The Pit and Tobacco Road: Sandy Graveyards for Sandhills Golfers

Word that the USGA will stage its two major championships in consecutive weeks on Pinehurst No. 2 surely stoked the phones of vacation planners in the Cradle of American Golf. But why wait until 2014 to pack the clubs and visor in the car and make a trek to the North Carolina Sandhills for some of the nation’s best golf has to offer?

And while logging a round on No. 2 is a notch on the belt of “places I’ve played” and back-home fodder for envious buddies, we at SportsSoutheast.com are here to recommend two unique public layouts that take the word “sand” in Sandhills to a whole other level.

Tobacco Road and The Pit each have a history to tell as colorful as this area, where an estimated 20 million years ago ancient beach dunes were formed to create an abundance of sandy soil about an hour southeast of Raleigh.

Dan Maples, son of legendary golf architect Ellis Maples, designed The Pit in 1984 from land that was once a thriving sand mine. Thirteen years later and some 25 miles north, maverick architect Mike Strantz accomplished another striking sandy layout at Tobacco Road. These two courses are unlike any others in the area, and are as diverse as any you’ll play in your lifetime.

“Have you ever played a golf course six times and you can’t remember holes? Our holes are so visually stunning they leave an imprint in your mind. And if you play well you feel like you conquered the beast,” said Tobacco Road’s director of golf, Joe Gay. “It’s like you were scared of the dark your whole life and finally you made it through the night with the door closed because it is a visually intimidating golf course. People come out here with some pretty good golf swings and get psyched out. You have to have some mental skills out here. That’s another element where this golf course separates the men from the boys."

Photos of the rugged sandy terrain at Tobacco Road are enough to scare you straight. So, don’t be surprised when you step on the first tee and are staring at a pair of 100-foot tall sand dunes you have slit with razor-like accuracy, your hands re-gripping numerous times on your driver as your knees shake.

When asked what shot was the most intimidating at Tobacco Road, regarded as one of the top 10 most difficult courses in the nation, Gay swallowed hard, then exhaled.

“The tee shot off No. 1 scares me,” Gay said. “How about that, the first one you put into the ground? We gave a helicopter tour when we first opened since we had a golf course that was sort of in-your-face. We wanted to do something memorable for our hotel packagers and the media so we flew straight through those mounds. The sides of the mounds were higher than the helicopter. That scared me to death. Let’s just say I wouldn’t want to fall off them.”

Playing Tobacco Road during its grand-opening round with Strantz, I hit what I thought was a horrible drive on the 15th hole, striking it some 50 yards off line to the right. As I cussed my way off the tee, Strantz interrupted my tirade with a “that’s perfect” utterance. I turned and laughed, and spewed yet another profanity. But unsuspecting to me, the hole turned out to be a split fairway, parted by one of a number of sandy graves placed throughout the course. And my ball was indeed in the short grass. If I didn’t know it before that hole, I realized this creature was golf’s version of “out of left field.”

There is some debate as to just how many scary blind shots golfers face at Tobacco Road. My tally is 10 of the 18 approach shots, and that doesn’t count the two tobacco smoke stacks used as aiming tools on your drives off the 16th and 18th tees. There are also five bells to ring for the “all clear” and several 10-foot high flags as players stretch their necks at times to see where to aim.

“The early years we didn’t want to be associated with ‘wacky golf’ because golf is classic, it’s historic, it is country club, it’s not out of the box,” Gay said. “I will describe Tobacco Road this way: You go to a theme park and you have all these classic rides like the Ferris Wheel and Merry-Go-Round. Well, we are the biggest, baddest roller coaster in that theme park. The highs are higher and the lows are lower – this course will take you on an emotional roller coaster. Every turn is fascinating.