Pinehurst Sandhills Region Shines in Early Fall

By Tom Lang

A late October trip to Pinehurst Resort and the surrounding region was a wonderful step back in historical time wrapped up in modern features that added up to four great days enjoying mildly warm fall weather in North Carolina.

My experience is shared in order of the four courses played: Southern Pines, Talamore’s New Course, Pinehurst No. 2 and Tobacco Road on the final day on the way back north toward Raleigh-Durham Airport, and easy non-stop round-trip flight out of Detroit on Delta Air Lines.

Southern Pines:
This more-than-a-century-old course designed originally by Donald Ross has the look and feel of what it must have been like to play golf in North Carolina more than 100 years ago. Recently updated greens were transformed from bent grass to hybrid to make for very nice putting surfaces in more seasons – but the remainder of the course has a raw, rough-and-tumble feel and look with natural land features that are not sculpted by a bulldozer. 

The entire experience is like that of a truly virgin landscape with a handful of modern agronomy improvements via interesting green complexes and a wide variety of shot angles. Waste bunkers with pockets of naturally eroded sand in the elevation change areas, and scrub brush throughout, define the course's main obstacles, but they still allow for hittable recovery shots. 

The layout is walkable from every green to the next tee, not surprising with Ross, but the hills will make it a decent workout if taken on by foot. The recent renovation also included lengthening the routing by about 300 total yards.

“It’s just beautiful here; I don’t think there’s a bad hole or a bad view,” said cart partner Greg Warfel of Richmond VA, who works at GolfTech as an instructor. “There’s good width in the fairways without being boring about it. This course gives you a lot of interesting visuals that tighten up the hole but then you get up on the fairway and think, ‘there’s more space than I thought.’”

Talamore:

A totally different look and feel from Southern Pines is Talamore Golf Resort, about 10 minutes away. It is a well-manicured course with no waste sand areas but rather well-defined bunkers and only one lake to cross, off the 18th tee. Several sand bunkers are deep with tall grass faces like links courses found in Great Britain, to challenge even the best sand players.

Most fairways are wide but play roomier in that any golf balls that leave the fairway typically find all other vegetation cleared out from under the thousands of stately pine trees, and covered with the Sandhills region obligatory pinestraw, making recovery shots fairly easy.

“This is a fabulously maintain course,” said playing partner Jason O’Brien, a pilot for United Airlines living in the region, and former pilot for Kalitta Air freight at Willow Run Airport. “You cannot beat the conditions year-round. What I really like about it though is it truly challenges you to hit every club in your bag. It’s not driver, wedge. And there’s holes you might hit driver but you should have hit 5-iron.”

Pinehurst No. 2:

When checking a place like Pinehurst off your golfing bucket list, it's easy to feel a little uneasy heading into your day. But rarely have I felt so comfortable in an iconic location for golf. The staff and the overall ambiance felt very relaxing for a place stepped in so much potentially intimidating history.

The best thing I heard all day came at the first tee when our caddy said, "you'll only need to carry three golf balls today"... His way of saying there are so few places on No. 2 to lose your prized white circular possessions. 

My stretch of three favorite holes on the front nine were 3-5, and on the back nine 15-17. The third hole is a par 4 with the green set right of the fairway with an elevated green surrounded by bunkers front left and sand waste front right. Donald Ross’ former home is to the left. No.4 starts at the most-elevated tee box on the course to start a very long downhill par four hole (474 yards from the tips). Then hole 5 is a medium length par five that turns left for the final approach shot to a somewhat crowned green that's hard to hold.

On the back, No. 15 is a par 3 with a classic Donald Ross depression running across the front of the green complex. But what jumps out is seeing the long par five No. 16 in the background as if it's a continuation of the hole, both of course framed by stately tall pines. No. 16 is the most picturesque hole on the layout with a pond to clear off the tee before the fairway gently turns left. The green complex is very harrowing with a combined massive bunker and sand waste area guarding the right side – and of course a severe Donald Ross false front. No. 17 is another stunning par 3 with challenging sand bunkering and waste areas to avoid left and right – but for photo purposes is very pleasing to the eye.

Note: The Cradle Short Course (all par 3s) at Pinehurst Resort was a ton of fun and loaded with golfers of all ages, including many women. It equally rivals the Bootlegger at Forest Dunes, which plays a little longer on most holes.

Tobacco Road:

A course built on and in a former quarry that mined sand and other minerals is without a doubt a very unique property. The biggest concern shared with other golfers knowing that it was my last stop on the trip advised about the large number of blind shots, which I found out were caused by huge hills of mining leftovers, combined with even bigger gouged out earth used as hazards of sand waste area. We’ll give it a few extra points for being designed by an MSU grad, the late Mike Strantz.

The elevated views were spectacular with the green grass/tan sand features contrast, in which one look announced, ‘you are not getting around this course today on the ground.’ The modern-course features set up well for target golf for golfers who like that style. My wife talked with a foursome that said they have so much fun there they were going out in the afternoon for another round.

The 4-night stay was very comfortable at Hilton Garden Inn in Aberdeen, a wonderful new hotel catering to visitors in the region. Excellent in-house, fair-priced restaurant and bar with great sleeping rooms and amenities like an outdoor pool and small putting green outside the front lobby says you’re at the Home of Golf.