Pinehurst No. 8 — Hotel in Pinehurst

We played Pinehurst #2, #4 and #8. It is without saying that #2 is everyone's bucket list but from a playable perspective #8 is the best of these three (playing the forward tees). It is 5,064 yards and the yards on the individual holes are fair so you do have a chance at pars and birdies (compared to the length of the holes on #2 and #4 where getting on in regulation is a challenge because of the yardages). It is also a beautiful course! It is more interesting visually than #4 and has more traditional fairway bunkers and green side bunkers. On #4 and #2 there are waste areas on every single hole. On #8 only six holes (4,9,12,13,15, and 17) has waste areas; you are more likely to be in the pine trees if you miss left/right of fairways. I wish we could do 1/2 stars because I would give it 4 1/5 right now - for two reasons (1) the greens are still exceedingly firm from the new turf (well, redo 18 months ago) and it makes it very hard to read the greens and they were way faster than #2 from a putting speed perspective; which was really surprising. (2) No GPS in carts. It's NOT a course you need a caddy but make sure to have a distance measuring device. Bottom line, I want to play this course again when the greens have "matured" because it's such a...

In the best way possible, this course was a time machine to the late 90s. I swear I was gonna see Tony Soprano speed by in his cart with a big stogie and oversized polo. The clubhouse was big with pastels, white columns and semi-circle windows. The locker room has dark stained wood, with gold and silver bathroom accents. Classic 40s-50s big band swing played over the speakers (re-popularized in the late 90's). And of course, this time was peek Tom Fazio. Fazio is not what you think of when you stay at Pinehurst, which is this course's biggest strength. After getting beat up by Donald Ross for a few days, why not take a break with the large, smooth, ocean swell fairways of the Foz? He uses inspiration from Ross, as this course will give you many blind shots, turtleback greens, fairway waste bunker, and switch backs. But it's all designed and laid out in a way that's the gentle hand of the king of resort golf. This course isn't 'easy', but it's relatively straight forward. I would recommend playing no.8 halfway through your Pinehurst stay in order to cleanse the palette before getting kicked in the teeth at...

I really liked #8, but had huge expectations going in because of the all the reviews that I read about this course being arguably the best of the bunch (after #2). I thought it was a great course, but I wasn't at all blown away. I actually slightly preferred Mid-Pines which I played the day before (although the Mid-Pines staff was nowhere near as amazing as Pinehurst staff, and the pace of play at Pinehurst #8 was far better which was surprising). It was freezing cold on both days, and I played much worse on Pinehurst #8 than Mid-Pines...so maybe that factored in to my experience. I look forward to playing #8 someday in-season when the weather is a bit better and everything is in bloom. I think that could make all the difference in the world from a quality of experience standpoint. But all in all, Pinehurst, including #8, is awesome and I'm really impressed with how well run the whole Pinehurst operation is! Can't wait...