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The Cradle and Thistle Dhu added under Courses by Country

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Ran Morrissett:
 http://golfclubatlas.com/the-cradle-thistle-dhu/

Several years after my 2000 move from Sydney to Southern Pines, my arch-enemy, Australian George Blunt, pierced my witness protection program, tracked me down and threatened to come here for a match. George had recently emigrated to New York but – sad though true – I said, ‘Don’t come for the golf because it isn’t worth it.’

Roll the clock forward 14 years and now I tell everyone to come, that’s how much the golf landscape has dramatically improved. Most of the work has occurred in the past decade  – the creation of Dormie (which brought Coore & Crenshaw to the area), C&C's work on No. 2, the double Opens on browned out fairways, Kyle Franz's work at Mid Pines and more recently Pine Needles, the re-grassing at Tobacco Road, improvements to CCNC Dogwood. Life is grand here.

Three weeks ago, business brought George to North Carolina and he popped in for a night and a quick hit Saturday morning. He wasn't here to play any of the mentioned courses (and the prior evening’s events would have made 18 holes challenging) but to see The Cradle and Thistle Dhu. The first is a par 3 course and the second is the 2 acre putting green in front of the Pinehurst clubhouse.

Off we went, though our best ball crashed and burned to Tom Pashley's smooth 2 under performance. Lamenting our loss, George groused about Tom’s home field advantage and that it would take several more rounds to begin to develop a stratagem for playing The Cradle. That, of course, is about the best compliment a design can garner.


This drone shot looks over The Cradle and toward the Pinehurst clubhouse with Thistle Dhu in front of the elongated porch.

Two weeks ago, Brother Bill came to play CCNC and I suggested a warm-up at The Cradle for his gang of four. Their handicaps ranged from a plus to a five and they HAD A BLAST. Bill proceeded to par the first 10 holes at CCNC from the gold tees, no mean feat; The Cradle had proved the perfect warm-up. Brother Bill wants to bring his children back – they dabble in the sport but he thinks The Cradle might provide an additional spark.

I drive by The Cradle often getting my son from school and seeing clumps of people within 50-100 yards of each other is invigorating. While golf design has been big scale for over 20 years now, it is refreshing to see neat things in small packages, in part because they are so time efficient.

I learned a lot watching this course evolve from the dirt. At first, I thought there would be some 8 at Troon type vicious holes so I was puzzled when I saw large-ish greens under construction. Now I see the beauty in the design’s flexibility: there are some truly wicked hole locations on many greens (I would love to see a 'tough day' on this 789 yard course) and there have been 21 hole-in-ones over the course’s first ~75 days of existence. It is the best of both worlds.

Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner's efforts in creating these two venues portend their work at Pinehurst No.4. Even better days are ahead for this area and I am lucky to be in the cat bird seat to chronicle them.

Best,

Thomas Dai:
Sounds wonderful and inspiring as well. More facilities like these are needed imo. The Summary summarises the situation very well.
Atb

Craig Disher:
I've walked by The Cradle a few times on my way to other things and stopped to take in the view of groups of golfers all walking and carrying, looking like an early scene at the TOC. I host a group every fall and this year times weren't available when we needed them. Everyone insisted that I arrange at least one round each day next year - an amazing comment from a group that never agrees on anything.

Erik J. Barzeski:
Played it twice in mid October not long after it opened, and it was phenomenal. After we went off the first time, a group of about 12 younger girls were lined up to play, and they appeared to have a blast (despite several picking up after about seven).

The putting course, too, we had our most fun making up our own holes… like that old McDonald's commercial: "Around that post, over the back side of that slope, down short of that post, and to that hole over there."

RDecker:
Pinehurst so gets it...Golf as it was meant to be and a healthy balance of the past and present and future all at once.

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