Alamance

Alamance Country Club is another feather from the Tarheel State in Donald Ross’s cap, located between Durham and Greensboro. Bob Cupp worked at the club at the end of the millennium in order to restore Ross’s greens and bunkers, as well as to add a series of new tees to lengthen the course to a more modern yardage, just a bit under 6,900 yards.

The most testing stretch will come early in the round, where players will face lengthy members of each par class. No. 6, a par five, is the longest hole on the course. Although “just” 534 yards, it defends against eagle opportunities by making a sharp dogleg, with plentiful bunkers at its elbow, and an uphill tee shot.

The No. 1 handicap hole follows, with a 460-yard par four that requires length to get to the green in two and accuracy to have any chance of scoring on its putting surface, one of the larger greens on the property (it, like the preceding par five, also features a blind tee shot).

No. 8 may not be the longest par three on the course, but the fronting bunker makes running it up on this 200-yard short hole an impossibility.