Pinehurst Resort announced on April 21 that Pinehurst No. 11, to be designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, will begin construction at Pinehurst Sandmines later this year.
No. 11 joins Tom Doak’s design of Pinehurst No. 10 at the 900-acre site that for decades was mined for its deep reservoirs of sand.
Those past mining operations are still evident within the contours of the site of Coore & Crenshaw’s routing, which is expected to open in fall 2027. They are among the features that have drawn the pair to this area since their acclaimed restoration of Pinehurst No. 2 about 15 years ago.
“It’s such a wonderful site, just because of its inherent character,” said Coore, who marvels at the mixture of native elements and man-made remnants, some of which still remain from when The Pit Golf Links was open. “That character was essentially created, not all of it is natural, but it has all been reclaimed by nature. This land is left over from all that mining from the 1930s. The spoil piles are here, and Mother Nature provided the trees, and it’s all incredible. It’s not too often you get that kind of combination, and it creates a site that is extraordinarily interesting for golf.”
If anyone should know from one North Carolina golf parcel to the next, it is Coore. Approaching his 80th birthday, Coore grew up in rural Davidson County, some 30 miles south of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He learned to play from a neighbor, Donald Jarrett, who introduced Coore to the Donald Ross-designed courses at Pinehurst, including No. 2, in the 1960s.
Coore became proficient at the game. He helped form a high school golf team, then continued to play competitively while at Wake Forest University. It was at Wake Forest that he discovered the remarkable architecture at his college’s home course, Old Town Club in Winston-Salem, designed by Perry Maxwell. Coore has stated on multiple occasions that Pinehurst No. 2 and Old Town became the cornerstones of his understanding of golf architecture.
After graduating from Wake Forest in 1968, Coore spent several years in the Army, and right before his term of enlistment ended, he stumbled upon a public course in High Point, North Carolina, called Oak Hollow, being designed by Pete Dye. Intrigued by how different Dye’s methods and expressions were, he rang up Dye repeatedly, asking for work. Dye eventually engaged Coore’s services as a laborer and equipment operator at another course in the area he was building, the Cardinal Golf Club in Greensboro. That set the stage for Coore’s design career, both in Dye’s employ and then when he ventured on his own in the early 1980s.
Coore teamed with Ben Crenshaw in 1985 and although they weren’t overnight sensations, within 10 years their star was soaring, thanks to award-winning tracks such as Kapalua Resort’s Plantation course in Hawaii (1991) and Sand Hills in Nebraska (1994). Amazingly, as their roster of Top 100 courses expanded, it took until 2005 for Coore and his partner to break ground in Coore’s home state of North Carolina. However, the commission that made Coore and Crenshaw legends in the Tar Heel State didn’t occur until 2010.
In 2010 and 2011, Coore and Crenshaw were asked to restore fabled Pinehurst No. 2. It was an enormous risk for Pinehurst Resort ownership, dramatically altering the historic course that played host to the 1999 and 2005 U.S. Opens. Coore and Crenshaw yanked out the Bermuda rough and put back the hardpan, sandy scrub, pine straw and wispy wire grass that Ross had originally installed. The restored look and strategies wowed the critics and mystified the pros at the 2014 U.S. Open, all except Martin Kaymer, who romped to an eight-shot victory, when only three golfers finished under par.
To be sure, Coore and Crenshaw were tromping around a golf site in the Pinehurst area as early as 2005 — on ground that would open as The Dormie Club. However, ownership and recession issues prevented it from formally opening until 2010, and even then, confusion over its private-public status and the firm’s other high-profile job nearby basically kept the Dormie Club under the radar. Still, the course was so well regarded by those in the know that in 2012, Golf Magazine included it in its list of the Top 100 Courses You Can Play in the U.S.
Ultimately, Coore got one more bite of the other sweet architectural apple in his life, when he and Crenshaw were retained in 2013 to restore Old Town Club. It proved to be another hit, with Golf Magazine elevating it into the Top 100 Courses in the U.S. in 2015. And after yet another hiatus, this one of a dozen years, Coore and Crenshaw are back in North Carolina.
While Doak’s No. 10 commands attention for its elevation changes and expansive vistas, Coore & Crenshaw see something unique in No. 11. Then firm envisions a golf course that winds and twists while still being dramatic in shape and style, with jutting ridges and massive mounds to be played over and around.
“These two courses really couldn’t be more different, and we love that,” said Tom Pashley, president of Pinehurst Resort. “The designs of No. 10 and No. 11 complement each other so well by contrasting so much. Golf in the North Carolina Sandhills can be an experience unlike any other, and we believe the golf at Pinehurst Sandmines will be a great representation of that.”
Coore believes the landforms for No. 11 are unlike anything he has seen around Pinehurst.
“It’s this choppy, ridgey ground,” he said. “It’s not as much elevation change, but it’s so quirky with the ridges and the piles and the trees and the angles. This is going to be so intimate in scale. You’re winding your way through trees and over old piles and across ridges. We’re far, far from the sea, but we have these contours and features and landforms that remind you of spots in Ireland or Scotland. And yet here it is, in Pinehurst.”
THE SOCIAL ASPECT
We’re excited to be working with Detroit Golf Club later this year when we break ground on the major Donald Ross restoration and infrastructural project slated for Monday, June 30th, 2025, the day after the PGA TOUR’s Rocket Mortgage Classic finishes up. You may see us with… pic.twitter.com/gr3odxa3qm
— Tyler Rae (@TylerRaeDesign) February 10, 2025
SIX-HOLERS OPENS AT GRAVES GC
Graves Golf Club, located in Edmond, Oklahoma, has opened its six-hole golf course as part of a new comprehensive teaching facility established on the grounds of the former Coffee Creek Golf Course, which shuttered in 2017.
Played three times, the course will stretch to 6,578 yards and play to par 70. Architectural credit goes to the newly formed team of Steve Smyers, Colton Craig and Tom Coyne, who utilized "striking geometric features and distinctive rectangular bunkering," according to Craig.
The course and teaching academy are owned and operated by brothers Tim and Todd Graves, adherents to the single-plane swing theories of Canadian legend Moe Norman. Craig has relocated his full-time residence to the Graves Golf Club property.
THE CLIFFS EDGE TOWARD OPENING
Australia’s The Cliffs Kangaroo Island will open to preview play in January 2026. Kangaroo Island is Australia’s third largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It sits 70 miles southwest of Adelaide, in the state of South Australia.
"We are incredibly excited to make this announcement," said Sam Atkins, Developer and CEO of The Cliffs Kangaroo Island. "This project has been over 10 years in the making, and to finally see the golf course taking shape, grass being planted and the clubhouse design complete, is a huge achievement. Preview play will allow limited access for guests to play and experience the course and its surroundings before the official opening in Easter 2026, when we will unveil the full clubhouse and other amenities."
Designed by Darius Oliver, the co-designer of Cape Wickham, a world top-100 course on Australia’s King Island, The Cliffs Kangaroo Island is set along the island's southern cliffs, offering striking views of the Southern Ocean. The 7,119-yard, par-71 course is surrounded by the island’s unique flora and fauna and is described by Oliver as "a world-class links course" in one of the most awe-inspiring landscapes on the planet.
