For a long period time it appeared that Pinehurst Resort had reached its numerical limit on courses when the resort acquired the Jack Nicklaus-designed National Golf Club in 2014 and rebranded it as No. 9.
Having seemingly caught its breath, Pinehurst Resort is quickly advancing into double digits. A year after the resort opened Tom Doak’s No. 10 design on what is now referred to as Pinehurst Sandmines, comes word that the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw (Coore & Crenshaw) are collaborating on an adjacent course that will be No. 11. It is scheduled to open in fall 2027.
“The two courses really couldn’t be more different, and we love that,” says Tom Pashley, president of Pinehurst Resort. “The designs of No. 10 and No. 11 complement each other so well by contrasting so much. Golf in the North Carolina Sandhills can be an experience unlike any other, and we believe the golf at Pinehurst Sandmines will be a great representation of that.”
The site for Nos. 10 and 11 was originally a 900-acre sand mine. After the quarry became dormant, a portion was claimed to build The Pit Golf Links, a Dan Maples original that opened in 1985 and was known for its quirky elevation changes and sculpted mounding that tested a golfer’s visual senses. The Pit, despite being an immensely popular play, closed in 2010 and the site was later acquired by the Dedman family that owns Pinehurst Resort.
Those past mining operations are still evident within the contours of the site of Coore & Crenshaw’s routing. They are among the features that have drawn the pair to this area since their acclaimed restoration of Pinehurst No. 2 about 15 years ago.
“It’s such a wonderful site, just because of its inherent character,” says Coore, who marvels at the mixture of native elements and man-made remnants, some of which still remain from when The Pit was open. “That character was essentially created, not all of it is natural, but it has all been reclaimed by nature. This land is left over from all that mining from the 1930s. The spoil piles are here, and Mother Nature provided the trees, and it’s all incredible. It’s not too often you get that kind of combination, and it creates a site that is extraordinarily interesting for golf.”
But Coore is quick to point out that Nos. 10 and 11 will be distinctly different.
“It’s this choppy, ridgey ground,” Coore says of the No. 11 site. “It’s not as much elevation change, but it’s so quirky with the ridges and the piles and the trees and the angles. This is going to be so intimate in scale. You’re winding your way through trees and over old piles and across ridges. We’re far, far from the sea, but we have these contours and features and landforms that remind you of spots in Ireland or Scotland. And yet here it is, in Pinehurst.”
Also, a 6,000-square-foot pro shop and locker room will open in June, followed in August by the opening of Sandmines’ restaurant and bar. The resort reports that plans for guest lodging on property are ongoing and could be in place by the end of 2027.