Like the ubiquitous "little black dress"  Mid-Pines is timeless, simple, elegant, understated, straight-forward yet somehow mysterious.  

A morning round there Monday, followed by an afternoon visit to the Tufts Archieves and a long look at Donald J. Ross'  detailed ink on linen sketch of Seminole almost made me forget about Tobacco Road the previous day.  

Did you ever wonder if this is as good as it gets?
-Melvin Udall

Tom,

I LOVED Tobacco Road, but it's no Mid-Pines.

BTW, I had nine pars and a birdie at TR and scored better there than at MP.

Mike

Mike it sounds like a great few days.

John,

Funny, I doubled the 4th after burying my approach in the lip!

Audrey Moriarty was delightful and sends her regards.  She was kind enough to allow me leeway to pour through the files and it was fun to stumble across the master-plan implemented at Beverly, among other items.  I was disappointed to find virtually empty files on Belle Meade and Memphis but am forwarding her the 1940 photographs I have of each of the 18 greens at Memphis for that file.  

The highlight was the Seminole drawing and Ross' drawing of various bunker construction techniques.  Funny, on the plane home I was reading Dan Brown's Angels & Demons and could really relate to the fictional Robert Langdon's review of Galileo's original writings in the Vatican's archives!

I applaud the Donald J. Ross Society's financial support of The Tufts Archives.

Mike

I agree that the 4th is an excellent short par 4, and I also agree with the sentiment of the 18th being one of the best finishers (and most scenic) in the area.

Upon my first play, I felt MP was the best in the area, beating out PN and even #2 in my book due to the fun factor and the intimate routing.  I've since changed my tune, but it's still one of the first I would play upon a return to the Sandhills region.

Mike,

No Pine Needles this time.  I was in town for about 24 hours with only time for TR and MP.  

BTW, I STRONGLY recommend the Pine Crest Inn, frumpy though it may be.  

Interestingly, I briefly visited Pinehurst Resort and my initial impression was that it takes itself a little too seriously.  

Mike

At Dixie Cup II, Pete Buzcowski (or something in that ball park) said that Mid Pines is a course that you could have fun playing every day.  After playing it, I totally agreed.  

It was just so cool to just walk off one green to the next tee.  Uphill, downhill, great greens--but all very fair.  What more can you ask for?

Between PN, MP, and #2, I'd probably (once the #2 novelty factor wore off) break them up 5-3-2  PN, 2, MP, in that order...

Brian-

I know I can understand why I like Mid Pines better than Tobacco Road.

Mid Pines is fun to PLAY golf on. If you want to get a good 4 ball match going I don't seem why you wouldn't want to go play Mid Pines. It has some great classic architecture on it, especially for you Donald Ross lovers. The place just smells of old time golf.

A freind and I played MP as part of a golf trip a few years back. Also played TR and some of the others. Had our own name for every course. Mid-Pines was "Happy Golf". Sorta' like sucking on a great big lollipop for four hours - - how could you ever stop smiling?

BTW, TR was "Lunar Golf".

Steve P,

I was just about to comment that the first hole at Mid-Pines is nigh perfect and you've posted a great photo of it. I think the green complex in particular is low-key, more difficult than it looks and fits the land beautifully. Then again I'm a sucker for a typical Ross-vintage opening hole with the downhill tee shot and slightly uphill approach to an interesting green and that one's a classic.

The eighteenth hole at my home course is very, very similar to the home hole at Mid-Pines (although ours at Columbia CC is tougher because the green is severely uphill from the fairway) but it lacks the grandeur of the turn-of-the-century hotel and clubhouse. On my first visit to Mid-Pines and Pine Needles I drove up from South Carolina and had a sandwich on the back porch of the clubhouse waiting for some friends to finish their round and play their way up eighteen. I was in love with the course before I ever hit my first shot there an hour later.

Mr. Sweeney makes a great point when he says

Mid Pines is fun to PLAY golf on...

because "PLAY" captures the essence of what I love about Mid-Pines. If you want to contest a 72-hole stroke play event among a bunch good players, then Pine Needles is your course. But for any golfer from the 30-handicapper down to the better than scratch player you can have a fine match any day at Mid-Pines while also having as fine a walk in the park as you could ever wish for. The two times I've been there Mid-Pines has played just a touch faster and "sportier" than its big sister across the street, just the thing for a friendly fourball game.

I have a club-pro friend who's been to the Pinehurst area innumerable times over the years. He'd play in any tournament he has a chance to enter at Pine Needles because it suits his game and it's a world-class championship venue. But he says if he retired to that area tomorrow Mid-Pines is the course he'd play every day for the rest of his life. I'm not sure I feel quite the same way (personally, I just adore Pine Needles) but I know what he's responding to about Mid-Pines.

If i had 15 rounds to play at PN, #2, MP, and TR......

6 PN
4 #2
3 MP
2 TR

And I like all of them, and would play any over CCNC-Dog, #8, Llama-more, Mid-tation, Little River, and Woodlake-Maples and SPCC (although I do like those last two).

Sometime I want to play Mid Pines with Hickories. Something about the place seems to call for them, even though Hickories were in the way out when the course was built.

Jim,

Look at the web site for  www.carolinahickory.com  and also www.hickorygolfers.org

There is the Mid Pines Open,  November 2-5, 2006 for the hickory golfers.

Also, there was a recent event at Mimosa Hills on July 16th, which is appropriately just west of Hickory.