Every Hole at Pinehurst No. 2 | Golf Digest

Golf Digest’s Architecture Editor Derek Duncan narrates a hole-by-hole flyover of the No. 2 course at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club in Pinehurst, NC, site of the 2024 U.S. Open Championship.

Narration and script: Derek Duncan
Cinematography: Carlos Amoedo
Editor: Nicholas Grieves
Production Manager: Kimberly Davis
Executive Producer: Christian Iooss

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[Music] pioner is often said to be the home of American Golf it’s certainly true the quaint Village tucked away in the woods of Central North Carolina resonates ancestral energy as if sprung from another time golf was still in its Adolescence in the United States when James Tufts founded Pinehurst in 1895 snapping up vacant Timberland by the square mile as one writer put it for prices that would soon buy only acre but the region Sand Hills provided an enchanting setting for golf and people arrived by the train load as one Golf Course begat another and another and more after that there are now 10 courses at Pinehurst but similar to St Andrews in the old course the original home of golf their energy Springs from just one the iconic number two course like the old course Piner number two evolved slowly into the Touchstone it is today as Donald Ross expanded and altered it nearly every summer from 1907 to 1935 when he last was able to shape and grasp the greens those greens are the enduring source of number two’s Brilliance as their elusive turtleback shapes have mystified generations of players from professionals to plotters scoring well requires hitting assured shots to precise places and extreme scrambling skills but with generous Fairways and the ability to bounce shots along the ground without ever losing a ball there’s something here for everyone this is every hole at Pinehurst number two not every first hole Donald Ross designed was a gentle handshake but at number two this is as close to a soft opening as you’re going to get Pinehurst elevation changes are rarely extreme and the first hole moves ever so slightly downhill with a broad Fairway framed by the scratchy Wiregrass sandscapes that are indigenous to the region the hole seems benign until you reach the narrow perched up green and discover the fabled sloping shoulders that deflect away imprecise approaches into either a bunker left or awkward Short Grass Hollows on the right there are days at Pinehurst when if you miss a green you spend the rest of the afternoon trying to get the ball back on Jack Nicholas once said and figuring out how to recover is absolutely the essence of Pinehurst the straight out first and second holes have been number two’s opening Gambit since Ross first expanded the course in 1907 similar in appearance to the first but longer the second turns slightly right through what appears to be a wide open plane of Fairway and wire grass that pinch in the farther you drive it the shallow Plateau green is cocked 45° to the line of play making it one of the most difficult to hit and hold especially if coming in from the right sitting on a three- shot overnight lead defending Champion retif gusen made six here in the final round of the 2005 US Open by chipping over the green and then three putting beginning a doomed stretch of golf that led to an outward [Music] 41 in 1923 Ross built a new third hole extending East from the second adjacent to real estate he owned along Midland Avenue the short Par Four out of Ross’s back door bends to the right around a cross bunker making appropriate Club selection off the tea critical some may attempt to drive the green but the percentage play is to lay back along the right side of the Fairway leaving a clear direct angle into one of the most fish putting surfaces on the course that aggressively eject shots off the front and more punitively over the back the long par for fourth was originally built in 1928 as the first hole of pineh hurst’s short-lived nine-hole employees only course that course was quickly abandoned during the Depression but Ross thought that this hole along with the parallel ninth hole was so good he adopted them as number two’s fourth and fifth holes during his major 1935 revision four is one of number two’s most scenic holes playing downhill through a valley framed by sand Barons and Pines the Fairway tilts left to right then cruises toward a wide shallow green nestled into a glen with deceptive internal Contours and a wicked false front ready to repel long incoming [Music] shots for decades the fifth was considered one of the toughest long par fours in the country climbing nearly 500 yd over a Crest along the same caned slope that the fourth trundled down it was not only lengthy but a green that pitches hard right to left and back to front redirected long second shots that didn’t carry deep enough onto the of the putting surface into the front left bunker or even down into the pine straw at the bottom of the hill for the 2014 US Open it was converted to a 576 yd par five and the par switch with the fourth hole which used to be a par five stuck still a wonderful hole the conversion makes the task of playing the fifth easier just tack to the high side for three shots