Sharing an island with the grand Riverbend course, this little sibling is very cleverly designed. Holes 1-10 play from short tees, then holes 11-20 play to the same baskets from longer tees. The holes on the front loop average around 150 ft., while the back "stretches" to around 250 ft. per hole. The difficulty of the course gradually grows and grows, letting you find your stride in a gentle fashion.
+ Nice variety of shot shapes for such a short course. There are straight shots, hyzers, turnovers/forehands, low ceiling lasers, and sky hyzer crashers. You actually need a fairly complete game to birdie everything here (other than huge distance of course, but some on the back are surprisingly lengthy and may require a fairway driver for some).
+ Nice use of elevation up and down sandy hills.
+ Fairways are all clean, well-defined, well-shaped, and completely fair, while still demanding precise lines. The rough is thick, but appropriately punishing for a short course like this.
+ Beautiful views of the Catawba River on a few holes, giving a taste of the signature holes of the larger Riverbend course.
+ Some seem to dislike hole 3/13, which are only 48/60 ft. downhill, literally a jump putt. It's actually one of my favorite holes! A small tree right in the center cleverly blocks straight-on putts, forcing a hyzer or anhyzer putt. There is also a huge drop-off behind the basket, so airballs will often result in an uphill circle 2 comebacker. I love the risk/reward here! This could be the easiest birdie of your life, the easiest ace to add to your list, or the most embarassing par you'll ever have!

- The basket for hole 5/15 has been pulled, probably because of conflicts with the Riverbend course's new hole 7. So this is now a 9/18 hole course. That means the simple symmetry of the hole numbering is lost, but oh well. The teepads and tee sign are still there though, which could be confusing.
- As you'd expect, there's no long holes to stretch out your arm. I used drivers for a few forehand shots, but backhand-only players may not get to use those discs at all, except maybe on the final hole 20.
- While the course is more of a test than you might expect, it's obviously not an enormous challenge either. It's probably a little boring on its own, and shines more as a complement to the Riverbend course.
- As well-documented on reviews for the Riverbend course, there's paperwork involved with paying and signing in. This is much easier to do in advance online, if you plan far enough ahead.
- Only open on weekends, and maybe not even every weekend. Check their Facebook page for up-to-date information.
- The day use fee covers access to both the Riverbend and Sand Hills courses. It's a bargain if you plan on playing both or just Riverbend. But if Sand Hills is the only one you plan to play, it's pretty steep.

Canaan Riverbend, the big brother, is obviously an incredible course, but it can be daunting, challenging, and dispiriting at times, even from the short tees. Sand Hills is much friendlier for everyone, a nice pick-me-up from whatever bogey traumas you carried over, and a wonderful complement. For such a short course, I thought it was excellently designed and really fun, well worth bagging on the same day as Riverbend.

A fun game you can play is to see how long of a birdie streak you can get, especially once you reach the back and the holes get longer and tougher. I birdied the entire front loop, parking 6 of them, but a couple of tee shots tested me a bit. I added four more straight birdies into the back, before finally succumbing to a par on hole 14. After a few more birdies, I disappointingly finished with three straight pars to end at a -14, that I actually felt was pretty well-deserved.