Tobacco Road was the final course we played during our weekend of golf in Pinehurst and we saved the best for last. Tobacco Road probably isn’t a true “Pinehurst” course when it comes to its location, but it is close. The course is actually in Sanford, about halfway between Pinehurst and Raleigh/Durham.
Tobacco Road was designed by Mike Strantz and usually gets ranked among the top 100 public courses in the country. Strantz is known for his wild and crazy approach to golf course design. Personally, I love the work he did but know everyone doesn’t. I was able to play Tobacco Road back in 2010 and even after almost 12 years, I still ended up remembering about half of the golf holes. That is incredible for my memory – which isn’t always reliable.
Like so many of the courses in the area, Tobacco Road is laid out over the hilly, sandy land. The course plays through many sandy mounds and those mounds, along with the gnarly bunkering, are probably the defining thing about the course. Tobacco Road is one of those courses where the placement of the holes on the land is genius.
The 1st hole offers an idea of what to expect the rest of the round. We played the disc tees – 71.3/143/6317 – and at 547 yards it is the longest hole on the course. The tee shot has to be played over two huge mounds on either side of the fairway. It looks very difficult, but if you get the yardage right the fairway is at least 50 yards wide. Then you basically repeat that same shot again over more mounds and if you get lucky the second shot will find an open area short of the green, which feeds towards the pin.
The back nine has the insane par-5 11th, which doglegs hard right over a gigantic waste area. Short of the green is a deep pit, at least 15 feet (or more) deep. I think you’d need a career shot to get out of it and anywhere close to the flag in one shot. The 178 yard 14th is also found on the back nine. It is a downhill par-3 that is one of the most photographed holes at the course. It is another signature hole because of its narrow green and water to the right.
Every hole at Tobacco Road is similar to these holes – dramatic, flamboyant and fun to play. Fairways and greens come in all sorts of wacky shapes and sizes. Blind shots await throughout the course. Waste areas and bunkers can wreak havoc on the scorecard. Visually, every shot looks impossible to pull off and every hole feels like a signature hole.
When it comes to the course’s difficulty, I think it will vary greatly depending on someone’s skill. For golfers who aren’t able to control their distance then the course will be tough. For those who can control the distance then I think it is reasonable to shoot your handicap. Most of the trouble seems to come from missing shots long or short. Left and right works here if the shot goes the correct distance. Basically, you’ll have to try to accept that some good shots will turn out bad while some bad shots will turn out good. All the slope in the fairways and greens can be used to a golfer’s advantage.
This time of year the green fee at Tobacco Road is up near $200 (ouch). Our golf package helped soften the sting, but it still is pricey to play here. Apparently there has been a lot of rain recently so I’ll call the current conditions just so-so. Personally, I wasn’t impressed. Many tees were torn up and basically just sand/dirt from months of heavy winter play. The fairways and greens had sections of turf that were damaged from the rain need to be redone. The bunkers aren’t raked as you get to place the ball in a good lie, so that was fine. The greens rolled well and were very fast.
Overall, I’d put Tobacco Road somewhere among my favorite courses. Maybe in the top 10 to 20 group of courses. The design is incredible and I’d call the course a must play/bucket list experience for the golf enthusiast. There is a lot of hype about Tobacco Road and thankfully, I think the course lives up to the high praise it gets. I’d love to go back again for a third time, although I’d try it sometime during late April to early November when the conditions would be better.
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):