Southern Pines Golf Club, a vintage Donald Ross-designed course dating to the early 1900s, is now under management of the company that owns and operates the Pine Needles and Mid Pines in Southern Pines, North Carolina. The course is currently undergoing an 18-month improvement plan that includes design tweaks from architect Kyle Franz, who has supervised restorations at Mid Pines (2013) and Pine Needles (2018.)
The restoration will be completed in two stages. This will allow the crew to work on one hole at a time for 18 holes to remain open for play throughout most of the work. Stage One will end towards the end of March 2021 (weather dependent), and the spring season will be in full swing. Stage Two will begin in May 2021 for work on the greens, cart paths, and other areas. During this time, there will be temporary greens while the permanent greens are being renovated to allow the course to remain open. Play will be available for a reduced rate during this time until the restoration is complete, and Southern Pines Golf Club will open fully sometime in late August or early September (again, weather dependent).
There are currently no plans for the “Little 9” at this time, as management’s focus is on perfecting every detail on the main course over the coming months.
Our goal is to make the golf course feel as much like a Ross original staying true to the well preserved routing and trying to remove the superfluous elements that have been added over the decades.
On every hole of the course, we will be widening the fairways to make them more inviting for the beginning level players, but also allow more advanced players to strategize. Removing the maintained rough around the greens, making it all clean fairway height, will encourage players to be creative and have more fun. Installing all new piping around the greens and new wiring in the fairways to get a modernized irrigation system, as well as tackling a great deal of bunkers, are huge tasks that will improve the course’s irrigation.
In the late spring, we will begin on the detailing work needed to make each green feel like the original Donald Ross greens. We want them to feel and play the way Ross originally intended, and in some cases, we’re starting from scratch again.
Slide the arrows on each photo to see the before/”after” of each part of the course.
We will continue to update as more work is completed.
Overview from the 1st Green
Overview from the 1st Green
Hole 16
Hole 18