Challenging for pros yet fun for amateurs

[Wayne_Kozun]

I was wondering how you would find the balls in the natural areas, even with caddies.  You would almost need forecaddies all over the course.

[David Federman]

I played P2 before the Coore-Crenshaw redo. We found it to be totally playable and fun (all 10-14 handicaps). We thought it was an easy bogey course, with chances for pars and birdies. Of course, green speeds were fast but very reasonable and the classic crowned  greens still repelled poorly struck shots and shots hit to the wrong areas. If I remember correctly, lots of pine straw, with little rough. Big numbers could generally be avoided. One interesting general observation was that we did not feel like it was a top 10 course, very good, but not spectacular. The Coore-Crenshaw redo looks like it has regained the "spectacular!"

[astavrides]

I was wondering how you would find the balls in the natural areas, even with caddies.  You would almost need forecaddies all over the course.

That's what it looked like to me too.
You could also say that about normal US Open rough, but at least that can be cut down when the US Open isn't being held.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

After watching this weekend, i'm not sure how the average amateur can have "fun" while playing Pinehurst #2.  Pinehurst #2 is a fantastic course but if pros can't handle the Pinehurst greens, can amateurs?  Even then, I can't fathom most amateurs being able to navigate that course in 4 hours.  Even as challenging as the greens were, a lot of players still put up good scores throughout the week.  I'm beginning to think there isn't much a course can do architecturally to challenge players other than making the conditions that week unplayable.

Many amateurs miss short, which can be a pretty decent way to make some bogeys there. Pros aren't content to try to get up and down from just short for a bunch of pars.

[Jason Thurman]

I was wondering how you would find the balls in the natural areas, even with caddies.  You would almost need forecaddies all over the course.

That's what it looked like to me too.
You could also say that about normal US Open rough, but at least that can be cut down when the US Open isn't being held.

Y'all have clearly never played No. 2. It's surely the Top 100 Anything course most frequently played with a single ball.

[Stewart Abramson]

After watching this weekend, i'm not sure how the average amateur can have "fun" while playing Pinehurst #2.  Pinehurst #2 is a fantastic course but if pros can't handle the Pinehurst greens, can amateurs?  Even then, I can't fathom most amateurs being able to navigate that course in 4 hours. 

I'm a very average amateur. I was  a 12 or 13 index when I played #2 on a cold December morning in 2019. and loved it. It was really a lot of fun, especially recovery shots (chips) around the greens, which were not nearly as slick as they were last week. I doubt they are ever that fast for typical resort guest or member play. The requisites for an average player to have fun on #2 are (i) play the right tees, (ii) hit fairways, which are fairly generous and (iii) be a decent chipper. We played #2 in three hours, ten minutes. We were the second group out IIRC. The prior afternoon it took 5 hours to play #4. I think pace of play is more dependent on when you tee off than difficulty of #2, and  I don't think rounds at #2  are any slower than other resort courses. Most average players (in the U.S, at least) on most resort courses from Monterey, to Bandon, to Scottsdale, to Myrtle Beach don't play rounds in 4 hours.

[Jeff Schley]

Didn’t read the responses, but the first thing that comes to mind is playing a tee box up from where you “want” to play from.  Most of us don’t play the correct tee box truthfully. I recall maybe 10 years ago there was a USGA movement one year about play up or something like that. The game is hard enough.

[Wayne_Kozun]

I was wondering how you would find the balls in the natural areas, even with caddies.  You would almost need forecaddies all over the course.

That's what it looked like to me too.
You could also say that about normal US Open rough, but at least that can be cut down when the US Open isn't being held.

Y'all have clearly never played No. 2. It's surely the Top 100 Anything course most frequently played with a single ball.

I did play it about 15 years ago, prior to the C&C reno.  But is it easy to find your ball when it is in the natural areas?  How would you know what clump of grass you are behind - Bryson had someone sticking a little flag beside his ball.

[Stewart Abramson]

It's much harder to find balls in the heather that's found on most English Heathland courses than it us in the "natura"l areas on #2. It's also usually harder to hit out of the heather. I don't understand why PH #2 gets so much criticism for those areas when courses like Sunningdale, St. Georges Hill, Woking  and dozens of other thickly heathered courses are loved for it. Is it because the areas at PH #2 aren't sufficiently punitive?


I'm a fan of both and am okay that there is some luck and randomness to the result of a bad shot.