Coore & Crenshaw Set to Design Pinehurst No. 11

Over the past three decades, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have compiled one of the most impressive portfolios in the history of golf architecture. They have not, however, contributed an original design to the “Cradle of American Golf,” Pinehurst Resort. Soon that will change.

Today, Pinehurst Resort announced that Coore & Crenshaw will build Pinehurst No. 11 on a property adjacent to Tom Doak’s recently completed No. 10 course. No. 11 will complete the golf offering at Pinehurst Sandmines, a satellite facility that will eventually feature its own clubhouse, restaurant, practice center, and lodging. Coore & Crenshaw will begin construction later this year, and the course is expected to open in fall 2027.

Located three miles south of the Village of Pinehurst, No. 11’s land boasts a mixture of manmade and natural elements. Large piles of sand — spoils from a sand-mining operation that closed in the 1930s — are strewn throughout the property, interlaced with mature pine trees. “It’s such a wonderful site, just because of its inherent character,” Coore said in a press release from the resort. “That character was essentially created, not all of it is natural, but it has all been reclaimed by nature…. The spoil piles are here, and Mother Nature provided the trees, and it’s all incredible. It’s not too often that you get that kind of combination, and it creates a site that is extraordinarily interesting for golf.”

The use of mining artifacts as golf features will ring familiar to those who have played Pinehurst No. 10. The par-4 eighth hole on Doak’s course plays directly over a series of 20-foot-high sand piles.

According to Coore, however, the new property has its own character. Whereas No. 10 plays over large, broad slopes and offers the occasional long vista, No. 11 will operate at a smaller scale, its topography choppier and more idiosyncratic. “[There is] not as much elevation change [as No. 10],” Coore said, “but it’s so quirky with the ridges and the piles and the trees and the angles. This is going to be so intimate in scale. You’re winding your way through trees and over old piles and across ridges. We’re far, far from the sea, but we have these contours and features and landforms that remind you of spots in Ireland or Scotland. And yet here it is, in Pinehurst.”

While Coore & Crenshaw have never previously designed a new course for Pinehurst Resort, the firm has played a prominent role in the resort’s recent history. In 2011, Coore & Crenshaw completed a restoration of Pinehurst No. 2, a Donald Ross masterpiece that has hosted four U.S. Opens, including last year’s memorable edition.

Bill Coore also has a personal connection to the area. He grew up in Anderson, North Carolina, about 85 miles north of Pinehurst. “When I was in high school,” Coore told Fried Egg Golf last year, “we had some buddies, and if somebody had a car and somehow we could pool enough money together to buy the gas, we would drive down to Pinehurst…. We’d get up really early in the morning, three or four of us, drive down, play golf all day, oftentimes 54 holes, and then drive back at night.” Coore credits the No. 2 course for prompting his golf-architectural awakening. “It gradually crept into my understanding that at No. 2 course, it allowed you to play your game,” he said. “It didn’t dictate that you had to hit the ball a massive yardage down the fairway and hit a lofted club onto the green in the air. It would give you that option if that’s what you chose, but it would also give you the option to play shots that could run onto the green.”

For Coore, then, the Pinehurst No. 11 commission represents a homecoming — a late-career opportunity to leave his mark on the golfing mecca that helped shape him.

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