Pinehurst No. 2 Review

Everything at Pinehurst happens on the greens. Ross crowned them so that a ball landing anywhere but the correct quadrant slides off into a collection area, and from down there the golfer picks between a putter, a hybrid and a wedge and is usually wrong. No other course in America asks that question eighteen times in a round, and it is why the national open keeps coming back.

The restoration is the second reason to play it. Coore and Crenshaw tore out the rough, widened the fairways by half, shut off most of the irrigation and put back the sand and wiregrass the course had before mid century American golf decided everything should be green. What is there now is firmer, faster, more strategic and far cheaper to keep alive, and it has become the model every classic American club points at when it wants to argue for its own restoration.

Conditioning is superb in a way that looks unkempt to an untrained eye, which is precisely the intention. The scenery is longleaf pine and sand rather than water or cliff, handsome and quiet rather than spectacular. The problem is money. A round runs into the high hundreds, resort guests get the tee times, walking with a caddie is not optional, and that makes this a trip rather than an afternoon. Plan your year around it anyway.