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Health & Fitness

The Pinehurst Experience, Part 2

Our intrepid golfer wraps up his Carolina golfing trip on some beautiful and challenging courses.

Two days in Pinehurst, two fun courses. Our third course on the Pinehurst trip was the challenging Legacy course, a Jack Nicklaus II design in Aberdeen, about 20 minutes from Pinehurst.

Gary R. and I have a soft spot in our hearts for this course as it was our initial introduction to Pinehurst golf some 15 years ago. We loved it then and it has withstood the test of time. It is a beautiful parkland style course with generous fairways lined with the traditional Carolina pines. The course is cleverly routed among several large lakes with one hole rarely visible from another, giving the feeling of being along on the course.

We were one of the very first groups off on a beautiful, warm morning. Bonnie and Paul loved the genteel feel of the course as we wound our way through the beautiful setting. There are very few forced carries on this layout but several of the greens are set close to or extend out into the lake making the approach shots a challenge. The fifth hole is a classic risk/reward par three of 140 yards to a wide green fronted by an arm of the lake and a stone wall. Only Paul hit the green but we all somehow managed to par the hole, resulting in high fives all around. The finishing hole is a killer, a 432-yard par four requiring an uphill drive to a fairway that suddenly drops down to a large green situated on the other side of an inlet. It required a bold shot to go for the green rather than bail out left and settle for bogey. 

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Wednesday was a day I’d been looking forward to all week as we finally got to introduce Bonnie and Paul to one of our all-time favorite courses, Tobacco Road. Located in Sanford, about 40 minutes away, Tobacco Road is a nationally recognized gem by the late Mike Strantz, the Salvador Dali of golf architects. He does things with a course no one has either the desire or guts to attempt and produced a number of great courses before his untimely death several years ago. Whether it’s in Myrtle Beach (Caledonia, True Blue), Williamsburg, VA (Stonehouse, Royal New Kent) or the Pinehurst area (Tobacco Road, Tot Hill), his courses are a treat for the eye and a challenge for the adventurous golfer.

Though the weather forecast was iffy, we lucked out on a comfortable day with only one brief passing shower and a few distant rumbles of thunder. The course is an adrenaline-fueled ride through a maze of hillocks, vast waste areas, cavernous forced carries, gigantic greens, blind shots over rugged terrain and wildly elevated greens. The course was in terrific shape and I enjoyed showing off the course to the newcomers as they battled against this diabolical layout, which challenges you at every turn. I had one of my best rounds ever here on this, my sixth visit, with two pars and a birdie on the front side and three pars and a birdie on the back for a satisfying 86. (However, that triple bogey on the par 3 eighth will haunt me till I die!) It was a fabulous day on a course of striking beauty and devilish difficulty. 

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To top off the evening, we drove into Southern Pines, about 20 minutes away, for dinner at another of our favorite restaurants, Chef Warren’s. The eponymous owner has an eclectic menu (frog tacos anyone?) and an extensive wine list of which my companions took full advantage. We all had a great, leisurely meal in this top notch eatery and went home exhausted but satisfied after a wonderful day. 

On Thursday, we were scheduled to play Pinehurst #1, the original Donald Ross course located in the Village of Pinehurst. Unfortunately, the forecast for rain was 100% with tornado warnings until noon so we cancelled the round. Oddly, (and annoyingly) the rain was only intermittent all morning so Gary R. and I drove over to the course just to hang out at the historic clubhouse. We spent time spectating in the main hallway, a veritable time capsule of golf’s greats,  replete with pictures of past winners, innumerable trophies, a nook dedicated to the late Payne Stewart’s U.S. Open victory there in 1999 and diagrams of each hole of the famed #2 course.

During one of the lulls in the rain, Gary R. and I decided to walk part of #2 and spent nearly an hour meandering the recently redesigned course by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, whose efforts give it a more untamed, natural look. With the green fees well over $400, this is a course I never felt a need to play but after walking so many of the holes and being impressed by the redesign, I am reconsidering my decision. It is hard to justify spending that much on a single round of golf but it may just be worth digging into my savings one more time.

After walking most of the front nine, we were (politely) thrown off the course by one of the marshals just minutes before the warning horn went off to clear the course for an impending storm. By late afternoon, the weather had cleared, so I made a reservation at the nearby Little River golf club and we got in nine holes on this difficult but uninteresting course to salvage part of the day. Of course, I spent the rest of our vacation mindlessly humming “Reminiscing” (Little River Band). 

Our last day turned out to be the best – best weather and best course. The temperature was in the low 70s with a cloudless blue sky overhead. We had a tee time at the semi-private National Golf Club, ten minutes from our condo. It’s a gated community with some gorgeous homes and a championship caliber Jack Nicklaus course. Formerly private, they have opened the course to limited outside play in recent years and I never pass up a chance to play a Nicklaus course. I’ve played several of his designs and really enjoyed them all despite the requisite high cost. (This one was $125.)

There is a lot of variety in the topography of this generally tree-lined course. Though I usually dislike playing courses lined with homes, these were unobtrusive and attractive and it was fascinating to see the myriad designs and beautiful landscaping. This layout has all the classic features with nice elevation changes, forced carries over and around large ponds, strategically placed deep bunkers and large greens with subtle breaks. I played solidly on the front side with eight bogeys and a double for an acceptable 46 and finished the back nine with a flurry of four pars and five bogeys for a very satisfying 41. It was a great day on a terrific course and we all enjoyed it immensely. 

A quick drive back to the condo, a shower and off we all went to the airport, humming (We’ll go dancing in the dark, walking through the park and reminiscing) to head home after a memorable and immensely satisfying week of golf. 

Next time: A New Hampshire/Vermont trifecta.

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