My Quest to Check Off Golf's Best Experiences

I've never not had fun playing Tobacco Road.  It can sometimes be a long round, but the course does everything within their power to help the players along, including spotters on some holes when it's busy (the landing area on #1 is a good example), and even the local rules that allow the players to not worry about raking the sand.  Once you figure out the course, it's really not as hard as it looks.  However, it's as fun as it looks, and well worth playing.  I've recommended Tobacco Road to anyone who will be in the Pinehurst area as a must-see, and it's become my gold standard of courses that try the Pine Barrens / Pine Valley look.  Of course, it'll never stand up to Pine Valley, but for my money, it's a better course that the Pine Barrens course at World Woods, which is probably the closest you can get to an experience like Tobacco Road.

#18, Par 4, 414 Yards


Back to the home hole.  A fairly demanding and intimidating tee shot here.  Right down the is the right line, though it's all carry to get to the fairway, and short is pretty dead.  From the landing area, the hole bends to the left to a slightly uphill green.  There used to be a large club of trees framing the green on the right, but these have been recently removed.  Another deep green of 45 yards, so get the right yardage to get it close.

#17, Par 3, 134 Yards


A shorter version of the 6th hole.  The green is 41 yards wide, but probably extremely shallow, especially in its middle.  The shot is downhill over sand the entire way, so club selection is important.  It'll only be a wedge of some sort, so hitting it massively off line and being hurt by the wide green shouldn't be a problem.

#16, Par 4, 321 Yards


Pure target golf here.  The drive needs to be between about 175 and 210 yards.  I hit 3 wood here because it was straight into the wind, though it's usually been more of a 5 wood shot.  The drive is uphill to a steeply tiered and back to front green.  Be over the hole at your own risk.

#15, Par 4, 358 Yards


A blind drive to a split fairway here, with the split occurring at about 250 yards from the tee.  Driver is not necessary.  The green is exceeding wide, but not deep.  The better view of the green comes from the left side of the fairway.

#14, Par 3, 178 Yards


The tee shot at the 14th needs to carry the only water hazard on the course.  It's a downhill shot and getting the right distance is important into this 45 yard deep green.  The farther back the pin is, the tougher the shot and fewer places to bail out.

#12, Par 4, 412 Yards


A dogleg left that takes driver out of your hands off the tee.  Well, at least it should.  I hit driver without thinking on this hole and ended up in the trees.  The approach is uphill, so bring an extra club to a 42 yard deep green.

#13, Par 5, 536 Yards


Probably the most controversial hole at Tobacco Road.  This is another hole that you can easily reach in two, but you have to take on a bunch of trouble to do so.  That is, you need to bomb it over the trees on the right, and it's about a 260 yard carry.  However, pull it off and you'll have a short iron into the hole.  For the rest of us, just hit something into the fairway, lay up a nice mid iron into the layup zone and then wedge it onto the green.  That wedge onto the green isn't all that easy though.  A massive dirt pile blocks the view into the green, which is only 19 yards deep, uphill, and features tall grass and junk behind and in front of it.  The green is somewhat of a punch bowl concept, but with much more punishment if you get your yardage wrong and a very very difficult recovery.  A layup as far right as possible presents the best chance to have a view of some of the green.

#11, Par 5, 511 Yards


In some ways, this hole is the mirror image of the fourth.  However, the second shot presents an even more heroic decision.  If you want to hit this hole in two, you'll want to keep your drive as far right and as close to the hazard as you can.  From there, you have a chance to carry a chasm or red clay into a shallow green (from that angle at least).  Or, take the safe route and play this hole as a three-shotter, work your way around the hazard and get an approach into a deep and narrow green.  The tree in the middle of the fairway off the tee is 262 yards from the Disc Tees.

#10, Par 4, 421 Yards


A bit of a breather relative to the ninth, but a bit of a long hole.  There isn't really any strategic reason to hit it near the sand on the right as the left side of the fairway is actually the better angle into the green, though a longer shot.  Missing left is the bailout area going into the green to avoid all the sand that borders the front and right (with another bunker left).

