Pinehurst No. 2, host of three U.S. Open Championships and future host of the 2024 event, is ranked third in the United States among Golfweek magazine’s annual Top 100 Best Courses You Can Play list.
The famed Donald Ross design is also ranked 15th in the country among the publication’s Top 100 Classic Golf Courses which includes designs prior to 1960.
Other Pinehurst area courses ranked among the 2020 Top 100 Best Courses You Can Play list include Pinehurst No. 4 (41st), Mid Pines Inn & Golf Club (42nd), Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club (55th) and Tobacco Road Golf Club (99th).
“These rankings simply reinforce that the Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen area is indeed the ‘Home of American Golf,’” said Phil Werz, president and CEO of the Convention and Visitors Bureau. “What is even better is our community embraces golf and the golf industry, and supports everything from major USGA championships like the U.S. Open to events such as U.S. Kids World and Teen Championships and everything in between. Our destination understands how important golf is not only to those who live here, but also to everyone around the world that chooses to visit this special place 365 days of the year.”
Among all 50 states, North Carolina ranks fifth in the nation with the number of golf courses on the Best You Can Play list with seven, trailing only California (10), Florida (8), Oregon (8) and Wisconsin (8).
When broken down by individual states, Golfweek includes 15 courses as Best Courses You Can Play in North Carolina, nine of them located in the Pinehurst area.
Those courses include Pinehurst No. 2 (1st); Pinehurst No. 4 (2nd); Mid Pines (3rd); Pine Needles (4th); Tobacco Road Golf Club (6th); Pinehurst No. 8 (7th); Pinehurst No. 7 (9th); Mid South Club (13th) and Southern Pines Golf Club (15th).
Feature photo: Tess Davenport, a rising Sophomore at Vanderbilt University, playing out of a greenside bunker on Pinehurst No. 4 during Round 1 of the 118th Women’s North & South Amateur in July 2020. Image captured by Sandhills Sentinel Photographer John Patota.
Contributed.
