Mid Pines Golf Club

Favorite Hole

No. 15, par 5, 550 yards

With the uphill par-4 14th hole, Mid Pines arrives at its highest point. From there, the 15th hole races downhill, banking sharply to the left, before climbing back up to a green propped up against the sideslope. This is one of the most topographically dramatic holes in the North Carolina Sandhills. Its only local rivals can be found at Ross’s Southern Pines Golf Club on the other side of town and Tom Doak’s new Pinehurst No. 10 farther south.

Strategically, the keys to the hole are the tilt of the ground and a pair of staggered fairway bunkers. In order to earn a clean look at the green on your second shot, you must flirt with the right-hand bunker off the tee. If you shy away from that bunker, your ball will ride the slope down to the left, where trees and the other bunker await. The farther left your drive ends up, the less of a chance you’ll have at reaching the green in two.

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Overall Thoughts

Minimalism in golf architecture has become almost impossible to define, though Will Carlson made an admirable attempt for us last month. No one seems certain whether the term refers to a method or an effect. That is, to deem a golf course minimalist, do we need to investigate the manner of its construction (how much earth was moved relative to the site’s suitability for golf), or can we just assess its final form (how natural and simple the course looks and feels)?

All in all, the notion of minimalism probably obfuscates more than it illuminates in the discussion of golf course design. I do think we should continue ask golf architects what they do during construction and praise those who achieve great results with minimal cost and earthmoving. At the same time, we may benefit from developing a separate vocabulary for a course’s appearance and feeling of naturalness, its simplicity of form, its air of effortlessness.

This is where the idea of elegance might help. Mid Pines Golf Club, for example, was likely constructed using what we would now consider a minimalist approach. But calling Mid Pines a minimalist golf course is not particularly insightful, given that Donald Ross had little choice in the North Carolina Sandhills in the early 1920s but to leave the natural landscape intact. What’s more notable about the course—and more relevant to understanding its quality—is its elegance.

Mid Pines does not advertise its greatness. The greens are smallish and straightforward in concept and contouring. The bunkering is naturalized but not frilly and fussy. The waste areas bordering the fairways have matured since they were reintroduced by Kyle Franz in 2013, and they now blend inconspicuously with the surrounding pine forest. Almost every manufactured feature is low-profile and tied in. The course is so understated that it may not make a big impression on the first-time visitor. Its virtues become clear, however, with study and repeat play.

Mid Pines’ strongest point is its routing. Alternating between the flattish floor and undulating sides of the property’s main valley, the course never stays in one setting or mode for long. No two consecutive holes travel in exactly the same direction or bear a similar relationship with the land. The continual shifts have a pleasantly disorienting effect. One feels removed from civilization, lost in the woods, until the 18th hole returns, suddenly and unexpectedly, to the clubhouse and inn. Because the routing generates so much variety and intrigue, Mid Pines does not have to lean on artificial attractions.

For instance, the wonderful fourth hole derives almost all of its character from the left-to-right tilt of the ground. The player’s task is to defeat the topography—i.e., to hold the high left side of the fairway off the tee. Ross’s design, as restored and refined by Franz, contributes just a few elements: a bunker protruding from the waste area on the left about 235 yards from the back tee; green-side bunkers front right and back left; and a small, narrow green set on a left-to-right diagonal. The fairway bunker makes aiming for the high left portion of the fairway dangerous, and the protection and orientation of the green give an advantage to players who pursue the risky angle and succeed. In other words, each built component relates back to the initial question posed by the land: Can you keep your ball left? Nothing unnecessary has been added.

This is what it means for golf architecture to be elegant.

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I’m interested in elegance partly because I sense it’s becoming unfashionable. The work done by today’s up-and-coming golf course designers is often bold, energetic, and exciting, but it rarely seems effortless. This is not a problem in and of itself. Art doesn’t always have to speak softly. But will the incentives animating much of the golf course industry in the 2020s—premiumization, destination-worthiness, national membership recruitment, Instagram-readiness—render elegant design too rare?

If so, appreciating and preserving courses like Mid Pines will become that much more important.

2 Eggs

Mid Pines’ land is well-suited to golf (though not extraordinary), and its presentation, assisted by Kyle Franz’s restoration, is authentic to Donald Ross’s intentions (aside from the annual overseeding, which makes the turf softer in the spring and summer than I wish it were). A half-Egg in each of those categories seems appropriate. For its design, the course earns an emphatic full Egg. Ross may have done more intricate and original work at Pinehurst No. 2 and Oakland Hills South, but he rarely achieved a greater degree of architectural fluency and grace than he did at Mid Pines. 

Course Tour

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Additional Content

Mid Pines vs. Southern Pines (Article)