The highly anticipated debut of Pinehurst No. 11 is set: The popular North Carolina resort will open the new course designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw on March 29, 2027, on the site of a former mining operation. Tee times for No. 11 open today on the resort’s website.
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw designed Pinehurst No. 11 (hole No. 14 shown), which opens in March 2027 at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina.
The No. 11 course will join No. 10 by Tom Doak at the in-development Pinehurst Sandmines just a few miles south of the main resort. No. 10, co-designed by Angela Moser and opened in 2024, is ranked by Golfweek’s Best as the second-best public-access course in North Carolina (following the resort’s famed No. 2 course), 19th among all public-access courses in the U.S. and among the top 50 modern courses in the United States.
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Shaped by Ryan Farrow for Coore and Crenshaw, No. 11 sits in a rugged corner of the Pinehurst Sandmines with jutting ridges, massive mounds and native vegetation. Coore and Crenshaw embraced the landscape left behind by miners to create a course unlike anything else at the resort. Coore recently told Golfweek in the Sandmines clubhouse that No. 11 will be very different than No. 10, and that two courses sharing such close proximity couldn’t be more different.
“I call it ‘Weirdly Wonderful,'” Coore said of the new course in a media release announcing the opening date. “I know that’s kind of an odd description. The landforms are so unusual, so unique, there are areas that have been mined years ago, but it’s land you don’t typically find in the game of golf. The word I’d use is mysterious. You walk among these landforms, and you feel the big trees that have grown out of these mounds for the last few decades since the mining occurred.
“It’s just a really mysterious place to go walking. It’s intimate. You turn the corner, and there’s a surprise. You’re nestled down, you get to a green, and then you turn the corner to the next tee, and there’s a whole different look and whole different set of challenges and strategies and looks for golf. It’s just a fantastic site.”
Coore and Crenshaw have plenty of history at Pinehurst Resort, having restored Donald Ross’s No. 2 course in 2011 ahead of a series of U.S. Opens, with more Opens on the horizon as the course has become a USGA anchor site.
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“This land is totally blessed by its character,” Crenshaw said of No. 11 in the media release. ” … It’s special anytime you get to Pinehurst. It’s been a great subject of our learning, and some of the greatest golf architecture in the world is right here. The chance to do a golf course here with No. 11 is such, such an honor.”
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw designed Pinehurst No. 11 (hole No. 6 shown), which opens in March 2027 at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina.
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw designed Pinehurst No. 11 (hole No. 13 shown), which opens in March 2027 at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina.
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw designed Pinehurst No. 11 (hole No. 2 shown), which opens in March 2027 at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina.
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw designed Pinehurst No. 11 (hole No. 3 shown), which opens in March 2027 at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina.
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Jason Lusk is Golfweek’s travel and golf course architecture editor, as well as the print magazine’s creative director. He has written for and designed Golfweek for more than two decades.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Pinehurst Resort announces opening date for newest golf course
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