Pinehurst Reigns Supreme in U.S.A. Golf

Host of four U.S. Opens, Pinehurst Resort added a Tom Doak design in 2024, with two more 18-hole layouts on the way. And helping fuel the buzz is the return of the World Golf Hall of Fame following a long exile in Florida.

Not counting Rory McIlroy, who couldn’t escape fast enough following his collapse in the 2024 U.S. Open, golfers overwhelmingly embrace the All-American charms of Pinehurst, North Carolina.

Set in rolling and sandy countryside 70 miles southwest of Raleigh, the state capital, Pinehurst is a Norman Rockwell canvas sprung to life. Towering Carolina pines and magnolias frame New England-style cottages on streets laid out in a wagon-wheel pattern by Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of New York’s Central Park. Fringed horse-drawn surreys filled with sightseers sedately pass by the quaint century-old shops, restaurants and inns of a village that has stubbornly resisted change since sometime around the presidency of Calvin Coolidge.

Launched in 1907, the iconic No. 2 course at Pinehurst Resort is the beating heart of the self-proclaimed “Home of American Golf.” Ross’s masterwork made both the village and its Scottish-born designer world famous. And No. 2 is the only course to have hosted all five of the USGA’s most important events: U.S. Open (1999, 2005, 2014, 2024), U.S. Women’s Open (2014), U.S. Amateur (1962, 2008, 2019, 2024), U.S. Women’s Amateur (1989) and U.S. Senior Open (1994).

Golf fans cherish the memory of Payne Stewart’s exuberant leg kick and clenched-fist elation when his long putt dropped for the win at the U.S. Open here in 1999. In 2005, relatively unknown New Zealander Michael Campbell bested no less formidable a challenger than Tiger Woods. And in 2014, when Pinehurst No. 2 hosted the men’s- and- women’s U.S. Opens on consecutive weeks, Martin Kaymer led wire-to-wire on the men’s side, with Michelle Wie following up with her long-awaited first major victory.

Still fresh is the cringe-inducing recollection of McIlroy’s final-round implosion at the 2024 U.S. Open. McIlroy squandered a two-stroke lead over Bryson DeChambeau with bogeys on 15 and 16, then missed a two-footer for par on the 18th. Needing a par to win, DeChambeau cooly stuck his bunker shot to three feet on the 18th and drained the putt to claim his second U.S. Open.

Generations of golfers have found themselves simultaneously thrilled and exasperated by Ross’s seminal layout. Born in the Scottish highlands town of Dornoch in 1872, Ross worked as the head groundskeeper and club professional at Royal Dornoch Golf Club before departing for the United States in 1899 to seek his fortune. He soon landed in Pinehurst, where Boston soda fountain magnate James Walker Tufts had already begun construction of his idealized vision of an American small town. At its heart he built Pinehurst Resort, featuring a cupola-topped grand hotel designed to draw wealthy Americans for extended wintertime stays.

Tufts put Ross, who had never before designed a golf course, to work building the resort’s first three courses, today’s Nos. 1, 2 and 3. The roster has since grown to include strong 18-hole designs by Gil Hanse (No. 4), Ellis Maples (No. 5), Tom and George Fazio (No. 6), Rees Jones (No. 7), Tom Fazio (No. 8), and Jack Nicklaus (No. 9).

In the spring of 2024, Pinehurst Resort again grabbed headlines with the launch of Tom Doak’s instantly acclaimed Pinehurst No. 10, the first newly constructed 18-hole course built at the resort in nearly 30 years. There’s also a nine-hole short course, The Cradle, designed by Gil Hanse. And plans are underway for two more 18-hole courses, including an eagerly anticipated Bill Coore-Ben Crenshaw collaboration.

But it is still—and always—Pinehurst No. 2 that hosts the major championships and draws admirers from around the world. Golfers with tee times at Pinehurst No. 2 feel history’s embrace from the moment they enter the white colonnaded main clubhouse and stroll down Heritage Hall toward the golf shop. Plaques, trophies and vintage memorabilia engraved with the names of Harry Vardon, Walter Hagen, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and other immortals line the panelled walls.

