Ok, I am taking a job in Greensboro, NC and moving in the next couple of weeks. We are planning on living in the Winston Salem/Clemmons area of NC. I have played Tanglewood and Salem Glen, but I have not played Oak Valley, Bermuda Run or Pudding Ridge. I am looking at joining one of these courses and would like to keep my club dues under $200/month and low initiation. Oak Valley seems to be up that alley and I will have to investigate Salem Glen.

I am also looking for a game on the weekends. My club now has shoot outs on Saturday and Sunday mornings that you can get in and are selected as an A/B/C/D player by your handicap. So that is important as well.

Any of you guys play any of these courses and want to put in your thoughts? I plan on visiting each and getting the membership package schpilll....

As I am not a member at any of the mentioned clubs, I did journey to the area on a five-day golf trip. Here are my observations:

Tanglewood Park - Great public facility. The championship course if one of the best daily free tracks I have played in a while. Great condition. Great service. Top notch! But stay away from the other course. It's a piece of crap. Billy goat golf at its best. I would never consider playing it again. A total waste of time.

Oak Valley - Good course. Nice folks. A little more user friendly than the the other tracks. Good layout, but a little too open for me. Greens were great. I don't think you could go wrong with this course.

Salem Glen - Nice course. But the conditions were a little too rough. Greens were not up to standard. Staff seemed a little too stuffy for a course of the caliber. It might just reflect that we were playing on a day fee pass. Maybe the staff treats its membership better. I'd hope so.

Bermuda Run - The east course was a pleasure to play. Good, solid golf with nice greens. Staff was friendly. But I won't ever darken the door of the west course. Don't get me wrong. The course is fine. Nice target golf on a few holes. Some challenging shots. But the staff was terrible. We entered the grille room following our round and placed our lunch order with the staff. A few moments later, the food and beverage manager came over and asked us to either leave or order either a hot dog or cold sandwich because they had to take care of the membership first. They were kind enough to take our money for green frees, but we can't dine in the grille. Beware!

Just my two cents worth.

Have only played Salem Glen and thought it was nice.
With the drought conditions, it seemed a little rough for the style of club it exuded.

very nice layout.

I live in Winston and have played all of the courses multiple times (if you ever want to play a round, shoot me a PM). I'm not a huge fan of "development golf" so I didn't really fall in love with Oak Valley, Salem Glen, or Bermuda Run. Salem Glen was the best of the three (Definitely avoid Bermuda Run. Mostly cantankerous septuagenarians who play 9 hour rounds, not to mention the slightly less than polite staff, as previously mentioned) and Oak Valley was pretty good, but not a huge challenge.
Pudding Ridge was decent, but the course wasn't in the best condition the times I've played it.
Tanglewood is definitely the best choice. The Championship course is great, but quite a challenge (the PGA championship was held there in the 70s) and is ridiculously heavily bunkered for a public course. The Reynolds Course is actually not that bad; admittedly, the club puts most of its efforts towards the Championship Course, so the condition isn't great, but the Reynolds is the more difficult of the two. Very tight and hilly; plays somewhat like a mountain course. Chances are if you didn't enjoy your round you lost at least a few into the woods.
Just a side note: the Harris Teeter in the shopping center across from Tanglewood's entrance has an incredibly good Thai restaurant inside it, definitely worth a visit.

Having played in Winston more times than I care to count (I have alot of friends that I meet up to play with and Winston is the halfway point), this post is spot on.

I love the Championship course, it's one of my favorites to play period.

I've played the US Am qualifier at Oak Valley and liked the course. I think that it is normally in better shape than Salem Glen. I think it gets a little less play. Lots of good golf in the Triad area.

NCJag,

I am currently getting my MBA at Wake Forest and am about to take a job in Greensboro. I am looking at the Clemmons/Winston area to live....do you know anything about membership at Tanglewood? I would expect it to be expensive and even if not, I would expect that it is CROWDED!

I am leaning more towards Oak Valley I believe due to the low membership costs. Salem Glen will be an option if we move into that neighborhood....we'll be house hunting in a few weeks.

I don't mind the course being a little open (that is similar to my course today) as long as it presents a challenge, has nice facilities and has an area for my wife to take my son to the pool. That is about all I am looking for there.

If you can ever get out during the week, I would enjoy playing a round with you....right now, I've got kid duty on the weekends.

I play in that area about every weekend, although we usually play some of the less expensive public tracks. My group is comprised of 8 guys, and only 2 are under the age of 40, but we like to walk, and Oak Valley and Salem Glen do not allow walking by non-members that I know of, I could be wrong there though. Another one you may want to check out is Meadowlands, it's pretty good. Also, though they don't offer the type memberships you are looking for, you may want to check out Oak Hollow in High Point and Jamestown Park in Jamestown. There is a TON of really good public golf within 45 minutes or so of Winston, with Bryan Park in Greensboro, Stoney Creek just on the other side of Greensboro, and Mill Creek and The Challenge in the Burlington area. As for Pudding Ridge, it's a very easy track that's usually in pretty decent condition unless there has been a recent heavy rain. That place does not drain well at all, and does have a couple of goofy holes. By all means, if you get here before the Winter kicks off, you should drive up to the Elkin area and check out Old Beau, it's a lot of fun. As for my group, we would welcome you any time you wanted to join us for a round.

Chili,
I'm not entirely sure about this (because I usually tag along w/friends at Forsyth CC or Old Town CC, so I don't go out to Tanglewood regularly), but I don't think they offer any sort of membership. I know you can buy a gate pass, but I think that's about it. The course is usually quite full in the mornings, but after 1 or so you can walk on and not see another person for 4-5 holes. It is usually pretty empty (which has actually caused them to lose business and subsequently lower prices) if you don't want to get on at 630 am.

I'd say Oak Valley is probably the most "family friendly" of the clubs, and definitely has a good course to introduce Chili Jr. to the game.

Also, congrats with your MBA. Calloway is definitely no cakewalk, and it is one of the top schools in the country (It's no coincidence a golfwrx member went to a business school that shares a name with a golf company, I would imagine). I know I won't be out of school on a weekday for awhile, but I will shoot you a pm at some point when I get the opportunity, and I look forward to getting to hit the links with you (Or anyone else that's looking for a game. I know very few people that play regularly!) Good luck with the house hunt, and I'll see you around Winston.