Pinehurst

I think 2 is close a grand to play, you have to stay at the Carolina hotel and get a caddy. 4 and 6 are also suppose to be pretty good. 7 and 9 are the private courses but the public can play them. I recently played 9 and liked it, some great looking holes.

I own a condo at the nearby Talamore Golf Resort.  I know that golfers staying at Talamore can book several of the Pinehurst courses, but not all.  I'm pretty sure that to book #2, you need to stay at the Pinehurst Resort, or possible at the Pinecrest Inn.  I've played all of the Pinehurst courses except #7.  My favorites are 2, 4, and 8.  3 is the shortest, but has a lot of the original Donald Ross design remaining.  9 has recently been acquired, and is excellent too, a nice Jack Nicklaus design.

There's a lot of great golf in the area outside of the Pinehurst Resort courses.  For more Donald Ross designs, look at Pine Needles, MidPines, and the very reasonably priced Southern Pines GC.  MidSouth is an excellent Arnold Palmer design, the sister course to Talamore, which is itself a very solid course.  You might want to explore costs by talking to both the Pinehurst resort, to price out a package, and to some of the non-Pinehurst packagers, such as the Talamore folks.

Feel free to keep in touch with me, I visit the area a couple times a year, and can recommend some of my favorite bars and restaurants if you decide to go.  There's another TST member who lives at Talamore that may chime in as well.

To be honest, I don't remember.  I played #4 as a guest of a member, so you'll almost certainly pay more as an "off-the street" player, assuming you can get on.  The following is from the www.pinehurst.com FAQ page:

Can I make a tee time at Pinehurst Resort without staying overnight?
Pinehurst reserves advance tee times for members and resort guests. If you wish to play one of our courses and are not a resort guest, you may call Social Sales at (855) 835-0771, opt 5, beginning five days out from date of play, for all courses except No. 2. For course No. 2, please call  the main golf shop for tee times and rates beginning 24 hours in advance of your play date at (910) 235-8141.

I can't find any mention of the cost to play any of the courses.  Bear in mind that the summer is a somewhat lower-demand season, so that you'll probably be able to find good golf with very little notice.

I played with a member and just paid the guest fee.

#5 is a good course running out from the main clubhouse, predominantly between #1 and #3.  #6 is "off-campus".  I agree that staying at the resort is great, and I'd actually choose the Holly Inn over the Carolina, I just like the smaller, more intimate feel of the building.  However, from my memory many of the golf packages include dinner every night, as well as breakfast in the morning.  As good as the food is at the Pinehurst dining rooms, there are LOTS of really good restaurants in the area.  If its me, I'd pick a package without dinner, and check out the neighboring restaurants.

For me, #2 is the best, based on the history as well as the quality of the golf challenge.  #4 is the most interesting, visually.  When the course was rebuilt, Tom Fazio installed clusters of very small pot bunkers, and severely crowned greens, perhaps more severe than on #2

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.1843563,-79.4600497,464m/data=!3m1!1e3

I hope this link to Google Maps gives you a good view of some of these clusters.  I'd put #4 and #8 about even in my personal enjoyment.  On the other hand, you could play some really excellent courses in that area without spending $240.