Cape Fear Country Club

Cape Fear Country Club was founded in 1896 by a group of Wilmington golfers. Its first course was on the former Hilton Plantation north of the city, then a public park; the club later moved to the north side of Oleander Drive and then to its present ground on the south side. Donald Ross's work on the current course dates from the 1920s. Top100GolfCourses and a 2005 trade report give 1922, restoration architect Kris Spence gives 1926, and LINKS Magazine says the club came into its own in that decade when Ross added seven new holes and redesigned the others.

Ross came back in 1946, two years before his death. According to Spence, construction of a major road had eliminated five holes, and Ross, working with his associate J.B. McGovern, replaced them and drew a new set of plans for all eighteen holes. Andrew Green, who restored the course in 2018-19, said Ross worked on the property at least three times. The Ross plans, with green outlines and cross-sections, are what both modern restorations worked from.

After Ross, George Cobb remodelled several holes in the 1980s; Top100GolfCourses credits John LaFoy with work in 1986 and Willard Byrd in 1993. Two holes were eliminated for clubhouse expansion and parking. Spence restored the course in 2005-06 and Green carried out a second restoration in 2018-19.

Holes to Know

From the Gold tees the course is par 36-36 at 6,940 yards, 3,612 out and 3,328 in. Each nine has two par 3s and two par 5s, and the front nine carries the length, with the 2nd, 4th and 9th all par 4s over 450 yards.

The 456-yard 4th from the Gold tees is stroke index 1. It bends right around a single bunker on the inside of the corner, about 165 yards short of the green, and the approach crosses a creek that cuts diagonally in front of the green and bends away to the left into a pond beyond the trees. The green has no bunkers; its irregular, lobed outline is narrow at the front.

The 481-yard 9th from the Gold tees is the longest par 4 on the card. It bends right around a belt of pines that lines the whole right side, has no fairway bunkers, and finishes at a long, narrow green with one bunker on its left.

The 337-yard 13th from the Gold tees is the sharpest dogleg on the course, turning right with a creek along the inside of the bend and on past the right side of the green. Bunkers sit at the corner on the right and on the outside of the turn on the left, and three more cross the front of a green that is wider than it is deep. One reviewer describes the 13th as a newer hole rather than part of Ross's layout.

The 151-yard 14th from the Gold tees is Spence's, built in 2006 by filling part of an irrigation pond. The tee shot carries water, more water runs along the left of the green, and four bunkers surround the putting surface.

The 325-yard 18th from the Gold tees is the shortest par 4 and the newest version of the finishing hole: Spence routed it in 2006 back to the site of the old 18th green beside the clubhouse. Two fairway bunkers sit right of centre about 75 to 90 yards short of the green, and a bunker short of the putting surface guards the direct line in.

Ross's Design Here

What survives of Ross at Cape Fear is mostly what was rebuilt from his drawings. The 1946 Ross and McGovern set covers all eighteen holes and includes detailed green plans and cross-sections. Spence used them in 2005-06 to restore most of the greens and bunkers, and Green used them again in 2018-19. Green said the greens were shaped using the outlines on Ross's plans as a guide, which gave the putting surfaces a wide range of hole locations, and that the bunkers follow the depths given in Ross's notes, most of them 3.5 to 4 feet.

The height of the greens is the clearest Ross trait the restorations went back to. Green lowered every green by 18 inches or more to what he called a Ross-like elevation, so that players who do not spin the ball can run it on. A reviewer playing the course in 2020 put the highest green at about six feet above its approach.

The routing is the least certain part of the Ross inheritance. Five holes were replaced in 1946 and two more were lost to the clubhouse, and the 14th and 18th took their present form only in 2006. The 18th green site is documented as Ross's original finishing green. No source identifies which of the other corridors are Ross's 1920s holes.

Historical Significance

Cape Fear was a PGA Tour stop for more than two decades. The Azalea Open, the centrepiece of Wilmington's Azalea Festival, was played at the club from 1949 to 1971, as an official tour event through 1970 and as an unofficial one in its final year. From 1950 to 1965 it served as a tune-up for the Masters. Arnold Palmer won in 1957 and lost the next year's 18-hole playoff to Howie Johnson by a single stroke, a penalty he called on himself. Jerry Barber won three times, in 1953, 1961 and 1963, and other winners included Lloyd Mangrum in 1951, Art Wall Jr. in 1959, his Masters year, and Dave Marr in 1962. In 2025 LINKS Magazine ranked Cape Fear ninth among North Carolina's historic tournament courses.

The club also has a long record with the Carolinas Golf Association. It hosted the Carolinas Amateur in 1912, before Ross's course was built, and again on the Ross course in 1996, 2008 and 2020, when the winners were Cordes Ford, Ben Kohles and Landson Robbins. It hosted the 7th North Carolina Super Senior Amateur in 2014.

The ground has older history. Civil War cannonballs were unearthed during the 2019 renovation, and in 2020 the club invited UNC Wilmington historian Chris Fonvielle to speak on the property's Civil War past.

