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Homeowner Testimonial, Ed Sharp

March, 2007

Member since 1987, resident since 1996, typically there from May until end of the year.

“I’ve never seen anything as pretty as Linville Ridge golf course. The vistas are magnificent, excellent layout. I’ve been a golfer all my life, I know the game very well and I’ve played all around and I’ve never seen anything quite like Linville Ridge. I joined it sight unseen because some friends of mine had played it and told me it was the absolute best course in the mountains. The first time I saw it I thought it was the best decision I ever made. It’s wonderful, we love it here and we love living here.

“The Lutgert’s do an absolutely wonderful job keeping the golf course up and the amenities, particularly the dining and the places to dine, it’s absolutely gorgeous.

“It’s a challenging course and we have a lot of folks here who can play the game, both scratch golfers and 30 handicappers. It’s easy to get a game. The golf staff is superb. It’s fun and you can play a round of golf without taking all day. For those of us who love the game of golf, every hole is different and every day is different. Except for the 4th of July and Labor Day, it’s easy to get a tee time.

“The course itself is in absolutely superb shape, always. The condition of the fairways and the greens and the traps – it’s well maintained. You get over that pretty quick and then you see all the little nuances like to flowers. And then you get on the tee and look at the green and say ‘My God, this place is gorgeous.’ Then you get on the green and look back at the tee and say ‘This place is gorgeous,’ because you’ve got the vistas every hole. You can’t take it for granted. Even the guys who have played here for a long time, we get on number seven, which is our signature hole at Linville Ridge, and we stand there and look and it’s absolutely gorgeous. If we played seven days a week, we’d still get on the tee and ask ‘Can you believe how pretty this place is?’

“It’s a very fair but challenging golf course. When you don’t hit the ball in bad places, Augusta National is a pretty easy golf course. The same is true of Linville Ridge. You can make a birdie on a hole one day and a ten the next if you hit it in the wrong spot. There are just some places here you don’t want to hit it. Other than that, it’s a player friendly golf course. It rewards good shots and penalizes bad shots just like a good golf course should.

“You need to have every part of your game to succeed, particularly putting. The greens are the most challenging part of the golf course and really what makes the golf course. The mountains create optical illusions sometimes, and you may think it will break one way and it will break another. They’re usually pretty fast so if you’re not on your putting game you’re going to have a long day. You don’t really need to be long off the tee or play your long irons well, but you do need to be able to chip and putt in order to score well.

“In terms of physical condition, Linville Ridge is as good or better than any other golf course with which I’m familiar. But what is head and shoulders above everything else here is the beauty. Nothing else around here is quite as beautiful as Linville Ridge – the flower beds, the vistas. And that’s what sets this place apart. Other courses in the area can compare with the condition of the course at Linville Ridge, but the beauty of the place, they just can’t touch it.

“The highest I’ve ever seen it is 80 degrees. Usually there’s a 20 degree differential between here and Charlotte in the summertime. If it’s 95 in Charlotte, it’s 75 here and we’ll get a breeze. A lot of times in Charlotte, it’s just still. A still 98 degree day with 90 percent humidity is awful. You don’t get those here. It’s 70-75 degrees, nice breeze blowing and it’s wonderful... It’s a good place to live.

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