Sandhills-Pinehurst
It seems like a lot of golf destinations claim to be the Golf Capital of the World. Some places have more courses, some have more night life, or more theme parks for the kids. But for pure golf, on great courses designed by the greatest names in the game, the Pinehurst- Southern Pines- Aberdeen area of North Carolina is hard to beat! Imagine 43 golf courses in a 15 miles radius, now imagine that over half (23) of the courses have been awarded a Golf Digest Rating of 4 stars or more.
There are 8 courses located in a 4 mile stretch of Midland Road, which connects The Village of Pinehurst and Southern Pines. The names of the architects of the courses on Midland Road alone are worth the drive. The list includes Donald Ross, Rees Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and local designer, Dan Maples. A golfer could never venture off this road and still enjoy one of the best weeks of his life. But just when you thought you had found golf heaven, Midland Road takes you into the Village of Pinehurst and The famous Pinehurst Resort. This is great stuff, with 8 championship golf courses in one resort and a famous old clubhouse that features a hallway of artifacts and memorabilia to take you back to the early 1900′s when golf was beginning in the area.
When you tee it up in the Sandhills of North Carolina, you are literally walking in the footsteps of some very famous golfers. Ben Hogan won his first professional tournament at Pinehurst in 1940 in the North and South Open. Byron Nelson, Sam Snead and Dr. Cary Middlecoff also won titles there.
Jack Nicklaus built part of his legacy with a win in the North and South Amateur when he was a 19-year old in 1959. He returned 16 years later to win the 1975 World Open. Raymond Floyd, who took the highway through his hometown of nearby Fayetteville to get here, won the World Open in 1976 in a one-hole playoff with Jerry Magee, shortly after winning the Masters.
While Ross is the most famous of the architects who designed courses in the area, he is surrounded by some pretty good company. Included are Tom Fazio, Rees Jones, Ellis Maples, Robert Trent Jones, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Dan Maples, Tom Jackson, Gene Hamm and Gary Player.
Pinehurst No. 2‘s legendary status was even more firmly entrenched in 1999 when Payne Stewart out-dueled Phil Mickelson and won the U.S. Open in June, then died in a tragic airplane accident a few months later. A statue honoring Stewart’s memory adorns the Walk of Fame behind the 18th green on Pinehurst No. 2. Joining him there are statues of Donald Ross, Pinehurst developer Richart Tufts and Robert Dedman, whose company, ClubCorp of America, was responsible for the “rebirth” of Pinehurst when it purchased the resort in 1984. The USGA was so enamored with Pinehurst No. 2 and the area that it brought the Open back to Pinehurst in 2005, where Michael Campbell fought off a charging Tiger Woods down the stretch to claim his first major.
