I play PN once or twice a year, but haven't been to Mid Pines in a while.  Hard to pick between them, and in fact I wouldn't pick between 'em.  Play them both.

Both terrific golf holes with plenty of strategy, interesting greens, challenge for the better golfer, and are comfortable walks.  Neither is long.

PN's scale seems a bit more grand, and its routing just feels really special.  Nothing wrong with MP's routing, but it's a little tighter property.

MP seems extraordinarily similar to Southern Pines.  I've heard a pro say that sometimes he forgets which course he is playing.  There are some very similar holes (a good thing).

Ken

 

Haven't been to PN or MP in over 10 years but I would concurr with playing both and their character of tightness.  My advice is playing SP, my personal favorite, first..  In any case, play for a week in the area and many holes will start looking the same!  The topography just lends itself to many similar hole designs.  

And then there's Tobacco Road..

But, SP is a course where one can afford to play often or join the Elk's club and have a perfect every day or week home course.  ...I still wonder about some sort of restoration of the "little 9" third loop at SP, and if that will ever come about.  It would be a perfect ladies-juniors and seniors course with two sets of tees.

SP is my home course and I absolutely love it. It does seem similar to MP.

I grew up playing on the "little 9" (Cardinal) and have played it hundreds of times. I'm pretty sure that the club owns the land and has the plans for 9 more holes I think I've seen an overhead drawing that includes 36 holes at SP. I'm assuming that Ross is the one who drew up the plans for the "lost 9" too.

The little 9 is in crisis right now. It doesn't get much play and only the greens are mown on a regular and frequent basis. I don't know if it was in this shape when I was a kid, since kids don't tend to notice or get as worked up about the conditions as adults do. It would be great to see the course restored and in the same condition as the "big course," but the worry now is survival.

I think that if the little 9 were restored, it wouldn't necessarily have to be a seniors/ladies/juniors course. I think it could hold it's own against the big course. There are great things about pretty much every single hole on the little 9. If Ross also designed the "lost 9" the building of those holes would make SP an even more amazing complex.

Due to the course being owned by the Elk's club, it seems unlikely that the little 9 will be restored (or maybe even saved) or the lost 9 will be built. There's a lot of resistance to spending more money on the little 9. With the non-golf services and facilities not being quite up to snuff when compared to other clubs in the area, I don't see the likelihood of people willing to pay more for a membership coming in and forcing change.

 

Put me down on the side of Mid-Pines.  Pine Needles is the sterner test but there is just something about Mid Pines, especially that walk down the 18th hole towards the Clubhouse.

I'll second RJ...yummers!