Pinehurst No. 10

Overall Thoughts

Designing Pinehurst No. 10 wasn’t an easy job. First, Tom Doak had to create a functional routing on a severe and complicated, albeit beautiful, piece of land. Then, he and his lead associate Angela Moser had to finish construction between January and June of 2023 to ensure that the course could be grassed and ready by the opening date of April 3, 2024. All of this took place in the spotlight of one of the best-known golf resorts in the world. Considering these circumstances, Doak and his team acquitted themselves exceptionally well. Pinehurst No. 10 is an elegant and inventive golf course—a delight to play.

I’m particularly impressed by the routing, which loops around the property with seeming spontaneity, continually probing new areas and finding fresh ways to use the hilly terrain. Only sharp-eyed players will notice the gas line running through the center of the site: from south to north, it cuts in front of the eighth and seventh tees, across the sixth fairway, between the second green and third tee, and across the first and 18th fairways. These intrusions of linear infrastructure on the naturalistic golf environment might have been more apparent if Doak hadn’t routed the course so deftly. He made sure that the gas line affected each hole in a different way, and that the crossing points fell in spots that most players would be hitting over. Doak’s knack for solving such routing puzzles is one of his trademarks and a major reason why the most influential developers in golf continue to hire him over up-and-coming architects.

While the skeletal frame of Pinehurst No. 10 is as sturdy as can be, some of its individual features may need more time to develop. A few holes—Nos. 7, 9, 13, and 15—strike me as slightly under-realized. They’re not poor by any means (in fact, the ninth green is one of the most beautifully shaped on the course) but none delivers the jolt of inspired uniqueness that I feel on nearly every hole at Doak’s best courses. At the other end of the spectrum, the already famous eighth and 17th holes—the former tumbling over huge slag heaps and the latter boasting a multi-lobed, multilevel riot of a green—seem to belong to a different, more unhinged course, though they are captivating on their own.

No doubt these elements of No. 10 will mature and cohere over time, especially as the course’s native areas fill in over the next few years. The indigenous scrub on the margins of the hole corridors, painstakingly curated by Moser, may eventually give the lesser holes some visual pop and the full course a unifying theme.

So it’s not really fair to render a final judgment on Pinehurst No. 10 at this point. After all, Donald Ross spent the better part of his 49-year American residency molding the No. 2 course into the form that we know and revere today. For now, though, No. 10 joins Gil Hanse’s No. 4, Mike Strantz’s Tobacco Road, and the Ross trio in Southern Pines (Mid Pines, Pine Needles, and Southern Pines) as a strong supporting piece in any Carolina Sandhills itinerary.

1 Egg

Pinehurst No. 10’s land, design, and presentation are equal contributors to this rating. This is a very good but not (yet) world-beating course. Considering how quickly the project was carried out, it might be worth revisiting this assessment in a few years, once No. 10 has had a chance to come into its own.

Course Tour

No. 1, par 4, 447 yards

The green makes this opening par 4: set on a left-to-right diagonal and draped over tilted ground, it slopes strongly from front to back. A kicker mound at the front-left corner allows low-trajectory players to feed the ball onto the green from the right side of the fairway.

Green shaped by Brian Slawnik.

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No. 2, par 3, 182 yards

Another memorable green. The abrupt front-left shelf makes for a difficult and exciting pin position, and the right edge of the shelf forms a feeder contour that players can use to gain access to back-right pin positions.

Green shaped by Joe Wandro with Eric Iverson.

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Favorite Hole

No. 3, par 5, 555 yards

The third fairway climbs uphill and wraps around a large, diagonal sand hazard before leveling out, jogging slightly back to the right, and taking a left turn to the low-lying green. There’s nothing immediately impressive about the hole, except that every detail is executed with intelligence and taste.

I like how the lone pair of trees on the right edge of the fairway, 160 yards from the front of the green, influence play. If you hit your drive to the less-guarded part of the fairway on the right, you may have a decent angle to go for the green in two, but the trees will limit your access to the layup zone short and right of the green.

The green complex sits at grade and is subtly and artfully shaped. The contours in the surrounds—including a front-middle mound, a series of humps along the right edge, and a sideways tier that creates high-right and low-left sections—complicate recoveries from the right side, where players often miss in an effort to avoid the intimidating bunkers short left.

Green shaped by Blake Conant.

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No. 4, par 4, 342 yards

On this excellent short 4, the more you steer away from the gnarly bunkers and native vegetation on the left, the shallower the green will play on your approach, and the more threatening the front-center coffin bunker will become.

Green shaped by Parker Anderson with Brian Schneider.

