Bucket List – Pinehurst

There are golf trips and then there are golf pilgrimages. This one sits firmly in the second category. The Global Amateur Golf Tour's Pinehurst package delivers five rounds across four of the resort's finest courses -- with No. 2 played twice -- wrapped in six nights of resort accommodation and everything you need to simply show up and play. If you have ever wondered what it feels like to walk the same fairways as Payne Stewart, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, now is your chance to find out.

The Home of American Golf

Pinehurst Resort sits in the Sandhills of North Carolina, roughly an hour's drive south of Raleigh. It was founded in 1895 by Boston industrialist James Walker Tufts, who commissioned Scottish architect Donald Ross to shape the courses that would make the resort world-famous. Ross arrived in 1901 and never really left -- he lived in a cottage beside the third hole of No. 2 for more than two decades, tweaking and refining until his death in 1948. The result of that lifetime of labour is the most celebrated collection of golf courses in the United States, and arguably the most important on the planet outside of St Andrews.

The resort now operates ten 18-hole courses and a nine-hole short course called The Cradle. Collectively they represent every major era of golf course architecture, from Ross's Golden Age masterwork on No. 2 through to Tom Fazio's No. 8, Jack Nicklaus's No. 7, and Gil Hanse's bold No. 10. No other resort in the world offers such density of championship-quality golf on a single property, which is exactly why the Global Amateur Golf Tour has built this five-round package around it.

The Holly Inn -- Pinehurst's very first hotel, open since 1895 -- is where the Global Amateur Golf Tour will be based for the week. Image: pinehurst.com

No. 2 -- The Crown Jewel

You will play Pinehurst No. 2 twice during this trip -- once on Day 2 (31 March) and again on the final day (3 April). There is good reason for that. No. 2 is to American golf what the Old Course at St Andrews is to the British game: the spiritual home, the ultimate test, the course every golfer should play at least once before hanging up their spikes.

Image: pinehurst.com

Donald Ross designed it and completed it in 1907, describing it on opening as "the fairest test of championship golf I have ever designed." He was right. No. 2 has served as the site of more single golf championships than any other course in America, hosting U.S. Opens in 1999, 2005, 2014 and 2024, with four further editions confirmed through to 2047. The USGA has effectively made it a permanent anchor venue.

What makes it so special? The greens. One of the hallmarks of Ross's courses are their challenging green complexes typified by their turtleback domes -- convex putting surfaces that slope away from the centre in every direction. Hit the green but miss the correct quadrant and your ball will spin off into a sandy waste area, a hollow, or a devilish lie on a closely mown slope. Johnny Miller famously compared the experience to trying to land a ball on top of a VW Beetle. At Pinehurst No. 2, they say it is not how many greens you hit during a round. It is how many you visit.

A major restoration by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw in 2011 stripped out decades of Bermuda rough and returned the course to its original sandy character. There are only two heights of grass -- one on the greens and the other everywhere else. Wide sandy waste areas border the fairways in place of rough, lending the course a links-like quality that rewards precision and imagination rather than brute strength. Water comes into sight on only one hole and is not in play. The course is not particularly long. Yet any golfer who goes around close to their handicap will have had a good day.

Playing it in stableford format is a genuine blessing. In a U.S. Open, No. 2 is designed to punish. For an amateur with a handicap, the stableford scoring system means that a six on a par four is not a disaster -- it is simply a blank card and you move on to the next hole. You get to experience the full grandeur of the layout without the round unravelling under the weight of a bad score.

Course No. 8 -- Tom Fazio's Mountain Showcase

The trip opens on 30 March with a round on Pinehurst No. 8, designed by Tom Fazio and opened in 1996. Where No. 2 is subtle and cerebral, No. 8 is big and dramatic. Fazio used the rolling terrain of the Sandhills to create elevation changes rarely seen on a resort course in this part of the world, with panoramic views across the pine forests that surround the property. Several holes require carries over deep natural ravines, and the course rewards confident, attacking play.

No. 8 is consistently rated among the top resort courses in the United States and offers a wonderful contrast to the Ross courses that follow. If No. 2 teaches you to think, No. 8 asks you to commit. It is a superb way to blow away the cobwebs on day one and get your eye in before the main event.

