Pinehurst No. 2 Course review: What it's actually like to play the US Open course

Pinehurst No. 2 Course Fact File

• Location: Pinehurst, North Carolina (100 miles east of Charlotte)
• Year established: 1907
• Par: 72
• Length (yards from tips): 7,551
• Green fees (weekdays): Around $600 though you also need to stay for two nights (it’s complicated)
• Signature hole: The 5th is an absolute beauty – do NOT go left
• Website: pinehurst.com

With a mind-boggling 10 golf courses on site and an 11th under construction, Pinehurst is one of the most special places in the game. It's the fabled No. 2 course, however, that is the most familiar to all golf fans.

This is the home to (just) four US Opens – it will be back here in 2029, 2035 and 2041 – and it first played host to a Major when it staged the PGA Championship in 1936.There have been a handful of other USGA events and, from 1902-51, it held the prestigious North and South Open. This was won by Walter Hagen, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead, all three times apiece, and Pinehurst was the site Hogan's first victory as a professional.

Pinehurst was founded by Boston soda fountain magnate James Walker Tufts in 1895 and the first course was opened three years later. In 1907 No. 2 was laid out by Donald Ross, already a three-time winner of the North and South – his brother Alec would win it a record six times – and it would come to an end when the professionals requested that the prize money be aligned with the main tour winnings, something that was refused.

The previous week the 1951 Ryder Cup took place at No. 2, something that is often overlooked these days, and only four of the nine members of the American team stayed on to play.

Pinehurst No. 2 Course Review

Ross, who grew up in Dornoch, would become the pro at Pinehurst in 1900 and he would go on to design four of the courses here but it is No. 2 that is always held up as his finest piece of work. A signature of his work would be the green sites, which are notoriously difficult to hold – think of the 2nd at Dornoch as an extreme example – and a lack of rough.

This would change in the 70s when Robert Trent Jones oversaw the implementing of thick Bermuda rough but, thankfully, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw were brought in to restore the original Ross design in 2010. Four years later it would host back-to-back US Opens for the men and women.

Maybe the best US Open in recent history took place in 2024 when Bryson DeChambeau got up and down from the sand at the 72nd hole while Rory McIlroy made a mess of the closing holes. Here we had the perfect example of course design lending itself to a tough challenge without the need for rough and the weather. Instead firm, fast greens would need to be deciphered though the fairways are generous and not the usual narrow style of US Open layouts. But, if you were to venture just off the short stuff and into the wasteland, there is a chance of landing yourself in the wire grass which makes any type of recovery very perilous.

As a spectacle it was as good as Major golf gets, with some truly outstanding stretches of golf from the 3rd to the 5th and 11-13. Then again, 16 and 17 are magnificent holes and, while the 18th, might not appear to be as spectacular as what's just gone before, look at what Rory and Bryson did there.

The 17th was compared by Johnny Miller to landing the ball on the roof of a VW Beetle. Here Michael Campbell made a brilliant two when he landed the 2005 US Open, on a day when the top three on the leaderboard, Olin Browne, Jason Gore and Retief Goosen, all failed to break 80. The New Zealander shot 69 for a winning total of level par.

Back in 1951 it was a bit of a wash-out in terms of a competition. After the 7-5 victory at Ganton two years before the Americans won their fifth straight match by 9.5-2.5. The matches were played over two days but, bizarrely, on a Friday and Sunday to accommodate a college football match 70 miles away.

Ben Hogan would play in his second and final Ryder Cup match and Sam Snead would be a playing captain, comfortably winning both his games. Likewise Hogan, Jackie Burke Jr and Jimmy Demaret. For the Great Britain side, Sunningdale's long-standing pro Arthur Lees would also contribute two points.

Final Verdict

Of all the places that I’ve spent any length of time, Pinehurst would always be the most special. No. 2 got the better of us as we consistently saw approach shots tumble off the greens, and then putt it up to 15 feet and miss, but none of that mattered. It’s thrilling off the tee and every shot has some sort of consequence. You’re never somehow just hitting an 8-iron to 20 feet and two-putting as there’s too much going on. It’s hard to think of the course being played with thick rough but, thankfully, they’ve gone back to the way it should be played.

You could spend a month here and not get bored. Everything about the resort is just what you would want. The Cradle, a nine-hole test of your short-game skills, is labelled, quite rightly, as ’The Most Fun 10 Acres In All Of Golf’.

Everyone will have their favourite combinations of courses, and nobody will be wrong. If you were to win the lottery then this would be a brilliant start in making the most of your new-found wealth.  

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars ️️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

For more information, please visit the club's website here