Southern Pines, NC, USA    

8th hole, 375 yards; A charming slight dogleg that needs to be approached with caution and where a driver may not be prudent. The fairway may be the most important one to find on the course as serious trouble lurks on either side. From the tee, the fairway falls forty feet along a shoulder of a hill to the green below. A drive that just misses the fairway right will kick sharply right toward a lake and a drive that misses the fairway left will kick further left into pine trees with low lying brush. As the lake is a full sixty paces from the fairway and is thus out of sight from the tee, the golfer may not realize the full peril of a slice until it is too late. To spring such a delayed trap on the golfer is more clever than building a lake a few feet off the fairway, a sight that has become far too commonplace in modern golf. The 8th green is equally clever as the left third is protected by a bunker but it also features a bowl contour, so the smart golfer will ignore the bunker all together and let the slope of the green feed the ball toward the left hole locations. In 1998/1999, John LaFoy oversaw the greens being seeded with Crenshaw bent. Such grass behaves well in the hot summer conditions and this grass allows the greens to play firm so that such features as this left bowl actually play as intended.

The downhill 8th bends around the bunker on the inside of the dogleg but the real trouble is
in how just off the fairway slopes right toward a lake and left into pine trees.

10th hole, 335 yards; Wonderful sidehill architecture. A hillock crosses the fairway at the 220 yard mark from the tee and the golfer who can place his tee ball near its broad crest is afforded the more level stance into the green. The green mirrors the left to right pitch of the fairway and any approach that ends up above the hole on the left is a three putt in the making. Where Ross got the fill for this green is a mystery. Big hitters who take a powerful swing with their drivers often find its too no avail as the left to right pitch of the ground encourages their tee ball to end up in the right rough or on a bed of pine needles. Though they may just be 40 yards from the green, the angle and lie rarely is coinducive for a birdie. In short, advances in technolgy have done little to diminish the playing qualities of this subtle hole.

The view from the 10th tee shows the left to right pitch of the land.

The six foot deep bunker on the right of the green gets plenty of play, given that
the approach shot is played with the ball below one's feet. 

11th hole, 320 yards; Unlike so many Ross courses, the course at Southern Pines has not been overgrown by trees and indeed, the only hole where trees have encroached on the strategy of the hole occurs here at the 11th. Originally, Ross gave the golfer a good look at the 11th green on this dogleg right hole with the inside of the dogleg lined with four deep bunkers. Unfortunately, the growth of the pine trees over the past sixty years  obscures the view of the green and several of bunkers on the inside of the dogleg have been removed. The hole plays more straightaway off the tee as opposed to having the more interesting dilemma of a diagonal carry to consider.  This would be a wonderful hole to see restored to Ross's original design intent.

In Ross's day, the flag was visible from the tee on this dogleg right
and the golfer was goaded into being greedy.

14^th hole, 170 yards: The one shot holes at Southern Pines highlight the need for a crisp iron game. In general, these four holes require a three, six, four and a five iron here at the 14th. As with the others, the green site is a natural, with a ten foot deep bunker cut into the right front slope. Unfortunately, this LaFoy green is the fifth one that has a distinct tier in it, an un-Ross like feature.

15th hole, 425 yards; LaFoy created a new tee seventy yards from the prior green and made this hole a straightaway 475 yard three shotter. The hole is more interesting from Ross's original tee, which is twenty paces behind the 14th green. From there, it plays at 425 yards and is a slight dogleg to the right with the uphill second shot requiring some kind of long iron or wood. Such a hard two shotter perfectly compliments the next hole, which is a drive and pitch 310 yarder.

As seen from the Ross tee, the 15th enjoys a gentle left to right bend before heading uphill.

17th hole, 410 yards; The right to left fairway slope encourages the tee ball to find the left side of the fairway. The snake bunker that extends down the left side of the green encourages the golfer to seek the right side of the fairway. Thus, though the hole itself is straight and wide off the tee, Ross does a fine job of asking the golfer to hit a fade off the tee to gain (and hold) the preferred angle into the green.

The fairway wants to kick the ball toward the left, which brings the .... 

...left green side bunker into play.

18th hole, 340 yards;  The kind of finishing hole that is sadly never built today. A knoll in the middle of the fairway can give the golfer an awkward stance to an uphill green. On countless occasions, the golfer will stick his wedge into the ground and his uphill approach comes up woefully short. The expected birdie rarely materializes and more times than one might guess based on its modest yardage, a bogey is recorded. Such a swing hole is infinitely more appealing - and memorable - than the usual 460 yarder with water that concludes many modern courses.

Far too many people overlook the merits of Southern Pines when arranging their games in Pinehurst. American golfers are often fixated with playing a 'championship' golf course and at 6,300 yards and a par of 71, Southern Pines may not fit that notion. Yet, similar with Machrihanish, golfers never quite seem to post the score that they had hoped, as strokes seem to bleed away here and there. In fact, in July 2001, David Eger (the then reigning North-South Amateur Champion) managed two under par at Southern Pines when the day before he was four under at Pinehurst No.4, which measures 900 yards (!) longer.

More importantly still for the golfer in need of a vaction is that Southern Pines is a walker's paradise. Free from outside intrusions save briefly for some single story condominiums down the 5th fairway, Donald Ross's tight routing insures that relaxing afternoon rounds can be easily walked in three hours. London is so blessed with and the United States is so void of courses where the green-to-tee walk is at a minimum. Swinley Forest, West Sussex and Woking exemplify such clever routings and the Brits have long appreciated the virtues of courses where distance accounts for little and charm and character everything.  

Southern Pines also shares with such U.K. courses the fact that it is an ideal winter course. The sandy soil drains well while winter stretches the course and makes it play more like Ross intended. However, regardless of the time of year, when in the Pinehurst area, head straight for this beauty - you will leave more invigorated than when you arrived. 

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