Pinehurst No. 4

Pinehurst No. 4 is Gil Hanse's 2018 redesign of an original Donald Ross routing from 1919, and Golf Digest named it the Best New Course in America that year. The award typically goes to entirely new builds, which makes the recognition unusual. It acknowledged what Hanse accomplished on an existing footprint: a course that plays as modern, strategic, and visually compelling as anything built in the past decade while occupying land that has hosted golf for more than a century.

The design philosophy diverges from Pinehurst No. 2 in important ways. Where Ross's masterwork concentrates its defence in the greens, Hanse distributes the challenge across the entire hole. Tee shots matter. Fairway positioning matters. Approach angles are not merely preferable but consequential. Fairways are wide enough to accommodate a range of strategies, with mounding, bunkers, and native sandy areas creating internal structure that rewards golfers who study each hole from the tee box.

The greens are large by Pinehurst standards, running on Champion Ultradwarf Bermuda, and they accept a wider variety of approaches than No. 2's crowned surfaces. That does not make them easier. The putting surfaces carry significant contour, and pin positions on the edges of tiers can produce putts that require genuine imagination. The difference is that Hanse gives you multiple ways to play each hole. The course feels fair even when it is demanding.

The par 3s are frequently cited as the strongest collection on the resort campus. Each plays to a different length and demands a different ball flight. The variety within a single shot type across four holes demonstrates the depth of Hanse's routing, which uses the natural sand ridges and pine corridors to create distinct environments within a compact property. The 2019 U.S. Amateur, held just months after reopening, validated the design under competitive conditions.