Changes Since Ross

The first major loss came before Ross's death: by 1946 a new road had taken five holes, which Ross and McGovern replaced. Later, two holes were eliminated for clubhouse expansion and parking. The clubhouse was placed in the middle of the old 18th fairway and 10th hole, two new holes were built on the far side of the property, and the old 17th became the finishing hole. George Cobb's 1980s remodel altered several more holes.

Kris Spence's 2005-06 restoration brought the finish back to the clubhouse. He shifted the 2nd hole about 70 feet to the right, which made room for a short par-4 18th played to the old 18th green site, and built a new par-3 14th on fill in part of an irrigation pond. He restored most of the remaining greens and bunkers from the Ross plans and cross-sections.

Andrew Green's restoration broke ground in December 2018 after more than three years of planning, with McDonald & Sons as contractor, and cost about $5 million. The old bentgrass greens drained poorly, so every green was rebuilt, lowered and converted to ultradwarf bermuda. The bunkers were rebuilt in a Ross-inspired style. Green said the property once held Civil War encampments and batteries, and that his team tried to accentuate those landforms. Around the underused practice area Green solved chronic drainage problems, widened the playing corridors and built a nine-hole par-3 course with four double greens and a single green on the space once taken by a par 4 and a par 3, 1980s holes that had been abandoned.

Uncertainties

• Ross's first date: Spence gives 1926; Top100GolfCourses and Golf Course Industry in 2005 give 1922; LINKS says the 1920s, with seven new holes and the others redesigned. This listing says the 1920s.

• The Azalea Open's start at Cape Fear: Top100GolfCourses and LINKS put it in 1945, but Wikipedia lists the 1945 edition at Mobile Country Club in Alabama, and the club and the Carolinas Golf Association give 1949 to 1971. This listing follows 1949 to 1971.

• Late-20th-century work: Spence names George Cobb in the 1980s; Top100GolfCourses lists John LaFoy in 1986 and Willard Byrd in 1993. Their exact scopes are not documented.

• The 13th: one Top100GolfCourses reviewer says it is not part of the original Ross layout; no other source addresses it.

Sources & Notes

1. Cape Fear Country Club, "About", https://www.capefearcountryclub.net/About (founding, Hilton Park and relocations, clubhouse rebuilds, Azalea Open 1949-1971, facilities).

2. Cape Fear Country Club, "The History of the Grounds", July 2022, https://www.capefearcountryclub.net/archived-site-2025/Home/CFCC_blog/July_2022/The_History_of_the_Grounds (Civil War cannonballs found in 2019; Fonvielle talk).

3. Ran Morrissett, Golf Club Atlas, "Feature Interview with Kris W. Spence", 2017, https://golfclubatlas.com/feature-interview/feature-interview-with-kris-w-spence/ (1926 and 1946 Ross work, McGovern, lost holes, Cobb remodel, 2006 changes to the 2nd, 14th and 18th, use of Ross plans).

4. Golf Course Architecture, "Andrew Green restores Donald Ross features at Cape Fear", 9 May 2019, https://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/content/PgrID/573/PageID/7/artmid/574/articleid/13416 (scope of the 2018-19 restoration, Green's quotes, short course).

5. Top100GolfCourses, "Cape Fear", https://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/cape-fear (1922 date, LaFoy 1986, Byrd 1993, Spence 2006, $5 million Green restoration).

6. Mark White, Top100GolfCourses review, December 2020, https://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/cape-fear/reviews/27542 (hole-by-hole description, green heights, the 13th, houses on 10-12).

7. Golf Course Industry, "Cape Fear readies for renovation", 2005, https://www.golfcourseindustry.com/news/cape-fear-readies-for-renovation (1922 and 1946 dates, Spence project scope; read from search excerpt only).

8. LINKS Magazine, Joe Passov, "North Carolina's 10 Best Historic Tournament Courses", 2025, https://linksmagazine.com/north-carolinas-10-best-historic-tournament-courses/ (1920s Ross work, Azalea Open winners, No. 9 ranking).

9. Carolinas Golf Association, "Preview: 106th Carolinas Amateur Championship", 6 July 2020, https://www.carolinasgolf.org/Blog/preview-106th-carolinas-amateur-championship (Azalea Open 1949-1971, Carolinas Amateur years).

10. Carolinas Golf Association, Carolinas Amateur championship history, https://carolinasgolf.org/Images/CarolinasGolf/2025/Championship%20History/NEW_Carolinas_Amateur_25.pdf (winners at Cape Fear).

11. Carolinas Golf Association, "Cape Fear CC Hosts 7th N.C. Super Senior Amateur", September 2014, https://www.carolinasgolf.org/Blog/cape-fear-cc-hosts-7th-n-c-super-senior-amateur-sept-29-30 (2014 event, oldest private club).

12. Wikipedia, "Azalea Open Invitational", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azalea_Open_Invitational (winners, 1958 playoff, Masters tune-up years, 1945 venue; cites contemporary AP reports).

13. Top100GolfCourses member review, https://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/cape-fear/reviews/45728 (back nine 10-12 through residential area).