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. Every number comes from posted rounds, so as this course fills in, these answers exist nowhere else.
Is Pinehurst No. 2 hard?
Yes. Off a slope of 149 and a rating of 77.9 from the tips, it is one of the sterner tests a public golfer can book. 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 (two-night minimum) rather than a rack rate; adding it to a package carries a $250 surcharge and peak rounds are generally reported at $500-650, caddie not included.
The SimplyStroke Scoreboard
Score distribution · all posted rounds
Hardest holes · strokes over par as played
How does your score compare?
Enter what you shot at Pinehurst No. 2 and see where you land against everyone who has posted here.
Best rounds at Pinehurst No. 2
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| # | Golfer | Tees | Score | To par |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dave Ellis | 87 | +15 | |
| 2 | Doug Hayes | 87 | +15 | |
| 3 | Mike Frye | 88 | +16 | |
| 4 | Ben Walsh | 91 | +19 | |
| 5 | Wes Parker | 92 | +20 | |
| 6 | Vince Grant | 94 | +22 | |
| 7 | Carl Nguyen | 95 | +23 | |
| 8 | Owen Cho | 96 | +24 |
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 with a 15-foot putt, one of the enduring images in the game, and the course has since hosted the national championship four times.
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. The resort sells it through stay-and-play packages rather than a rack rate, with a two-night minimum and a surcharge to add the course. For the U.S. Open it converts to par 70, while resort guests play it at 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 |
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 does the average golfer shoot at Pinehurst No. 2?
Across 8 rounds posted by SimplyStroke golfers, the average 18-hole score is 91.3, about +19.3 to par. The lowest posted round is a 87.
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 does not sell No. 2 at a simple rack rate. Instead it comes through resort stay-and-play packages with a two-night minimum, and adding the course to a package carries a $250 surcharge. Peak rounds are generally reported in the $500 to $650 range, with a caddie not included. Booking a lodging package at the resort is the standard way to play it.
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. Resort guests play the standard par-72 setup at up to 7,588 yards from the U.S. Open tees. The change is about identifying a champion, not about the course playing shorter.