Forest Creek Golf Club Pinehurst
Forest Creek Golf Club Pinehurst is the only golf community in the country with two
golf courses ranked in the top 100 of Golf Week Magazine's "Best Modern
Courses". Golf Week's Best 100 Residential Courses for 2010 ranked Forest
Creek's North course 38th and the South Course 46th. Golf Week recently
named the North Course sixth among the "Top 50 New Courses" in America, and it
was the top-ranked new course in the Southeast. According to Golf Styles Located off Airport Road, within minutes of Pinehurst Circle, the club was the product of a collaboration between Barton Tuck and Buck Mickel of Golf South and the family of C. Louis Meyer, an equestrian who came with his golfing wife to Pinehurst regularly to get away from the cold winters in Chicago. Meyer bought a 300-acre parcel in 1942, and the holdings have grown ever since through three generations of Meyers. In the 1980's Terry Brown, his brother Louis and cousin Heidi Hall Jones decided to explore putting a golf course and residential community on the property, but instead of launching the project precipitously, they took their time, recruiting a group of 65 founding members before one shovelful of dirt was moved. In 1994, ground was broken on the first course on this spectacular 1,265-acre property. The course, the centerpiece of the 1,265-acre club site, opened in 1996 to rave reviews. Recently, the club was named among the top 50 private golf clubs in the U.S. The rolling landscape, thickly populated with loblolly and longleaf pines, has provided the architect with a spectacular canvas on which to work his magic. "It is a designer's dream," said Fazio, who also designed the second course. According to club Director of Golf, Waddy Stokes, Forest Creek No. 2 "will have more of an Augusta-like feel because of the bunkering."
The 6th at Forest Creek Golf Club is typical of all Fazio designs. The course really has no tricks. The landing areas are more than ample and everything is out there directly in front of you. Fazio places bunkers in strategic places, always leaving you with alternate routes to the green. On the par 3's, including the 2nd and 17th - a pair of 190-yarders over water - he provides room for errant shots. The par 5's are also a strength of the course and include one of the best holes you can play, the 559-yard 12th which has several elevation changes over the rolling terrain to a large green that has a serious back to front slope. Among an outstanding set of par 4's is perhaps the best, the 429-yard 9th which starts from an elevated tee box and winds perilously close to a wetland/lake and around a set of pines to a wide but narrow green fronted by a portion of the same water hazard and guarded in back by bunkers. This hole is visually stunning, worthy of placement among the state's top designs. "The golf course gets your attention, but it doesn't beat you up" the former U.S. amateur champion Harvie Ward, a long-time area resident and a club founding member was quoted in the Sept/Oct 1999 issue of Pinehurst Magazine. "It's got a nice mix of holes. It's a good test, but you don't feel like you’ve been in a fistfight. And it's got the best greens I think I've seen." Fazio, however, managed to pull off the toughest of all golfing tricks, which was to fit the holes into the existing landscape with as little earth movement as possible, keeping as natural an appearance as possible to fairways that weave through pine trees. A number of holes stand out at Forest Creek Golf Club Pinehurst, such as those around the turn. The 430-yard 9th is a beast of a hole, played into a shallow, sharply sloped green protected at the front by water and it’s followed by the devilishly difficult long par three 10th, where the bailout area left of the green may actually yield a more difficult second shot than finding the right hand bunker. Fairway bunkering is exceptional here and many of the traps are located inside doglegs or directly at landing areas. The other great feature of the course is the conditioning of the greens which are considered to be as good as nearby Pinehurst No.2. Interestingly, the course has a par three 19th hole in front of the clubhouse and it’s been put to good use over the years in settling a few small wagers when match play bounce games have ended all square after a regulation round. Previously, the South Course was selected by Golf Digest as the third best new course in the country and Pinehurst Magazine named it the 2nd best golf experience in the Pinehurst area, second only to Pinehurst #2, based on the votes of area head golf professionals. World-acclaimed golf course designer Tom Fazio has created two distinctive courses in the North and South courses at Forest Creek, and with five sets of tees, both of Forest Creek's award-winning courses are playable for all skill levels. So, if you can get in, because you will need an invite, you must play Forest Creek Golf Club when you come to Pinehurst. "At Forest Creek, we have two distinctively different golf courses in the same environment, but the underlying ground formations-the sand, soil structure, and the pine trees-allowed us to create a distinctive style and two separate golf courses that look like they came from two different states. Both courses at Forest Creek have a reputation of having some of the finest putting surfaces in the game." -Tom Fazio Forest Creek may be the best private golf club and residential community you've ever seen, and when you visit Pinehurst, it would be worth your while to go over and visit it. Owning property at Forest Creek is a prerequisite of membership in the golf club. There are a variety of lots still available but the supply is diminishing fast, and at current only 3 homes available on the market. For those considering a second home in the Pinehurst area or perhaps moving permanently to the Sandhills, Forest Creek Golf Club Pinehurst may be a viable choice, especially if privacy and high quality living are your priorities. The golf club accepts no outside play. Set Up Your Golf Getaway or Vacation Package Today, and Come Play With Us. It's A Great Way to Network with Business Associates or Just get away with friends or family.
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Magazine, the North Course features "sprawling sandy waste areas along with
deeper and more penal bunkering" than the South Course. "The ragged edges
to the bunkers and the pine barrens feel have caused golfers to draw a parallel
to Pine Valley, the perennial No. 1 ranked course in the world."
For the original course, Fazio weaved a beautiful and challenging but fair mix
of holes through the pines and over created lakes. The result was a par 72
masterpiece stretching from 5,047 to 7,067 yards.
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