Porters Neck Country Club members know they have it all — a memorable, Tom Fazio-designed golf course, a beautiful clubhouse, countless amenities including year-round family activities and enduring fellowship among the club’s vibrant membership. 

And with Porters Neck’s renovation and enhancement of its golf practice facility, long-time member Paul Chase says he feels an even greater sense of pride in his club.

“Now, I feel like our practice facilities elevate the level of the club, with how the facilities look and how they’re perceived by not only our membership but outside folks here in Wilmington,” says Chase. “They come to the club and they’re very impressed with how everything looks now, the facilities.”

The impressive renovations include an overhaul of the short-game area and the addition of a four-hole short course, which opened to members in August 2021.

“Not that you're showing off, but it’s really nice to hear their feedback, to hear positive feedback about what we did and how it turned out,” Chase says. “It's been a really nice improvement to the club over the last year or so.”

Along with the revamped short-game practice area at Porters Neck, McConnell Golf also rebuilt and lowered the entire driving range tee to offer improved visibility from the rear of the tee, sloping it toward the front for better drainage. The short-game area features for game improvement include:

  • A 360° area, with a four-hole short course
  • A new, 8,500 square foot putting green
  • Laser Link rangefinders and target greens on the range with Zoysia definition
  • Bunkers around target greens, with solid surface for ball retrieval
  • Five new, greenside practice bunkers with concrete shells and new sand around the new short course

“The opportunities that the new area has opened up for instruction has been tremendous,” says Robert Loper, Porters Neck head golf professional.

Chase adds that the new area is much more spacious, too. “There’s a number of chipping greens to play too, there’s a new putting green, so there’s plenty of area for members on the driving range.”

Chase says PNCC’s avid golfing membership has given extremely positive feedback on the new short-game facility. “I just think that the ability to practice now versus how it was previously is a night and day difference,” he says. “I’d say improvement of everyone’s short-game, as long as they go out and use it, is going to be possible.”

Porters Neck member John Pisarek says he’s seen first-hand how the short-game facility can elevate a golfer’s skills. “I played with a higher handicap golfer yesterday who made a difficult chip shot look easy,” says Pisarek, who has been a club member with his wife, Laura, since 2008. “Unsolicited, he said ‘thank the new McConnell short-game ractice area for the ability to hit that shot.’”

Pisarek, a 5-handicap, said the short-game area offers golfers the opportunity to practice every shot they will face on the golf course.

“The short course offers the opportunity to practice chipping and sand shots from multiple elevations, different bunker depths and simulates shots needed not only at PNCC, but any other course that you would play,” he says. He adds that any golfer – from beginner to pro – can improve their game by using the short-game facility.

Chase says his wife, Deehje, and their 7-year-old daughter, Miller, are enjoying the practice area even though they are not yet avid golfers. “We’re up there quite a bit. We like to go out and utilize the range and the short-game area and the practice green to get together.”

“The general takeaway is it’s been an awesome improvement at the club,” Chase says. “Everyone’s really excited about how it turned out.”