Pinehurst No.2
NC, USA
6th hole, 225 yards; Coupled with the 5th, this is as nasty a one-two punch as there is in golf.
Too few professionals in the 1999 U.S.Open tried to run the ball up onto this severe humpback green. Rarely are the bunkers the place to miss a ball at No. 2: the fluffy sand produces difficult lies.
9th hole, 170 yards (note:a further back tee has been added butRoss would never have wanted it used); The shortest hole on the course is also the most heavily defended.
Six bunkers and the tiered, angled green make the 9th an exacting one shotter.
13th hole, 385 yards; As charming as any hole on the course, this green complex would fit perfectly at Holston Hills, where Ross did such a superb job of locating greens on top of hillocks. The false front has seen more than one ball putted offit and well back into the fairway. The more you play it, the scarier it becomes, and the more you respect it.
As taken from the left edge of the 13th green, the severity of the false front is obvious relative to the height of the man.
14th hole, 440 yards; Considered among the finest two shot holes in America, this pushed up green complex has it all: a bunker short to hinder depth perception, a bunker six yards left of the green from which an up and down is near impossible, a steep slope to the right, and death over. Considering its length, the golfer takes little comfort.
16th hole, 520 yards; A uniquegreen at Pinehurst No.2 in thatit is actually nestled down among its immediate surrounds; every other green complex is more visually intimidating astheyare starkly exposed. Playing this hole as a parfour in the 1999 U.S. Open was a mistake: Ross intended Pinehurst No. 2 to be a course of give and take. For instance, the birdieable 3rd and 4th holes precede the brutal 5th and 6th holes and the same with the 13th hole in relation to the14th and 15th. To convert the 16th into a par four robbed the course of some of the ebb and flow that Ross so carefully instilled.
Pinehurst No.2 was very much an evolution process: while holes 11-18 have been in play since 1911, holes 4 and 5 were added in 1935, holes 3 and 6 were added in 1923, and all the greens were changed from sand to grassby 1935. The key with this process – unlike virtuallyevery other great course save for Myopia Hunt and the National Golf Links of America - is that the same man who designed the course to begin with also oversaw these changes and modifications. Thus, Pinehurst No. 2 epitomizes to this day a course witha consistent, unified feel.
Critics of Pinehurst No. 2 will argue that it doesn’t have any world class holes along the lines of a Pebble Beach or even Ross’s own Seminole for that manner. Such a statement is absurd considering the sophisticationof each green complex. Pinehurst’s weaker holes – whichever they may be deemed to be- stand head and shoulders abovealmost any other course’s weakest, and it is this succession of eighteen holes of such a high standard that elevates Pinehurst No. 2amongst the elite courses in the world.
The End