CaddieTrail Guide
North Carolina is the spiritual home of American golf. Donald Ross lived in Pinehurst for four decades. The Sandhills corridor — Pinehurst, Pine Needles, Mid Pines, Tobacco Road — is one of the great golf destinations on earth.
North Carolina is the spiritual home of American golf, and this trail reflects that depth. Donald Ross lived in Pinehurst for four decades and shaped more than 50 North Carolina courses — six of them on this trail. Wade Hampton and Mountaintop anchor the western mountains, while the Sandhills corridor — home to Pinehurst, Pine Needles, Mid Pines, and Tobacco Road — is one of the great golf destinations on earth. Quail Hollow brings PGA Championship pedigree to Charlotte, and Old Town Club quietly stands as one of Perry Maxwell's finest designs anywhere.
#1 on trail
Wade Hampton Golf ClubCashiers, North Carolina
Tom Fazio's 1987 masterwork carved through the Blue Ridge Mountains at 3,500 feet. Sweeping mountain scenery and granite rock outcroppings define every hole on this ultra-private Cashiers layout, though the course itself plays with surprisingly modest elevation change — a hallmark of Fazio's acclaimed routing.
#2 on trail
Pinehurst Resort (No. 2)Pinehurst, North Carolina
Donald Ross's 1907 masterpiece, restored to native sand by Coore & Crenshaw in 2011. Host to four U.S. Opens, three U.S. Amateurs, and back-to-back U.S. Senior Opens in 1993 and 1994. Crowned greens and wiregrass rough define every hole. Resort access.
#3 on trail
Old Town ClubWinston-Salem, North Carolina
Designed by Perry Maxwell, this private Winston-Salem layout opened in 1939 across rolling Piedmont terrain. Tight, tree-lined fairways demand precision off the tee.
#4 on trail
Diamond Creek Golf ClubBanner Elk, North Carolina
Tom Fazio's 2002 design winds through the Blue Ridge Mountains at 4,000 feet elevation, featuring dramatic elevation changes and mountain stream crossings. One of western North Carolina's most celebrated private layouts.
#5 on trail
Mountaintop Golf & Lake ClubCashiers, North Carolina
Private mountain course in Cashiers, NC, sitting above 4,000 feet. Elevation shifts and ridge-top terrain define virtually every hole, with long-range views that affect wind reads and club selection.
#6 on trail
Eagle Point Golf ClubWilmington, North Carolina
Private 18-hole club in Wilmington, NC designed by Tom Fazio and opened in 2000, with a layout shaped by coastal Carolina terrain. Membership access only.
No place in America concentrates great public golf like the North Carolina Sandhills. Pinehurst alone supplies six of these ten — Donald Ross's revered No. 2, host to more championships than any course in the country; Tom Doak's No. 10, carved through the old Sandmines south of the village; Gil Hanse's reimagined No. 4; and the Fazio, Rees Jones, and Nicklaus layouts at No. 8, No. 7, and No. 9. Four miles east in Southern Pines stand the Ross gems Pine Needles and Mid Pines, alongside his restored Southern Pines Golf Club. And near Sanford, Mike Strantz's Tobacco Road erupts from an old sand quarry — golf's wildest ride. Ten ways into the Home of American Golf.
#1 on trail
Pinehurst Resort (No. 2)Pinehurst, North Carolina
Donald Ross's 1907 masterpiece, restored to native sand by Coore & Crenshaw in 2011. Host to four U.S. Opens, three U.S. Amateurs, and back-to-back U.S. Senior Opens in 1993 and 1994. Crowned greens and wiregrass rough define every hole. Resort access.
#2 on trail
Pinehurst Resort (No. 4)Pinehurst, North Carolina
Redesigned by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner in 2018, No. 4 features sandy waste areas and native wiregrass throughout. Resort access via Pinehurst.
#3 on trail
Pinehurst Resort (No. 10)Aberdeen, North Carolina
Tom Doak's 2024 design plays through the Sandhills' native wiregrass and longleaf pine on a rugged former sand-mine tract in Aberdeen. It's Pinehurst's first new course in nearly three decades.
#4 on trail
Tobacco Road Golf ClubSanford, North Carolina
Mike Strantz carved this 1998 public layout through former tobacco fields and sand hills, producing severe elevation changes and blind shots rarely found on public-access courses in the Carolinas.
#5 on trail
Pine Needles Lodge & Golf ClubSouthern Pines, North Carolina
Donald Ross's 1928 Sandhills design has hosted the U.S. Women's Open four times — more than any course — with Annika Sörenstam (1996), Karrie Webb (2001), and Cristie Kerr (2007) among its champions, and a return in 2022. Crowned greens and wiregrass sand define it. Resort access.
#6 on trail
Mid Pines Inn & Golf ClubSouthern Pines, North Carolina
Donald Ross design from 1921 with classic Sandhills terrain, crowned greens, and strategic bunkering. Resort access makes this Pinehurst-area track one of the region's most accessible Ross originals.
At the Home of American Golf in the North Carolina Sandhills, Pinehurst gathers ten eighteen-hole courses and Gil Hanse's nine-hole Cradle short course into a single property that traces more than a century of course design. It runs from Donald Ross's founding Nos. 1, 2 and 3 — his revered No. 2 since restored by Coore and Crenshaw to its sandy, native-edged character — through the modern era: Ellis Maples's No. 5, the Fazios' Nos. 6 and 8, Rees Jones's No. 7, Jack Nicklaus's No. 9, Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner's ground-up rebuild of No. 4, and the bold, dune-tossed No. 10 that Tom Doak carved from an old sand mine in 2024. Access ranges from walk-on rounds on a few of the courses to resort-stay play on the marquee layouts. As the USGA's first U.S. Open Anchor Site, Pinehurst will host the U.S. Open in 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047 after staging it in 2024 — a commitment unmatched in American golf, and a fitting one for the game's spiritual home.
#2 on trail
Pinehurst Resort (No. 2)Pinehurst, North Carolina
Donald Ross's 1907 masterpiece, restored to native sand by Coore & Crenshaw in 2011. Host to four U.S. Opens, three U.S. Amateurs, and back-to-back U.S. Senior Opens in 1993 and 1994. Crowned greens and wiregrass rough define every hole. Resort access.
#3 on trail
Pinehurst Resort (No. 3)Pinehurst, North Carolina
Donald Ross's shorter layout within the Pinehurst Resort complex offers a more forgiving test than its famous siblings, winding through longleaf pines on gently rolling sandhills terrain. A quieter option for resort guests seeking Ross's trademark crowned greens.
#4 on trail
Pinehurst Resort (No. 4)Pinehurst, North Carolina
Redesigned by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner in 2018, No. 4 features sandy waste areas and native wiregrass throughout. Resort access via Pinehurst.
#5 on trail
Pinehurst Resort (No. 5)Pinehurst, North Carolina
Ellis Maples design from 1961 featuring the famous Cathedral Hole (#14) and more water hazards than any other Pinehurst course. Maples was a protégé of Donald Ross and part of North Carolina's first family of golf course design.
#6 on trail
Pinehurst Resort (No. 6)Pinehurst, North Carolina
The first Fazio design at Pinehurst, set a few miles from the main clubhouse on rolling, wooded terrain. A departure from the first five courses in both design and temperament, with elevation changes and a more modern style than the classic Ross layouts.
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