Deadman's Pinehurst Trip

[DeadMan]

With a lot of help from @iacas, I was able to take a great trip down to Pinehurst this past week. Took advantage of having a day off because of Veteran's Day and spent 4 days in the Pinehurst area. @iacas, @Hardspoon, @GolfLug, and @NCGolfer joined me for at least 1 round on the trip. I got in 2 courses in Pinehurst proper - Southern Pines and Pine Needles - and then the Duke golf course in Durham and Tobacco Road. All of the courses were new to me, and I really liked all of them. I am going to add more to this later when I have some time, but I wanted to post a quick recap/thoughts for each course.

Duke Golf Club

I really enjoyed this course. It's a big ballpark that goes up and down a couple of hills. The front 9 starts off going straight downhill, with 1 and 2 being similar dogleg left, downhill par 4s. You make your way to the bottom of the hill with a par 3 that plays over a lake, and then you creep up slowly. The best hole on the front is the 7, the first par 5. It's a dogleg right goes downhill to a small green protected by a creek and bunkers. If you can get your ball to the fairway, you should have a chance at going for the green in 2. That shot was probably the most memorable one I had on this course. You then crest the hill again with the tee shot on 9, which is a par 5 that goes down the hill and then the green is back on top of the hill by the clubhouse. 

The back only goes up and down the hill once, so it's slightly more tame than the front. I really liked 11, which is another par 5. The tee shot plays down the hill, and if you hit a good one, you could have a mid iron into your hand with your second shot. The green is huge, but protected by a creek that runs in front of it. The closing stretch of holes are pretty good. 16 is a short par 4 playing straight up hill. Distance control with a wedge is really important. 17 is slightly uphill, but the trick is navigating the uneven lies in the fairway. 18 is fairly straightforward but a stout par 4 to end the round.

The only negative is that there were a lot of holes with forced carries to the green. 4, 7, 11, 12, and 13 all had ponds or creeks fronting the green. Most of those required hefty carries. 

Bottom line, I liked the course and the setting. I would be happy to play here regularly.

Pine Needles

I loved this course. The setting reminded me a lot of #2, and it feels like a mini #2 with a lot of small, turtleback-type greens. The opening 5 holes were outstanding. 1 was a really cool par 5 that was no gimme. The green was pretty wild. 2 was a long, downhill par 4. 3 was one of my favorite par 3s that we played - over a lake with bunkers framing the green. 4 was a short uphill par 4 that I really liked. 5 was an excellent but tough par 3, sitting on a shelf well above the tee. It's a great opening stretch. And again, the feel and look of the place is unique to the Pinehurst area. It feels like something you wouldn't find anywhere else.

Other highlights - the green site on 9 was really cool. There is a big run off area to the right of the green that you want to avoid. It reminded me a bit of the second hole at Sand Valley - you don't want to be right of that green either. 12 was a great hole. You can't see the green from the tee, as the tee shot plays over a hill. When you see the green, it looks tiny, with a huge runoff and bunkers to the left of the green. The fairway is pretty wide, so the trick is accuracy with your approach shot. 18 was an extremely cool finishing hole. You can't really see the fairway off the tee, but it turns out to be fairly generous when you get there. And then the green site is fantastic - sitting at the bottom of the hill, but still requiring precision to be on it.

I really want to get back and play this course again. There are a few shots that I want to try again (the drive on 10, the approach on 12, the drive on 18). And I just really loved the look and feel of the place. A great course and a fun day of golf.

Southern Pines

I thought this was the best course of the 4 I played. It's wider than Pine Needles, and the greens are bigger. But the greens are much more undulating. The land here is truly excellent. There is a ton of land movement, and seemingly every hole has elevation changes you have to navigate. I really like both par 5s on the front. If you hit good drives on both, you will get a big kick down the fairway. If you don't, you're going to be faced with a long 2nd shot just to have a wedge in. 2 plays down the hill with the tee shot and then back up the hill with the approach. You have to be careful about club selection and distance control there. 7 was a good, fairly long par 3 with a green perched on a ledge. 11 was a driveable par 4 with a wild green. 15 was really cool as well - the tee shot is downhill, but then the green is back uphill.

