It's not the longest golf course in the Sandhills area. At 6,515 yards from the blue tees, Mid Pines is not the kind of golf course that will smother you with trepidation on the first tee.
- But just try keeping your wedge shot approach below the hole on the short par-four fourth hole.
- Or one-putting the seventh green, like most at Mid Pines a tiny putting surface with plenty of undulations.
- Or not getting greedy and driving your ball through the fairway, into the woods, on the dogleg ninth hole.
- Or taking enough club to avoid the yawning bunkers fronting the green of the long, par-five 10th hole.
- Or hitting and holding the hour-glass shaped green of the 12th hole from the right side of the fairway.
- Or hitting the 230-yard 13th green on your tee shot.
- Or hitting a long iron into elevated 18th green, with the handsome Mid Pines Inn looming in the background.
You get the picture.
At Mid Pines, it's not how much. It's how.
Working your way around this Donald Ross-designed course is an education in classic golf course design. The course opened in 1921, and each hole remains in the same location and falls at the same point in the round as when it opened. No other Ross course in the area can make the same claim.
Guests at Mid Pines pay one "golf fee" and have the choice of walking or riding. The option is the result of the belief of Director of Golf Chip King and General Manager Kelly Miller that golfers should be allowed to walk and not be forced to take a motorized cart. The walking initiative is being called "Walk with the Legends" and is signified by a logo featuring silhouettes of resort co-owner Peggy Kirk Bell and Donald Ross.
"Golf is coming full circle back to the days when walking was taken for granted," says Miller. "It was the only way to play. We want to be on the leading edge of that trend."
Another area in which Mid Pines is taking a strong initiative is speed-of-play. "Fast Play Makes for Fast Friends" will emphasize to golfers the benefits of playing in less than 4 hours, 30 minutes.
"For people who'd like to play golf as it was in the early days by walking and playing quickly we'd like to have that option for them," says King.
"Golf Digest" awarded Mid Pines with a three-and-a-half star rating in its 1996-97 "Places to Play" guide, defining four stars as, "outstanding" and three stars as "very good."
Among comments from the magazine's readers were "great old course to play," "beautiful, scenic, can feel the history" and "aged like a great bottle of wine."
GOLF presented the resort with its coveted Silver Medal award in its 1996 rankings. The magazine's reviewer noted that the resort and its sister property, Pine Needles, "reeks of golf the way it ought to be."
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