and avoid going left the te’s of the sixth hole the first part three of the used to be the far boundary of the course before the fourth and fifth holes were added the green is large nearly 8,000 ft in size but the firm domed surface that sheds off straight t- shots into bunkers left and right makes it play much smaller hitting this green might be the most demanding shot on number two it certainly was during the 2014 open when the sixth played as the course’s most difficult hole in relation to par as well as the most difficult green to putt the tempation at the par for 7th is to chw something off the corner of the dog leg where the sandscape juts in but missing right leaves you in some of the most choppy volatile sand on the course and the entry to the green actually opens up to an approach from the left one long-standing criticism of Pinehurst number two was that it lacked Beauty due to the monotonous monochromatic presentation of Bermuda roughs added in the 1970s in 2010 Bill k a native North Carolinian who played the course in his youth restored The Artful tapestry of hard pan and Wiregrass TR transitions with partner Ben kensaw Reviving the stuff as he calls it and giving the course the colorful contrasting texture of sand and rough edges it was always meant to have after charging out and back through the first seven holes the eighth detours to the left guests play it as a par five but it’s a 500 yard par 4 during the US Open with a fairway that Banks like a racetrack left to right then right to left down slopes off the backs side of the two bunk short of the green can help you work balls in from either side and the naked putting surface is surrounded by pineh hurst’s quintessential defenses Short Grass and steep slopes knowing what side to miss greens at number two is the key to keeping around together and going left or long at 8 can jettison the ball 20 or 30 yards away and lead to comical attempts at getting it back up to the putting surface just ask John Daly who practically gave up trying while taking an 11 here during the 1999 open many golfers think that Donald Ross typically built the kind of convex greens found at Pinehurst that’s not true in fact he didn’t even build them here his original grass greens converted from flat sand discs in 1935 were shaped low and flowed into the surrounding swes and shoulders not above them but Decades of routine sand top dressing gradually raised their interior sections by as much as a foot giving them unintended mushroom shapes later alterations accentuated the outer banks of the greens in ways Ross couldn’t have imagined but the rolloffs and subsequent recovery conundrums turned out to provide fascinating playing characteristics and time and reputation have locked the changes into place far from being typical Dawn Ros greens Piner number twos are actually unlike anything else he built the par 39th spans across a low valley and calls for a short to midiron t-shot that must find the correct level of what is essentially a shallow island green broken into high left and low right sections putting between the two levels requires perfect Pace but it’s not as treacherous as missing the green short-sided on the left and shots that don’t secure the center of the lower section will also find slopes that shoot the ball off the front and right edges of the [Music] green this 617 yd tth looks wide open and rather simple but three staggered Fairway bunkers goose neck the Fairway of the second Landing Zone complicating the decision about how and from where to attack the green the key to the hole is the way it bends left at the end the result of Ross moving the green 80 yards back which brings Pines and the last cross bunker on the left into play two traps flank the opening of the wide Tri cornered green but there’s enough room to run a shot up in between them as Ben Hogan proved during the 1951 Ryder Cup when on his third shot after pitching out of the Pines he roped a 280 yd two-wood through the Gap then sank a 60ft putt causing his opponent to Proclaim in anguish what do you have to do to win a hole from this man you may not find a better collection of four consecutive par fours than the Run of 11 12 13 and 14 that fan out like an accordion each distinct from the next despite playing over mostly flat homogeneous terrain 11 sweeps right around the scruffy sand into one of number two’s largest scens set as low to the ground as any other once again whole location matters if the pin is set in the back half of the putting surface a line down the right yields an approach that won’t have to fly the two Standalone green side bunkers if it’s placed on the right or right corner the angle opens up with the drive down the left just remember the Miss here is either to the right of the green or long like the seventh the desire on the 12th is to take the t-shot down the right to shorten the approach there’s nothing wrong with this play as long as the drive avoids the wire grass that as players in the 20 14 open and 2019 US amateur found out is just as likely to result in a styed shot as a clean lie the best angle into the offset green however is from the opposite side near The Cross bunker jutting into the Fairway 150 yard out the green doesn’t