This is a course I would love to play everyday. It's a thinking man's course, because you have to be really careful with all the elevations changes there. You constantly have to play and commit to a club longer or shorter than the distance. And I don't really think there are any bad holes. Only negative is that a few holes are a bit repetitive - 4, 16, and 18 are all shorter par 4s where you're hitting an uphill approach wedge or short iron. This is a very minor nit, though.

One of the best courses I've played. I'd have to think about where exactly to rank it, but easily within the top 10. Possibly cracking the top 5. I will play this again next time I'm in Pinehurst.

Tobacco Road

I had a blast at this course. It is unique and pretty wild. You start out with these massive dune-like hills pinching in on your tee shot on 1. And then the entire round feels like you're going around these massive dunes. There are a lot of interesting shots here. You have long carries over bunkers, blind tee shots, shots into tiny greens, shots into huge greens, carries over deep bunkers, downhill shots, uphill shots, you name it. The setting is incredible. It is a huge course, and the fairways and greens tend to be very generous. I want to write more about individual holes later. But I really liked 7, 9, 10, and 16. I want to play a couple of the par 3s again with different hole locations and/or different tee boxes. 6 and 17, in particular, could play like wildly different holes with a different hole location (for 17) or coming from a different tee box (for 6). 

While I had a lot of fun seeing this course, I do feel like a smart golfer could get bored here. To me, it was fairly obvious that Strantz was trying to bait you into trying a bunch of hard shots. On 11, for example, if you hit a good drive to the right side of the fairway, you could have a shot at the green in 2. But the green is over a massive bunker that has to be 40 feet below the green. And the green is narrow, essentially facing perpendicular to you. The only chance you really have is to hit a perfect shot. The alternative is an easy lay up to a wide fairway, leaving you with a wedge at the perfect angle. Maybe I try going for it with a 7 iron or something shorter, but that's about it. I felt similar on 5 - the direct line to the green is not that far and the green is driveable, But if you miss, you're going to have a 40ish yard bunker shot or a lost ball. Meanwhile, if you play to the right, you have a massive fairway and you'll likely be left with a wedge in your hand. I think it would be fun to play with 2 balls on some of these holes and try the shots. If you are a LSW disciple, though, you are not going to try the crazy risky shots Strantz is trying to bait you into.

In the end, I really enjoyed this course. But I think it's below PN or SP. It's still awesome, and it was fun to see and play. I would come back here, but it's a lower priority than other Pinehurst courses.

Well, that ended up being longer than I was anticipating. I may add some more thoughts about specific holes later, but this is a good starting point. I do want to think more about course ratings out of 10 for these, too. More to come...

[DeadMan]

I'm bad about taking pictures, but here are a few

Hole 1 on Duke, looking toward the green. The elevated green with bunkers surrounding it was a theme. The other theme was pin placements that were tough - this one is pretty far left. There were basically no easy pins on this day.

 

 

Hole 3 at Pine Needles. An extremely cool hole.

Hole 5 at Pine Needles. The picture doesn't do the green site justice.

Green of 6 at Southern Pines. A wild green, and a really cool setting at the edge of the property:

Hole 

Tee shot on 5 at Tobacco Road. Flag is on the flag, the huge fairway is to the right.

Hole 8 at Tobacco Road. Downhill, medium length par 3 with this pin in the front part of the green. Really cool looking shot.

A look at the pin placement and cottage on Tobacco Road 14. I hit one of my best shots of the trip here, to about 15 feet. 

[iacas]

9 hours ago, DeadMan said:

It's wider than Pine Needles

Have you measured? 🙂

[DeadMan]

22 minutes ago, iacas said:

Have you measured? 🙂

No, but I spent (marginally) less time in the trees at Southern Pines, so it definitely played wider for me 😆. It definitely felt wider.

[klineka]

That's a tough pin on 14 at TR, had to make the hole play much longer, how far was that shot? I've only played that hole with a front pin.

[DeadMan]

41 minutes ago, klineka said:

That's a tough pin on 14 at TR, had to make the hole play much longer, how far was that shot? I've only played that hole with a front pin.

A hair under 190. It was pretty downhill, though, so I think we were playing between 180-185 to the pin. My 6 iron went 187 according to shot scope and ended up 18 feet away.