Pinehurst No.2, NC, USA
The man in the shadows in the middle of the photograph is repairing the ball mark from the failed
pitch by the man on the right, who is now preparing to play his second chip shot!
Since the green is the ultimate target, it stands to reason that the course that has the ultimate greens, well, it just may be the ultimate course. And for many a well traveled golfer, Pinehurst No. 2 is the ultimate golf course.
How can this be, you ask? Pinehurst can't compete on the grandeur scale with a Pine Valley or Sand Hills. Nor can it compete with a Cypress Point or Royal Portrush in terms of scenic glory.
And yet, Pinehurst No. 2 has for decades attracted ardent admirers. As Tommy Armour so eloquently wrote, 'The man who doesn't feel emotionally stirred when he golfs at Pinehurst beneath those clear blue skies and with the pine fragrance in his nostrils is one who should be ruled out of golf for live. It's the kind of course that gets into the blood of an old trooper.'
Pinehurst No. 2 boils down to simple, wide fairways that meander through the broad corridors of pine trees and sophisticated green complexes. The fairways are wide so that the golfer realistically aim for one side or the other, depending on where the day's hole location is. As for the greens, Pinehurst No. 2 has been called the hardest (and the best!) course in the world from within 40 yards of its greens.
The greens themselves average 5,500 square feet, which isn't disturbing in and of itself. For instance, Yeamans Hall's greens average 8,000 square feet! However, when you realize that more than half of the technical green space is un-cupable as they slope off on all sides, you are left with tiny targets in the 2,500 square foot range - and that's smaller than Pebble Beach's notoriously tiny greens.
Holes to Note
1st hole, 405 yards; Both Pete Dye and Tom Doak are long time fans of Pinehurst No. 2 and Dye once remarked to Doak, 'On the first hole, you've got a five foot deep bunker with an almost vertical face to the left of the green, and a humpback green with a bunch of severe dips in the ground to the right of it. What's so subtle about that?'
(please note: all pictures were taken in the winter with dormant bermuda rough and overseeded rye in the fairways).
Call Pinehurst No.2 green complexes anything but subtle! The man chipping is 5'9' tall.
2nd hole, 450 yards; Tom Watson considers this one of the best second holes in the world, and he is not alone. Too achieve so much character on essentially flat land is amazing and one has too wonder why this green complex has never been emulated elsewhere.
Taken from the back right of the green, this view shows how Ross created various angles of play.
3rd hole, 340 yards; A rare example of a hole being improved by hosting a major tournament, several large pines were removed from behind the green to make room for grandstands for the 1999 U.S. Open. With nothing behind the green to assist with depth perception, the severely sloped back to front green is now an even more terrifying target.
The only trees behind the 3rd green are now a full 100 yards behind it.
5th hole, 485 yards; Probably the most difficult two shot hole in American golf. In fact, its difficulty has reached a point where it no longer inspires the affection with the authors that many of the other holes do. This and the 4th hole were the last pieces of the puzzle and were added to the course in 1935 in lieu of holes that were to the left of the present 10th green site.
As the perfect foil to the 2nd, the 5th green is angled in the opposite direction to the fairway.
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