Pinehurst No. 2
Donald Ross's crowned greens and a U.S. Open anchor site. Restored by Coore & Crenshaw, par 72.
The questions golfers search
Short, sourced, dated blocks. Ratings, slope, par and yardages come from the USGA and the course’s published scorecard. Averages and score comparisons appear once golfers post rounds from the app.
Is Pinehurst No. 2 hard?
Yes. From the U.S. Open tees the course rating is 77.9 and the slope is 149. A slope of 113 is standard difficulty, so a higher number means the course plays harder for golfers who are not scratch. It is walkable, but it is a full day.
Can anyone play Pinehurst No. 2?
Pinehurst No. 2 is a resort course, open to the public with a tee time and, at most, a resort stay. No. 2 is sold through Pinehurst Resort stay-and-play packages rather than a listed rack rate; Pinehurst's package pages list a two-night minimum and a $250 premium for rounds on No. 2. Third-party reports put peak rounds at $500 to $650, caddie not included (an estimate, not a Pinehurst rate).
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Playing Pinehurst No. 2
Pinehurst No. 2 is Donald Ross's masterwork, opened in 1907 and refined by Ross himself for decades afterward. Its fame rests on the greens: domed, crowned surfaces that shed anything less than a perfect approach into collection areas and closely mown swales. Coore and Crenshaw restored the course in 2011, stripping out rough and rebuilding the sandy, wire-grass edges Ross intended. From the U.S. Open tees it plays 7,588 yards, rating 77.9 with a slope of 149.
The turtleback greens are the whole examination. Miss on the wrong side and a chip can trickle 20 yards back to your feet, which is why short-game imagination matters more here than raw power. The 4th is the stroke-index one hole. Payne Stewart won the 1999 U.S. Open on the 18th green with a par putt, one of the enduring images in the game, and No. 2 has hosted four U.S. Opens in all: 1999, 2005, 2014 and 2024.
In 2014 Pinehurst held the U.S. Open and the U.S. Women's Open on back-to-back weeks, and the USGA has since named No. 2 its first U.S. Open anchor site, guaranteeing regular returns. Pinehurst's No. 2 page lists no rack rate; the resort sells the course through stay-and-play packages, and its package pages list a two-night minimum and a $250 premium for rounds on No. 2. For the U.S. Open it converts to par 70, while resort play is par 72.
Tees, ratings & hole-by-hole
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Out | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | In | Tot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Par | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 36 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 36 | 72 |
| U.S. Open | 402 | 507 | 387 | 529 | 576 | 242 | 424 | 502 | 191 | 3760 | 617 | 483 | 484 | 385 | 473 | 202 | 528 | 205 | 451 | 3828 | 7588 |
| Blue | 393 | 439 | 350 | 474 | 508 | 203 | 393 | 469 | 174 | 3403 | 580 | 455 | 419 | 375 | 433 | 183 | 513 | 185 | 415 | 3558 | 6961 |
| White | 376 | 411 | 330 | 434 | 462 | 178 | 385 | 440 | 148 | 3164 | 455 | 375 | 360 | 358 | 419 | 170 | 478 | 162 | 366 | 3143 | 6307 |
| Green | 366 | 390 | 309 | 326 | 432 | 170 | 313 | 419 | 140 | 2865 | 438 | 358 | 336 | 327 | 347 | 153 | 437 | 152 | 358 | 2906 | 5771 |
| Red | 340 | 342 | 283 | 316 | 417 | 116 | 306 | 400 | 124 | 2644 | 421 | 320 | 293 | 278 | 337 | 124 | 411 | 145 | 329 | 2658 | 5302 |
| Handicap | 11 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 15 | 5 | 7 | 17 | 13 | 18 | 8 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 12 | 16 | 14 | 4 |
Resort play is par 72. For the U.S. Open the 8th and 16th play as par 4s, which makes it par 70. The 4th is stroke index 1. From the U.S. Open tees (7,588 yards) the USGA rates Pinehurst No. 2 at 77.9 with a slope of 149.
Scorecard and tee ratings from the course’s published card and the USGA course rating database. How we compute these stats →
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Course info
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Pinehurst No. 2 FAQ
What makes Pinehurst No. 2's greens so hard?
The greens are crowned, or turtleback, meaning they fall away from the center in every direction. A shot that lands even slightly off line rolls into shaved collection areas, leaving delicate chips and putts from tight lies. Donald Ross designed them this way, and the 2011 Coore and Crenshaw restoration brought the surfaces and their surrounds back to his intent. Approach play and short-game touch decide your score.
How much does it cost to play Pinehurst No. 2?
Pinehurst's No. 2 page lists no rack rate. The course is sold through resort stay-and-play packages, and Pinehurst's package pages list a two-night minimum stay and a $250 premium for rounds on No. 2 (packages running through February 2027). Third-party reports put peak-season rounds in the $500 to $650 range, caddie not included; treat that as an estimate, not a Pinehurst rate. Check pinehurst.com for current packages.
Who designed Pinehurst No. 2?
Donald Ross designed Pinehurst No. 2, which opened in 1907, and he kept refining it while living on site for much of his career. The Scottish-born architect built his signature crowned greens here. In 2011, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw led a restoration that removed decades of added rough and returned the natural sandscape, wire grass, and firm playing surfaces Ross had in mind.
Why does Pinehurst No. 2 play as par 70 for the U.S. Open?
For the U.S. Open, the USGA converts the 8th and 16th holes from par 5 to par 4, dropping the total from 72 to 70 and stretching the test for the world's best. Pinehurst lists the U.S. Open setup at par 70 and 7,588 yards, and the resort card at par 72, with the Blue tees at 6,961 yards. The change is about identifying a champion, not about the course playing shorter.