It's time to check out the back nine at Mid Pines, go here to see the front.
The tenth hole isn't tremendously long at 515 yards, but with an uphill tee shot where your drive is landing right on the upslope and stopping basically dead, not too many are reaching this green in two. The second shot is blind, but the fairway is wide open and you can leave yourself your ideal yardage for your third without much fear. The green here is surrounded by three bunkers and slopes back to front more than it looks. Putts from above the hole are very slippery.
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| The tenth hole. |
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| Approaching the tenth green. |
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| The tenth green. |
The eleventh hole is a 180-yard par 3 that, while lacking the signature Redan slopes, does have some of those playing characteristics. The green is tilted left to right behind a bunker and falls off behind, making it difficult to both hit a mid iron directly at the hole and get it to stop on the green. A small knob on the front right corner presents an opportunity to aim at a relatively safe spot and work the ball down relatively close to the hole. It's a fun hole and probably the best par 3 on the course.
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| The eleventh hole. |
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| Approaching the eleventh green. |
The twelfth hole is 380 yards, plays gently downhill, and presents a classic strategic challenge. Playing the drive down the left side gives you a much better angle into the green, which is very narrow and flanked by sand, as well as a shorter shot. However, the sandy wastes cut in randomly, making hugging the left side far riskier. Bailing out right is safer as there's plenty of space on this wide fairway, but the second shot will be significantly longer and you'll have to directly challenge the right-hand greenside bunker. The green itself is also quite tricky, with a small ridge crossing the center essentially splitting the green in two.
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| The twelfth hole. |
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| Approaching the twelfth green. I found the correct side, but was a few feet in the native area. This is the genius (and frustration) of non-uniform rough; if you're lucky, the lie won't affect you at all. If you're not (like I was), your ball could end up in the middle of a tuft of thick, wiry grass and you'll only be able to get a hundred-yard shot halfway to the green. |
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| The twelfth green. |
The thirteenth hole is a long par 3, playing 230 yards gently uphill. It's obviously a tough shot, but the green is completely open in front and the fairway is sloped to kick golf balls in toward the hole. This is how you do a long par 3; if you want, you could absolutely play this as a short par 4, lay up 30 yards short, chip on, and the worst you'll probably make is a 4. But the better golfers, the ones who don't fear hazards short quite like higher handicappers, they will absolutely get caught by the bunkers both left and right. I still don't love the hole, but it's undeniably challenging to the right subset of golfers.
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| The thirteenth hole. |
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| The thirteenth green. |
The fourteenth hole is 360 yards and plays to a fairway steeply tilted from left to right. Considering the hole's modest length, there's no particularly reason to use driver here, particularly when you consider the green is perhaps the most well-bunkered on the course, with a front bunker all but necessitating an aerial approach. The green is on the small side and fairly undulating, making the ability to precisely control your distance important. That's much easier to do with a full wedge rather than a three-quarter shot. This is far from a standout, but even Mid Pines' mediocre holes still make you think.
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| The fourteenth hole. |
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| Approaching the fourteenth green. |
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| The fourteenth green. |
The fifteenth hole is the longest hole at Mid Pines, playing as long as 540 yards. The hole does play downhill at least, with the drive best played over the right-side fairway bunker. This allows for the sharp right-to-left slope to take the ball down a good distance, potentially bringing the green into reach in two. It's a really tough shot though; the green complex calls for a faded shot, but the right-to-left slope you'll be hitting from favors a draw. I imagine that massive front-right greenside bunker catches a lot of long irons and fairway woods.
If you're laying up like most people, the fairway widens out and presents a nice flatter spot 50-100 yards out from the green; find that area on the left side and the pitch up the hill is straightforward. The green itself is tilted pretty severely from back right to front left, so you do want to take care not to stray above the hole. This may be my favorite hole on the course; par 5s are chronically underappreciated by many, so when I see a good one, I like to call it out. And this is a very good hole.
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| The fifteenth hole. |
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| Approaching the fifteenth green. |
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| The fifteenth green. |
The sixteenth hole is a fairly long par 4 at 430 yards, but with the tee perched high above the fairway, you will get a bit of extra distance on the tee shot. The fairway bends left around bunkers and waste, favoring a tee shot that challenges the corner. The second shot plays to a challenging green where the center is pushed up; shots that miss the main portion of the green will fall away on all sides. Also, even if you do find the green in regulation, two putting can be difficult if you don't find the right section. There's a lot of break going on here.
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| The sixteenth hole. |
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| Approaching the sixteenth green. |
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| The sixteenth green. |
The seventeenth hole is 395 yards and while it lacks the topographic interest of many holes, being pretty much dead flat, there's still plenty going on here. Much like the ninth, the fairway sweeps right, making driver a difficult choice. If you've got a big cut, the fairway does widen out a bit beyond 250 yards; the safer choice, despite bringing bunkers into play, is the 3 wood. A good tee shot up the right side will leave a shortish iron to a green with bunkers left and right. Play safely out left on the tee shot, and the left bunker will be much more in your face. There's also small but notable falloffs in front and behind, as well as a small knob back.
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| The seventeenth hole. |
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| Approaching the seventeenth green. |
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| The seventeenth green. |
The eighteenth hole is 415 yards and plays downhill to a relatively narrow fairway with trees especially pushing in from the left. A draw is the best play on the tee here, and while there's no obvious hazard to avoid, sandy waste and bunkers jut in randomly all down the fairway, providing all sorts of little angles to work with. The green is big and open on the right side, with a large bunker left. It's set out in the lawn below the Mid Pines Inn itself, lending a notable sense of occasion to the conclusion. While this is a bit too long to be a reasonable birdie opportunity, it's also not a dramatically difficult finisher, more the sort of fun hole that makes you want to keep playing.
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| The eighteenth hole. |
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| Approaching the eighteenth green. |
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| The eighteenth green. |
What is there really to say about Mid Pines? It's ranked 34th on Golf.com's top 100 public courses in the United States for a reason. The restoration has given back its true Sandhill nature; the open sandy wastes and endless pines give it such a remarkable sense of place. Look at any one of the pictures here, and you know you're in Pinehurst (well, Southern Pines, but close enough). That sand provides endless strategy, and the greens, while not the most dramatic in the world, are challenging enough with breaks that you can just never quite commit to. The fourth and fifteenth holes are great and would hold their own anywhere, and there is no bad hole here. Not even the third; most courses would be happy to have a hole even of that quality.
Value for money is ... well, that's an interesting question. During the winter, Mid Pines drops its price considerably, going from mid to high 200s down to just over $100. For a course like this, $110 or so is a bargain, even if the Bermuda grass overseeding done to keep the course green during the winter does prevent it from playing firm and fast. I will say though, while you can certainly get some very nice days in Pinehurst during late November, you really aren't far enough south to be ensured of reasonably warm weather. It could be 70 degrees. It could also be 45 degrees. Not to say this course isn't worth suffering through cold and rain, but it's not going to be the classic resort/vacation experience. We got lucky. You might not.