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No. 5, par 4, 400 yards

After a heavily bunkered landing zone, the par-4 fifth hole works left and uphill to a ridge-top green. A bank short left of the green can be used as a feeder from the outside of the dogleg, and in an echo of the third hole, a sideways tier divides the putting surface into high and low halves.

Green shaped by Blake Conant.

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No. 6, par 4, 489 yards

This long par 4 features eventful topography throughout. The fairway travels up and over an undulating rise, and the green sits on the other side of Gas Line Valley. A native-covered mound in the middle of the fairway defines two options: right of the mound provides a shorter approach; left of it gives a less obstructed angle into the green.

Green shaped by Brian Schneider with Blake Conant.

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No. 7, par 3, 150 yards

This relatively tame par 3 plays back across the gas line to a green with back-to-front slope and restrained internal contouring.

Green shaped by Brian Slawnik.

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No. 8, par 4, 385 yards

The most surprising thing about this wild, one-of-a-kind hole is how playable it is. Players will generally end up in the gullies left or right of the gigantic mining mounds running down the center of the fairway. The left valley leaves a blind approach, while the right valley—which can be accessed only by carrying the “Matterhorn,” the biggest of the sand piles—offers a view into the dell where the multitiered green sits. The back-left pin is hard to get to from anywhere on the hole.

Green shaped by Brian Schneider.

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No. 9, par 4, 468 yards

This brawny par 4, playing across a marshy swath of one of the property’s central lakes, then over the crest of a hill to a lay-of-the-land green, initiates a new phase of the routing—a five-hole stretch characterized by broad slopes, long views, and difficult golf.

Green shaped by Eric Iverson.

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No. 10, par 5, 634 yards

The hilltop tee on this long par 5 offers perhaps the most sweeping view at Pinehurst Resort. With two stout strikes, big hitters may be able to clear the cross bunkers cut into a rise 100 yards short of the green. However, most players will need to lay up into the basin short of those bunkers, where they will have an obscured view of the left-to-right-canted putting surface.

Green shaped by Tom Doak with Angela Moser.

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No. 11, par 3, 182 yards

This uphill par 3, with the approach and green both tilted right to left and set on a right-to-left diagonal, invites a running shot that feeds in from the right. The simple green is made visually exciting by surrounding bunkers, which are large, built-up, and rugged.

Green shaped by Angela Moser.

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No. 12, par 5, 544 yards

A slight breather in a sequence of hard holes, the par-5 12th becomes reachable for longer players who make the carry over the long, raised portion of the diagonal waste area on the right. The green manages the back-to-front tilt of its setting with artfully sculpted rolls.

Green shaped by Eric Iverson.

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No. 13, par 4, 508 yards

Any gains in relation to par that you make on the gettable 12th you will likely give back on the brutal (and somewhat charmless) 13th. Perhaps it’s best to think of the two holes as a combined par 9 rather than as a 5 and a 4.

Green shaped by Eric Iverson.

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No. 14, par 3, 264 yards

This long and tough—but fun—par 3 swoops downhill to an amphitheater green, bringing the routing back to the topographically busy section of the site last seen on the eighth hole. A ramp is available on the right, but the swales and humps short left of the green will penalize those who go straight at the pin and come up short.

Green shaped by Tom Doak with Angela Moser.

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No. 15, par 4, 385 yards

The diagonal orientation of the water hazard creates a mildly stimulating risk-reward dilemma on the tee shot, and the kicker left of the green allows for an entertaining alternate route to back pins. However, the green’s wavy internal contours seem to be trying too hard to alleviate the hole’s overall feeling of conventionality.

Green shaped by Brian Slawnik.

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No. 16, par 4, 477 yards

The counterintuitive backwards walk from 15 to 16 is the sole dissonance in Pinehurst No. 10’s generally harmonious routing. But it’s not hard to see why Doak wanted to push the 16th tee back: hitting a long club into the infinity green, with its at-grade entrance and drop-offs left and behind, is a delightful challenge.

Green shaped by Eric Iverson.

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No. 17, par 3, 175 yards

Pinehurst’s answer to Alister MacKenzie’s Sitwell green features numerous spine-tingling pin positions, including a front-right ass-kicker hovering just above the water.

Green shaped by Angela Moser.

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No. 18, par 4, 433 yards

A calm coda after the bold flourish of No. 17, the 18th hole climbs, bending gently left, to one of my favorite greens on the course. I particularly like the parallel spines running into the opening of the green. These can either collect approach shots, especially those hit from the hard-to-access left side of the fairway, or deflect them to either side.

Green shaped by Brian Slawnik.

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