Catawba Country Club

Catawba Country Club is a member-owned private club on about 200 acres of rolling Piedmont farmland, six miles south of Hickory and five miles west of Newton. Alongside the 18-hole course the club has a driving range, a practice green and a large putting green, an indoor/outdoor fitting and training facility, a golf shop with PGA staff, and locker rooms, plus tennis, pickleball, fitness and swimming. Ernie's Grill serves casual meals. The clubhouse was rebuilt after a 1970 fire and enlarged in a renovation completed in 2000. The course is a par-72 Donald Ross design, 36 on each nine, with four par 3s and four par 5s. It is not long by modern standards, and the club's own guide says scores are decided on and around the greens: the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th and 18th slope hard from back to front, and the long green at the 8th, the hardest hole, tilts from left to right. Water comes into play early, with a pond and a creek on the par-5 2nd and a creek about 80 yards short of the 5th green, and tree lines frame most holes. Members paid for a 2016 restoration of the greens and bunkers from Ross's original plans, and the greens were converted to Mach 1 ultradwarf Bermudagrass in 2024. The Carolinas Golf Association brings its state championships here regularly.