GolfTravelReviews: The Reviews "The Pinehurst Area: Cradle of American Golf"

Pinehurst #2 and Pinehurst #4:
A Classical Gem Next to a Modern Classic
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Pinehurst #4

Pinehurst #4 lies immediately adjacent #2. A Ross original opened in 1919, #4 got a face lift when Robert Trent Jones added length, water and bunkers to it for the '73 World Open. Rees Jones came in during the '80s and tweaked it again. Since then the course had gotten a little ragged around the edges, so The Pinehurst Company contracted with Tom Fazio, who had done #8, the Centennial Course, to redo #4 entirely. Opening in the spring of 2000, the result is a spectacular layout worthy of your visit.

More sand than grass? The 7th at Pinehurst #4.

Well aware of the context in which he was asked to design #4, Fazio paid homage to Ross by designing crowned greens on many of the holes. He also added British style pot bunkers among a staggering 188 bunkers in all. Complementing these are natural sand bunkers planted with love grass and other native grasses to give the course a different look from #2.

Pinehurst #4 doesn’t spread out as much as #2. The holes are packed tighter together. The greens are larger some have hogbacks and various shapes. The focal point of the course is the lake which allowed Fazio to craft some great holes. Most notably of these is the 510-yard 13th, a risk-reward hole that starts from a slightly elevated tee box to a tight landing area bounded by bunkers right and the lake left. The hole then winds around the lake to a sloped green tucked snugly between the lake on the left and three bunkers right. For many golfers, reaching the green in two isn't the problem. It's finding the nerve to hit the shot. The three other par 5's on this par 72, 7117-yard (6214 from the whites) layout are also reachable in two.

The lake also comes into play on two of the par 3's. The 170-yard 4th plunges dramatically down from a lofted tee box over an inlet of the lake to a green complex reminiscent of 12th at Augusta. The level 189-yard 14th requires an accurate drive over another inlet to a large green perched just right of the lake.

The two short par 4's -- the 382-yard (from the whites) 8th and the 367-yard (from the whites) 15th -- are among the best on the course. Both feature elevated greens and tight landing areas guarded by bunker clusters. Distance is definitely not a problem but like so many of the holes on this fabulously inventive creation, pinpoint accuracy is a must if you are to walk off the course with a smile on your face.

How good is the course? My playing partner told me, "Don’t play this course unless you are willing to fall in love with it."

A Word About the Resort

Above: The Carolina Hotel
Below: Holly Inn

In addition to The Carolina, which features 210 comfortable rooms and a lobby filled with golfing memorabilia including old golf clubs and vintage photos of past champions, the resort operates the Holly Inn and the Manor Inn. Built in New England-style architecture with their white wooden frames, these two restored inns have a distinctive early 20th Century feel to them. Only a few blocks from each other, they sit serenely under the pines among the pine straw that carpets the ground and the sand areas of the village.

I stayed at the 85-room Holly Inn in a room that featured a sequence photograph of Donald Ross taken in about 1901. Wearing a woolen suit, the bespectacled Ross is swinging a club. The room had a feel of a room that you would have stayed in when visiting your grandmother years ago. It included modern fixtures and all the latest communications amenities. The Holly Inn also has some of the most succulent cuisine you will ever experience. The 1895 Room is a small, intimate dining room offering world-class food. Years ago, the inn was run down and was once used as a place to store old golf carts. The Pinehurst Company came in and refurbished it to the point where it now is a strikingly attractive cozy place to stay.

The Pinehurst Company’s plans for the resort include an enormous spa complex to be located just east of The Carolina. It will include 28 private spa treatment rooms, nine salon stations, a 1300-square foot fitness studio, an Olympic size indoor swimming pool and sauna, steam and cascade whirlpool facilities.

The Pinehurst Resort is one of five resort properties nationwide owned and operated by The Pinehurst Company, a subsidiary of ClubCorp of America. The Pinehurst Company’s other resort properties include The Homestead and Daufuskie Island.

The Pinehurst Company has formed an alliance with Charlotte-based Celebration Associates to develop real estate projects at or near Pinehurst Company resort locations nationwide, modeled after Celebration, the mixed-use, master-planned community near Disney World in Orlando. The first project of the joint venture will be a golf development to be located in Aberdeen within a short distance of the main resort site.

For more information, call Pinehurst Resort at 1-800 It's Golf (1-800-487-4653).

Photos courtesy of Pinehurst Resort and J.W. Photo Labs

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