Pinehurst Resort & Country Club - No. 10

My third visit to Pinehurst was my favorite. I played in a fantastic event - the national finals of the Crystal Cup - and was first off on No. 10 the following day. The walk with caddies was much different than the tournament rounds taking a cart on no. 6 and no. 7, two of the most real-estate-oriented Pinehurst courses. No. 10 is free of homes. It's just you against the rolling terrain with a forest of trees as your witness. The par 3s are compelling. The lines off the tee are a choose your own adventure of risk-reward. While I was playing conservative away from the sandy zones, my two scratch playing partners were bombing drives over them. Although I didn't have time to dine, I'm told the restaurant is fantastic. All the modern amenities, from the stone clubhouse and firepits, feel so different compared to the traditional look at feel at the other eight Pinehurst courses (No. 9 is an outlier all together). Put this one on your immediate bucket list.

This course plays as far away from the other Pinehurst Resort courses as the literal distance it stretches from the rest of the main resort. Number 10 is unrestrained and it feels as if the serene forest surrounding the course grew in after the first holes were cut. The course blends in perfectly with its surroundings.

This is a spectacular routing in a beautiful setting. The course is so new that the clubhouse is still a trailer, and the only finished structure is the snack shack around the 9th tee. I'm sure the amenities will come soon enough, but it was wonderful to play this course in this state.

The walk is not difficult, but there are some elevation changes throughout the massive property. Players are rewarded with hole after hole of interesting looks and challenges off the tee. This course has everything you could ever want from a day on the links.

The reveal between the quirky 8th and the punishing par 4 9th is one of the best I have ever seen. The setting there is beautiful, and I feel like I could spend all day at the aforementioned snack shack and just take in the view of 3 spectacular holes converging. (and some exciting tee shots on 15)

While i did find the closing hole to be a bit mundane, the whole back 9 makes up for it. This course is anything but basic. The risk-reward tee shot on 15 is sure to claim lots of balls in the lake, and is amongst the most exciting on the course.

Pinehurst gave us something different at 10, and we are lucky that it is there for all of us to enjoy if you can just get a tee time!

Pinehurst No. 10 kicks off an exciting new chapter to the history of one of America's great golf places. The course is the first amenity at a new Pinehurst Sandmines complex five miles from the main resort. In time it will be joined by more golf (long and short) and lodging.

For now, visitors will find a big-ballpark golf course with expansive fairways, exciting greens more than 100 feet of elevation change and a naturalistic aesthetic that has gradually been restored to Pinehurst's older courses. In that sense, it is both pure Pinehurst and something new entirely. The brilliant routing and design make instant resort-wide standouts of holes like the long par-4 6th, wildly undulating par-4 8th and commanding par-5 10th.

Open since early April, it is in tremendous early shape and while the peripheral amenities are coming online, it is absolutely worth playing if you can arrange it on a future visit to the "American Home of Golf." Walking, usually with caddies, is the prevailing culture at No. 10.