#8, Par 3, 173 Yards


I'd argue that #8/#9 is the hardest two-hole stretch at Tobacco Road.  Get out of here with two pars and you're well ahead of the game.  This green is the shape of an upside-down L, with a bunker protecting the right side.  It's hard to get the ball close and there really isn't anywhere good to bail out.  Just a tough hole.

#9, Par 4, 415 Yards


The hardest hole on the golf course, and in my opinion, it's not even close.  The green is perched up on a hill and is long and narrow from the attack angle.  And again, there is no place to bail, except short and left.  To be honest, laying it up in that spot and trying to get up and down for par is probably a reasonable strategy from many spots because trying to get to the green and missing can present a near impossible up-and-down.  Miss it long left and you'll be in long grass and ruts.  Miss it right and you'll be in sand, wire grass, or on stairs!

#7, Par 4, 401 Yards


An extremely wide fairway.  You'd think it's almost impossible to miss, but I've done it, and seen it done a number of times.  The left half is the preferred half for coming into most pin positions.  The green is crazy looking, though if the pin is front left, it's extremely easy.  A backstop behind and to the right of the hole will throw any ball within 10 feet or so.  Then again, if you miss the backstop and end up on the back level, good luck two putting.

#6, Par 3, 143 Yards


While there are only four sets of tees at Tobacco Road, there are countless teeing options and angles on the 6th hole.  The green will either play wide and shallow or slender and deep depending on where the tees are.  The disc has usually been in a spot to make the approach wide and shallow the wide and shallow with the 7th tee just long of the green so that you have a gallery watching.

Looking back at the tee from behind the green

An attempt to capture the width, length, and shape of the green.

#5, Par 4, 322 Yards


As the crow flies, this one is technically drivable for longer hitters (I think it was 280-290 yards to the hole when I lasered it).  However, first I'm not all that long, and second, I've never really been able to figure out the risk/reward equation to make me have a go at the area around the green.  So, it's about a 5 wood for me off the tee into the fat part of the fairway to the left.  From there, it's a wedge to an uphill target that's pretty shallow.  Not as simple a hole as the yardage suggests.

#4, Par 5, 507 Yards


Good strategic design on this one.  The hole bends hard to the left and depending on how close you're willing to get to the left bunker off the tee, you could have anywhere from a wood to an 8 iron to a narrow green with sand to carry the entire way.  Or, you can play this as a three-shot hole and play the safe line over grass with entire way.  Strantz gives you options.

#3, Par 3, 147 Yards


There are many design features here and at other Strantz courses that are controversial and sometimes border on over-the-top.  I don't know if this hole would fit either description, but what makes it interesting is that the green is 60 yards deep.  Clearly, it's pretty critical to get your yardage correct, lest you face a putt of over 100 feet!  The green is surrounded by sand on all sides.  A keen observer will notice the angles of the sun look awfully different between the 2nd and 3rd holes.  That's because after the frost delay, the course set us out in a shotgun format, and we played the 3rd as our opening hole.  

#2, Par 4, 357 Yards


Typically a fairway wood to a wide landing area.  This time around, it was straight into the wind, so I pulled driver, but most times a 3 wood is enough.  Be careful not to go too far left in the fairway as trees could block an approach shot.  Depending on how close you are to them though, it should only be a wedge into a hole and you might be able to hit over them anyway.  A cool looking pot bunker in a rectangular shape is cut out of the ground that fronts the green.  Plus, there is sand on the right, left, and back of the green.  

#1, Par 5, 547 Yards


Strantz slaps you in the face with visual intimidation right off the bat.  Two enormous dune-style hills await you on either side of the fairway that sits well below the elevated tee.  While it looks like you're hitting a driver to a postage stamp sized landing area, there's loads more room behind those hills than you can see.  On the second shot, you face a near identical shot between two more hills that jut out at about 135 yards from the hole.  I typically hit driver from the tee, then a 3 wood and have no problem clearing both sets of obstacles, leaving a short pitch to the hole.  On the second shot, err to the left side of the fairway, as the green is guarded by 3 bunkers that front the right side of the green.  The green slopes from left to right.

