Michigander Tom Doak Talks Pinehurst No. 10

By Tom Lang

Golf is not played at the speed of light.

Neither is designing and building golf courses.

But to some, the new Pinehurst No. 10 – Michigander Tom Doak’s latest pride and joy – was brought to life from deep within the Pinehurst Sandmines at almost lightning speed – at least by golf course building norms.

As the 124th U.S. Open was about to take place at the famed Pinehurst No. 2 in mid-June 2024, the noise around the opening of Pinehurst No. 10 was just as loud and dramatic in its own right. It’s the first course developed in the Sandmines region – about 4 miles from the No. 2 clubhouse – and the first built anywhere within the Pinehurst brand in nearly three decades.

Doak and I talked while overlooking Spruce Run Golf Course at Grand Traverse Resort, not far from his Traverse City home. He said that Pinehurst called him in the spring of 2022 to discuss the potential of No. 10.

“I asked how soon, because I had a couple projects that I thought would be built in 2023 and they’re pushing back into 2024,” Doak told me. “I told them I could do it if we could start at the start of 2023, otherwise you might have to wait for me a while. That motivated them to get everybody together. So, the first few months of 2023, it was the only thing we were working on and I had the whole crew rotating in there. It started ridiculously fast. 

“I’ve had people call me and think we can start building in a few months, and it’s never less than a year. You have to get permits and organize everything. Pinehurst had the advantage of being on the ground there for 125 years and knowing everyone at the county level and the state level and everything else. So, I did a routing plan pretty fast and they just jumped on it with everybody they needed to talk to. And they had a contractor lined up that was kind of in the same boat, with some big renovation projects coming up but there was a good window available. It happened very fast.

“It was almost too fast in a way,” Doak continued. “But my crews always like to work fast, so we made it work out. But at the end, where everybody was splitting off and ready to go, we still had three or four more holes to do. It was up to Angela and me shaping the last three greens,” he said with a chuckle.

Angela is Angela Moser, who has been working with Doak as an independent contractor for 13 years. She grew up playing competitive golf in Germany. Doak prefers working with independent contractors because he can’t promise they’ll always be busy, and he wants them to work for others if they can, to get well-balanced opportunities for growth.

“Angela’s had many years of construction experience,” Doak said. “She’s built greens and bunkers on The Loop and St. Patrick’s in Ireland … actually sitting on machinery and shaping… and she was never afraid of doing that from the time she started working with me. 

“I told her, ‘If you’re ever going to make it in this business, you need to not be afraid of that. It will be really hard for a woman to succeed in the business because your typical golf course construction firm is not used to taking orders from women. But you’ll have their respect if they know you can do the same things that you’re asking them to do.’ ”

Doak, now age 63, said the fact she is a woman didn’t really factor into any special design features that people might assume were inserted. She’s first and foremost a good golfer.

“I think her viewpoint is a little different from mine; every person sees things a little different. But I wouldn’t necessarily attribute any of that to the fact she’s a woman,” Doak said.

“At Pinehurst, they didn’t know her in the beginning, but they told me they trusted me that she can run the job. But I knew that they knew that the fact that she was involved, that they’d probably want to promote that.  And they have, so it’s been great for her. So, a lot of people know her name now that didn’t a year or two ago. Her skills have gotten that much better from running the job.”

Public’s Response:

I asked Doak what have people said to him or what has he heard about the social media ravings of Pinehurst No. 10.

“We’re still in the honeymoon phase,” he said with a tone of realism. “All new golf courses, the first six months they’re open everyone’s saying, ‘oh, that’s awesome.’ So, it will be a year or two before I really know (how people feel about it).

“But the client is surprised that it’s as strong of a golf course as it is. When they hired me they didn’t say anything plus or minus about tournament play. They’ve obviously got a great course to play tournaments on (Pinehurst No. 2, Donald Ross), and they really weren’t looking to do that again. But they told me recently they just had all the USGA people out for the U.S. Open media day, and they played No. 10 the day before that, and (USGA folks) were saying they want to host an event there (at No. 10). They’re not sure what yet, but they definitely want to host an event there. It’s a really strong golf course.

“It’s a big piece of property and the routing takes you on a journey, so it covers a lot of ground so it’s fairly long from the back tees. It turned out fairly difficult.

“No. 10 starts out fairly gentle, then it starts going into the old quarry works where it gets downright crazy for a little bit. Then the course gets up on the hill and there’s a beautiful, sweeping view. All of the holes coming in are challenging, even when you move down into the gentler terrain. It’s a dramatic golf course, more than I originally thought.”  

Doak used the phrase ‘strong golf course’ a few times, so I asked him to define that in his mind.

“Just that there are back tees that are challenging to really low handicap golfers,” he answered. “There’s still plenty of chance to move up and have fun when playing the golf course, and I think maybe they need to encourage people to play a little farther forward there than they are. 

“I played there with 30 golf writers and it was a lot for them from the white tees. I pointed out some green tees up there that they’d probably have more fun with” he said with a grin.

When a world-renowned course designer suggests that some golfers should Play it Forward, it’s very sound advice. It’s a suggestion I often take.

“No. 10 starts out fairly gentle, then it starts going into the old quarry works where it gets downright crazy for a little bit. Then the course gets up on the hill and there’s a beautiful, sweeping view. All of the holes coming in are challenging, even when you move down into the gentler terrain. It’s a dramatic golf course, more than I originally thought.”  TOM DOAK

“There’s a lot of history at this place, and you just want to honor it.” ANGELA MOSER