Mid Pines Inn & Golf Club

Situated five miles east of Pinehurst, the Mid Pines and Pine Needles golf courses are part of the same resort, separated by Midland Road, which divides the two 18-hole layouts. Both layouts are Donald Ross tracks that were constructed for the owning Tufts family, with the Mid Pines course opening in 1921, seven years before its sibling appeared.

Feature holes include the uphill 330-yard 4th, played to a green that drops away sharply on its right side, the 380-yard left doglegged 12th, the 391-yard right doglegged 17th and the 411-yard closing hole, where the home green is beautifully back dropped by the elegant Inn at Mid Pines hotel.

There’s plenty of authentic Ross here, thanks largely to a sympathetic restoration carried out in 2013 by Kyle Franz (former shaper for Tom Doak, Gil Hanse and Kyle Phillips) which received plenty of critical acclaim, such as: “there’s no doubt Franz delivered. Mid Pines was always a good course, but it now positively crackles with new life.”