At first, golfers are stunned by the apparent playability of Ross’s design. All hazards on No. 2 are in full view and the fairways are wide and inviting. Ross believed that golf should be a pleasurable experience for players of every level, and that the tee shot in particular should allow room for error. One strong hole, each a perfect fit with the gently undulating native landscape of sand and pine straw and wire grass, flows into the next. Like a symphony conductor, Ross possessed an impeccable sense of rhythm. He repeated design elements in his fairway contouring and in the placement of his bunkers from hole to hole, gradually building momentum.

But what really distinguishes Pinehurst No. 2 from other courses is the sport’s most memorable collection of greens. Designed like upside-down bowls, Ross’s crowned greens slope diabolically in every direction, with roll-offs that can propel even seemingly well-struck approaches into bunkers or closely cropped chipping swales. Otherwise, Ross’s goal was unaffected naturalness. His bunkers, for instance, look like they haven’t been built by man, but scraped from the ground over time by nature. Ross grew up playing these same types of hazards on the links of Scotland.

Ross’s work at Pinehurst Resort quickly established the gentlemanly yet tough-minded Scot as America’s leading golf architect, a status many believe he holds to this day. Architects attend seminars to discuss the brilliance of his designs, and the Donald Ross Society is devoted to the faithful preservation of his courses. Ross would go on to design more than 400 courses, including such renowned layouts as Aronimink Golf Club, East Lake Golf Club, Seminole Golf Club, Oak Hill Country Club, Inverness Club, and Oakland Hills Country Club. More than 100 U.S. national championships have been played on his courses.

Together Ross and Pinehurst Resort helped fuel the golf boom then taking hold throughout a boldly confident and prosperous America. Today, well over a century later, Pinehurst Resort is North America’s largest, most famous and by far most influential golf resort. 

Opened in 1901, the grand old Carolina Hotel still serves as the resort’s hub. Lavishly renovated in recent years, the 230-room “Queen of the South” features verandas lined with rocking chairs, halls filled with vintage photos, and bellmen kitted out in knickers and argyles. The resort also operates three small inns a short walk from the Carolina (including The Holly, the village’s first hotel), as well as golf course villas and condos.

And found on property owned by Pinehurst Resort is the USGA’s new Golf House Pinehurst, a subsidiary of the USGA’s headquarters in New Jersey. Opened in May 2024, the seven-acre campus, within sight of the Pinehurst Resort & Country Club main clubhouse, includes the organization’s equipment-testing and research facility, the visitor-friendly USGA Experience, and the relocated World Golf Hall of Fame. 

The focus of the new, streamlined World Golf Hall of Fame is on the Hall of Fame locker room, where each member is given a dedicated display of gear and artifacts that tells their unique story. The hall’s return to Pinehurst has evoked a swell of civic pride and is judged as long overdue. Founded in 1974, the World Golf Hall of Fame called Pinehurst Resort home for a decade before moving on to St. Augustine, Florida.

Just as in Ross’s hometown of Dornoch, golf is essential to the fabric of life in Pinehurst. Almost 40 courses are located either in Pinehurst or within easy reach of the village. Noteworthy architects represented include Jack Nicklaus (National Golf Club), Arnold Palmer (The Carolina Club), Rees Jones (Talamore Golf Club), and Mike Strantz (Tobacco Road Golf Club).

Two more high-profile Ross-designed jewels are found at sister resorts Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club and Mid Pines Inn and Golf Club. Newly restored by Kyle Franz, Pine Needles Golf Course hosted the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open Championship won by Minjee Lee.

In 2011, Pinehurst No. 2 unveiled its own extensive restoration by the red-hot design team of Coore and Crenshaw. Ross, who despite his freelance design career never left the employ of Pinehurst Resort, obsessively tweaked No. 2 until his death in 1948. But through the following decades the layout lost much of its original character. Guided by photos taken during the course’s 1940s heyday, Coore and Crenshaw stripped away hectares of turf, returning natural areas of hardpan, sand, pine straw and wire grass that were part of the original topography. Fairways were widened, offering more strategic options, and bunkers restored to their original shapes.

The still growing acclaim for the Coore-Crenshaw restoration, together with the village’s time-capsule All-American charm, convinced the USGA to pronounce Pinehurst the first Anchor Site of the U.S. Open in 2020. The men’s championship is scheduled to return in 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047.

Donald Ross would be proud.