No, that's being too kind. They've been boring. The bitter dregs of what central Maryland and Pennsylvania can offer. So, what do you say we spice things up with a trip to the North Carolina Sandhills?
Before you get too excited out there, we won't be seeing any courses from the Pinehurst resort itself. The review of No. 2 will have to wait for another year. But even if you're not staying at Pinehurst itself, there's still a lot of amazing golf around, including a triumvirate of classic Donald Ross golf courses: Southern Pines, Pine Needles, and Mid Pines.
The history of Mid Pines is one of success — after the first World War, business at Pinehurst grew so fast that Richard Tufts, owner of the resort, found himself turning away thousands of people that Pinehurst simply could not accommodate. He needed more golf courses, and so turned to his partner-in-crime Donald Ross to build him a new course a bit outside Pinehurst.
Mid Pines has always been very well known and respected in the golfing world, but over the years things changed. Grass grew where there shouldn't have been, and some of the signature Sandhill style was lost. A restoration in 2013 brought the course back to its original look; exposed sand is everywhere, and rough (in terms of what most golfers think of) is exceedingly rare. So, after suffering through the likes of Maple Run and Eagles Crossing, let's remind ourselves what a real golf course looks like.
The first hole is almost exactly 400 yards, and it really sets the tone for what you're going to see throughout the round. The fairway is wide, but the transition into the native sandy terrain is immediate. Sometimes there are formal bunkers, but much of the time you don't really know what you're going to get. The hole follows the classic down/up Ross formula, with the tee shot playing into a valley and the approach, a short iron, heading back up to the green, which is narrow initially before widening out toward the back. Bunkers frame the approach, and while the green itself lacks much drama (though they're hardly lacking in visually noticeable contours), rest assured that at this course, your putts will break more than you think they do. Donald Ross excelled at opening holes, and this is no exception.
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| The first hole. |
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| Approaching the first green. |
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| The first green. |
The second hole is a mid-length par 3 that plays over the corner of a small pond to a green perched up on the top of a hill. The green is pretty big but has a lot of slope to it, and it's got a little bit of that No. 2 inverted saucer shaping to it, making chip shots a little bit trickier than you'd probably expect. Two bunkers guard the front portion, so you do really need a fully aerial approach on this tee shot.
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| The second hole. |
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| The second green. |
The third hole is a fairly long par 4 at nearly 440 yards, and you know a hole isn't exactly well loved when the description on the course website goes out of its way to say this is "an excellent hole." If you need to say it, it probably isn't true. The fairway is pretty wide, but there's marshy hazard immediately to the right, so there's no mercy for sliced drives. Left is safer, but lengthens a pretty long hole already, but with the fairway turning right, you can pretty easily run out of space. The second shot is slightly uphill to a medium-sized green flanked by bunkers.
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| The third hole. |
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| Approaching the third green. |
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| The third green. |
The fourth hole is a short, though not quite drivable, par 4 that plays 330 yards to a fairway tilted pretty severely from left to right. Bunkers guard the left side of the fairway, which also narrows considerably about 250 yards out from the tee. It's pretty natural to favor the right side, but with a lone pine guarding that side, you really want to stay left. You also get the best angle into the green from the left, and on this hole you do want that. This green is quite small and the most undulating on the course, with bunkers in front and behind. There's also a pretty noticeable falloff to the right and long. Honestly, if you can manage it the best play might be driver into the narrow neck of fairway past the fairway bunkers and the tree right; that will leave you with just a little pitch up the axis of the green. But that's easier said than done. Still, this is an excellent short par 4 with many options to play it.
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| The fourth hole. |
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| The fourth green. |
The fifth hole is a short par 5 at 485 yards that plays over rolling ground. There's a plateau that will provide a flat lie for the second, but you have to sacrifice going for the green in two if you want to use it. For most, the second shot will be from a downhill stance, and even if you're can't reach the green in two, there's still strategic interest. A pond occupies the low point of the hole about a hundred yards out, eating into the fairway. You can of course still lay up to 100 yards, but the fairway available is about half of what's usable if you can carry the pond. Still, that carry is over 150 yards from a downhill stance, and that's not the easiest shot in the world if you're not confident in your long irons (I was struggling with irons the whole week, so that's why I know). Carrying the pond leaves a pretty simple uphill pitch to a large if fairly severe green. The large flanking bunkers are definitely a concern if you're going for the green in two; they're slightly offset from the green itself, so if you do find them, you'll have a long, tough bunker shot on the third.
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| The fifth hole. |
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| Approaching the fifth green. |
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| The fifth green. |
The sixth hole is also a par 5, this one, being nearly 540 yards, being distinctly not reachable in two for most golfers. There's no grand strategy on the tee, though if you favor the right side you'll have less potential for tree trouble, and there is more space over there than what you can see from the tee. It's much the same for the lay-up; you can either favor the left side, which gets you closer to the green but gives you a bad angle right over a bunker to a small green, or the right, which has less space to maneuver but does give you a better look on the third shot.
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| The sixth hole. |
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| Approaching the sixth green. |
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| The sixth green. |
The seventh hole is a mid-length par 4 at 385 yards and plays slowly uphill the entire way. The fairway slopes from left to right, which means you really need to hug the left side to open up the best angle to approach the green. The green is protected by a bunker front right (it's nice not having sand close up on both sides for a change) and has a lot of back to front slope to it. It doesn't look super dramatic like some other greens (we'll be seeing plenty of examples in the future), but rest assured that putts break a lot on this green.
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| The seventh hole. |
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| Approaching the seventh green. |
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| The seventh green. |
The eighth hole is 175 yards and plays downhill to a medium-sized green with a large bunker protecting the right two-thirds of the putting surface. This hole is all about distance control; it plays more downhill than it looks and (at least for our round) was also downwind. You want to clear that bunker, of course, but you really don't want to go long. The green falls away precipitously at the back, and if you go over, you'll have to climb back up that big slope to a green that falls away.
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| The eighth hole. |
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| The eighth green. |
The ninth hole is 340 yards, but the fairway bends hard right around pine trees, and with more trees coming in from the left, driver is effectively taken out of play unless you've got a big cut on command. There's a bunker left of the fairway about 250 yards out; if you stay short of that you'll leave yourself a full wedge from the widest portion of the fairway. There's no reason to go any further. The green here is on the smaller side with flanking bunkers, and isn't the most interesting one in the world. The ninth isn't exactly an easy birdie, but there's no reason to make a big number here.
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| The ninth hole. |
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| Approaching the ninth green. |
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| The ninth green. |
That's it for this week, next week we'll check out the back nine.