Course No. 4 -- Gil Hanse's Modern Classic

Day 3 brings a round on No. 4, which was thoroughly redesigned by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner and reopened in 2018. Hanse is arguably the finest golf course architect working today -- his credits include the 2016 Olympic course in Rio and a forthcoming renovation of Augusta National's practice facilities. His work at Pinehurst No. 4 has been widely praised as a worthy companion to the Ross courses next door.

Pinehurst No. 4 -- redesigned by Gil Hanse and opened in 2018 -- is one of the most lauded recent additions to the resort.

Hanse embraced the Sandhills setting fully, creating a course that feels both contemporary and rooted in the traditions of the land. Sandy waste areas, minimal rough, and bold green complexes echo the character of No. 2 while bringing a modern sensibility to the routing. It is a course that rewards creativity and keeps you thinking from the first tee to the 18th green. Playing it mid-week, between your two rounds on No. 2, gives you a different lens through which to appreciate what Ross achieved a century earlier.

Course No. 10 -- Gil Hanse Does It Again

Round four on 2 April takes you to Pinehurst No. 10, the newest course on the property, also designed by Hanse and opened to rave reviews in early 2024 -- just months before the U.S. Open descended on the resort. Golf Monthly described it as "a masterpiece of modern design" and it was already attracting serious attention from the golfing media before it had even hosted a competitive round.

Pinehurst No. 10 -- designed by Gil Hanse and opened in 2024.

Playing a brand-new Gil Hanse design at one of the world's greatest resorts, just days before your second and final round on No. 2, is the kind of itinerary that golfers dream about. By this point in the trip, you will have a feel for the land, the sandy soil, and the pace of the greens. Everything comes together on the final day.

The Package -- What Is Included

The entry fee of £4,624 covers five rounds of competitive golf, six nights of resort accommodation, daily breakfast, shared buggies for all rounds, and access to the practice facilities. The Global Amateur Golf Tour runs the event as a stableford competition for mixed players up to a maximum handicap of 24, so it is genuinely open to golfers of all levels.

The resort itself is a destination beyond the golf. The Global Amateur Golf Tour is based at The Holly Inn -- Pinehurst's very first hotel, open since 1895 and situated right in the heart of the Village. The architecture is part Queen Anne revival, part Arts and Crafts, and entirely Pinehurst: Tiffany lamps in every room, an antique bar brought over from Scotland in The Tavern, and an outdoor pool for the evenings when your legs need a rest. The 1895 Grille on the ground floor is one of the finest restaurants on the resort. After a day on No. 2, few things beat a table there with a cold drink and a scorecard full of stories.

Who Is the Global Amateur Golf Tour?

The Global Amateur Golf Tour has been organising competitive events for club golfers since 1997. In that time it has visited five continents, 23 countries, and some of the most celebrated courses in the world. Events are professionally run, relaxed in atmosphere, and designed to give amateur golfers the experience of playing competitively on the same venues as the world's best professionals.

Every event counts toward multiple orders of merit -- a Global OoM, a Senior OoM for golfers aged 60 and over, a Ladies OoM, and a Gross OoM -- with top performers qualifying for an annual Tour Final staged at a prestigious venue over three or four rounds. The Pinehurst event counts toward the International OoM, which covers all events played outside the UK.

The Verdict

Pinehurst is one of those places every golfer should visit at least once. To go there and play No. 2 twice, alongside three other excellent courses, in a properly organised competitive format with accommodation and buggies included, is about as good as amateur golf gets. The dates in late March and early April are ideal -- the North Carolina Sandhills are warm and dry at that time of year, the courses are in peak condition ahead of the summer season, and the resort is not yet at its summer-crowd peak.

At £4,624 this is not a budget trip, but it is outstanding value for what is on offer. Organising five rounds across Pinehurst independently -- including No. 2, which requires a minimum two-night resort stay just to access -- would cost considerably more and involve considerably more hassle. The GAGT package takes care of everything so you can focus entirely on the golf.