possess significant surface Contour few at Pinehurst number two do but it’s a beauty being shaped and set against a backdrop of pines with an intriguing thumb print depression on the left that must be negotiated on shots missed to that side [Music] Ross located these four par fors early in the development of number two and they’ve changed very little since their te’s and greens located almost exactly where he first placed them in 1907 the green side of the 13th is inspired set a top of Sand Ridge that borders the first tea of the number four course 13 is also one of number two’s most strategically interesting holes offering abundance of safe Fairway to the left that leaves an uphill approach that must carry a deep Froning bunker while the option of d driving over the wash of sand on the right will result in a shorter more direct shot into the small blind exposed green there’s room to miss long here but anything short will back up into the bunker or tumble all the way back down to the Fairway the 14th is another example of how Pine hurst’s basic ingredients of sand native grasses long leaf Pines and gentle elevation change can be scrambled into distinctly different holes the 473 y par for plays off the same Ridge as the 13th green to another wide Fairway that begins to narrow at the 300 ydd mark corn crenchaw didn’t move bunkers but they did Flash sand up their faces as Ross originally did and melted their back edges into the Wiregrass surrounds three of these mly specimens act like fingers and thumbs throttling the entrance of the green which is kicked up high in the rear to receive low trajectory approaches unlike the last hole short here is the best Miss as the Mesa likee putting surface Falls sharply off to the left right and behind [Music] Ross paid as much attention to the shapes in the ground at the front and sides of the greens as he did to the greens themselves anticipating most players would be bouncing shots into them though holding the small crowned putting surface at the par 315th is less Troublesome in the age of 195 yard s irons the subtle mounds and Mogul in the foreground can still be used to guide balls onto the putting surface as long as the gaping bunker that eats directly into the right Edge is avoided paint Stuart bogie the 15th in the last round of the 1999 open to fall one stroke behind Phil Mickelson setting up one of the open’s most memorable duels coming down the closing four hole stretch the par 516th features the only water hazard at Pinehurst in the form of a small pond off the te though a drive of just 150 to 180 yards were cleared for most players assuming that piece of business is taken care of the next question is how to handle the second shot and particularly the bunker lurching into the Landing Zone exactly where you’d want to position your ball for a clear shot into another small green that slopes from a deep bunker on the right to another on the left designed for a lofted approach the putting surface is an even more elusive Target for the pros when the hole is a par four during [Music] opens the green at the par 317th is angled 30° and calls for a high left to right shot to a putting surface pitched toward the tea at the front and pitched away at the back before the rebuilding of the bunkers or restoration of the sandscapes the 17th green blended into a sea of Fairway Bermuda roughs and grass-fed bunkers it doesn’t any longer with the front Hazard flash prominently into the putting surface and a higher brow of sand and Wire Grass defining the back left [Music] Horizon a good line for most t-shots on the par 48th is the red shingled pergola on the left side of the clubhouse the drive is uphill to a left to right moving Fairway way and the key is to advance the ball far enough so the bunker 15 yd short of the green doesn’t come into play whole location factors prominently and a depression running through the center of the green can exacerbate three putts a nerve-wracking scenario when performing in front of the usual lunchtime crowd on the adjacent fanda it didn’t of course bother Payne Stewart who in front of a much larger crowd calmly canned his 15ft putt for par and celebrated his second US Open title with a one-of-a-kind fist thrust that’s now memorialized in EST stat of him that looks out over the [Music] green the originality of Pinehurst number two’s architecture and particularly the vexing greens is the result of intelligent design time and accident whether by planning or Providence number two’s greens have become beautiful beguiling works of art arguably the best in American Golf because of them the design achieves the game’s ultimate ideal as the rare course that can squeeze blood from the mighty golfers straining to shoot 70 and then turn around to provide invigorating possibilities for the 20 handicappers in the next forsome Donald Ross spent nearly 50 years at Pinehurst refining both his ideas and the golf courses and even though happen stance has played a role number two can be viewed as the cumulative expression of his genius perhaps all that needs to be said is that Ross himself that sternest of Scots considered Pinehurst number two to be his Masterpiece to paraphrase the writer Charles price nobody’s arguing with him