 17 is a fun, challenging, and scenic golf hole.
Olde Beau is easy to get to from many North Carolina metropolitan areas. It’s less than one and a half hours from Charlotte, Winston-Salem, High Point, and Greensboro, which makes it one of the most accessible mountain resorts in North Carolina. You don’t need to carve out a week or plan an expedition; this is legitimately a course you can play as a day trip from the Triad or Charlotte, or better yet, an overnight escape that doesn’t eat your whole weekend in windshield time. And once you’re up there, the payoff isn’t just the golf and the views. Summer temperatures at Olde Beau typically run 10 to 15 degrees cooler than the rest of North Carolina, which is reason enough to head to Roaring Gap in July.
And Olde Beau makes it easy to stay right on property. The resort offers several types of accommodations including studio villas, two-bedroom villas, and a mix of homes and cottages, so families and groups have real options depending on how long they’re staying and how many people they’re bringing. The stay-and-play packages are built around that flexibility, letting you pair your lodging with your golf without having to piece together reservations on your own. The Clubhouse itself is worth lingering in: the stonework echoes the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the views of the mountains and sunsets from inside are every bit as good as what you saw on the course. Members and guests have their choice of casual and fine dining, with the resort’s Executive Chef running the kitchen, and for something more relaxed, Beau’s Grille serves breakfast, lunch, snacks, and beverages throughout the day during the season.
The surrounding area only adds to the case for staying longer than a round. Roaring Gap sits within easy striking distance of Elkin, Mount Airy, and Sparta, three charming small towns in the northwest corner of the state that reward a little exploring, whether that’s wine tasting in Elkin, a nostalgic stroll through Andy Griffith’s hometown of Mount Airy, or the quiet, unhurried pace of Sparta. If you’re the type who likes to build a trip around more than just tee times, this stretch of Northwest North Carolina gives you plenty to do between rounds.
The Blue Ridge Parkway is also nearby in case you’d like to take a scenic drive. The surrounding mountains offer some genuinely good hiking, and this part of the state is well known among fly fishing anglers for its cold mountain streams. It’s the kind of place where you could spend a long weekend and never touch your clubs after the round and still leave feeling like you got your money’s worth.
As far as mountain golf goes, Olde Beau has earned a spot on my short list. The holes stick with you, the views are genuinely rare, and the drive to get there is short enough that there’s no good excuse not to go. Between the golf, the cooler summer air, the nearby small towns, and the ease of staying and playing right on property, this is a trip worth building a weekend, or more, around.
For more information or to arrange a visit, go to www.oldebeauresort.com.