Tobacco Road holds a special place in my heart.  I take part in an eight-man group of high school buddies that takes an annual golf trip, and we've been to the Sand Hills a number of times.  While we have played most of the courses in the area, Tobacco Road often stands up as one of our favorites.  There's just nothing like it.  From the drive through the pines to a small clubhouse buried in the woods, to the winding, undulating, wacky-in-spots group of holes amid sand and red clay.  While it's sand that this area is known for, the club sits 20+ miles from Pinehurst in the small town of Sanford, which is known for its clay surface that has made it the Brick Capital of the USA.  In fact, in the 1950's, about 10% of the country's bricks were produced here in little Sanford.


Tobacco Road is one of too few masterpieces designed by the late Mike Strantz.  Having done the nearby Tot Hill Farm, along with Caledonia and True Blue in the Myrtle Beach area (among others), Strantz is probably best known for his re-design of the Monterey Peninsula Shore Course, and for his original work at Tobacco Road.


Strantz's career, isn't unlike many other architects...at least those who don't have a PGA Tour name.  After graduating from Michigan State University with a degree in turf grass management, he began his career on the maintenance staff at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.  It was there that he got the eye of Tom Fazio while he was on site working on a renovation of the course in advance of the 1979 US Open.  Strantz was asked to join Fazio at his next project at Moss Creek Plantation, just off of Hilton Head Island.  After working for Fazio for eight years, Strantz eventually went off on his own and worked on a number of projects with partners.  His first of eight solo designs was Caledonia in 1993 with his last project being at Monterey Peninsula, before dying of cancer at the age of 50.


At Tobacco Road, Strantz left behind a jaw-dropping site.  The course first opened in 1998, which was the same year that he was named Architect of the Year by Golf World Magazine  On first glance, the course appears to be exceedingly difficult with hazards and trouble everywhere you look and large undulating greens.  However, if you can get past the visual intimidation, and have decent control of the ball, the course is very playable.  There's more room in most spots than it appears.  In addition, to soften the course, all sand at Tobacco Road plays as Waste Area, and the club has a local rule that you can lift your ball, smooth the lie, and replace, to avoid having to hit out of a footprint.  Plus, there is no out-of-bounds at Tobacco Road.  Length is not the challenge here, in fact Tobacco Road is quite short.  However, the course is careful to warn players not to play the back tees unless the have real game.  There are a few holes with long carries, and they suggest that those who play the back tees (called The Ripper) have a USGA index of 5.0 or lower.  Those tees play from 6,532 yards, and play to a 71.7 rating and 144 slope, with a par of 71.  The rating and slope are indicative of what I said before...that is, this course tries to intimidate, and probably succeeds the most with the average player, while the skilled player should be able to pick it apart without too much problem.  In front of the Ripper tees are three other tees, called the Disc, Plow, and Cultivator.  My friends and I have always played the Disc, which stretches the course to 6,297 yards, and play to a rating / slope of 70.3 / 135.  


I've played this course five or six times, but never took pictures of it until a recent trip in March, 2014.  Obviously, the early season, coupled with the miserable winter of 2014 left this course not a visually pristine as it often is.  However, don't hold that against the course.  Plus, cost-wise, this is a great value for a Top 100 course and can be played for less than $100 for much of the year.  With the wacky weather in 2014, we faced a frost delay on March 14th, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of the club-cleaning bucket on the range when we arrived that morning (frozen solid!).  It was in the low-20's when we arrived, but warmed up to the 60's later in the day, so after a little morning pain, it turned into a very pleasant day.



Tobacco Road Golf Club


Sanford, North Carolina



http://www.tobaccoroadgolf.com/​



Checked off the Bucket List October 2, 2004




Golf Magazine:

#95, Top 100 Courses You Can Play (2012)

#4, Best Public Golf Courses in North Carolina (2012)



Golf Digest:

#87, America's 100 Greatest Public Courses (2013-2014)

#23, Best in the State of North Carolina (2013-2014)