Winter Golf in NC
                   Brent Hutto -- Feb 23, 2004

Dave Tutelman, Terry Easton and I spent a few spring-like February 
days in the Pinehurst area. It was a great trip, on the short list of 
my very best golf weekends ever.

On Friday we played Mid-Pines which I really liked even though the 
greens were a bit spotty. The fairways were firm and a lot of holes 
play downhill so it was playing really short, IMO. I arrived around 
lunch time and waited for Terry and Dave to finish their morning 
round. I greeted them on the 18th green and we went immediately back 
to the first tee for their second and my first. I like Mid-Pines as 
well as any course I've played, except for...

Pine Needles, where we played two rounds on Saturday. I want to go 
play there again as soon as possible. That may be a while since 
they're closing the course all summer and into the fall for major 
maintenance including regrassing all of the greens. It was playing 
fairly firm and fast but not nearly as short and easy as Mid-Pines. 
The green complexes are just endlessly fascinating to me. You would 
really develop a great short game playing that course regularly. 
Terry and I played our customary $2 Nassau in the morning round and 
neither of us ever got more than 1-up. We finished the front, back 
and overall matches all square when we both missed medium-length par 
putts on the 18th hole. We played a little three-man Skins game in 
the afternoon with Dave and Terry each winning four and me winning 
three. As soon as we get the conversion from Argentina pesos into 
dollars I'll pay up.

Today we played our supposed getaway round at The Legacy which is 
about 15 miles south of Pinehurst. It was a joke. I quit after a 
nearly three-hour front nine. We were the only walkers, there's up to 
a quarter-mile (of hills) between holes and we were still waiting on 
every shot. The Jack Nicklaus company came into the North Carolina 
Sandhills and built a generic (although beautiful) course just like 
you'd find at Myrtle Beach or in Florida, complete with overwatered 
greens and muddy lies everywhere. Terry finally figured out that they 
had dredged fill from the several lakes on site and used them to 
shape many of the hole. All of the between-hole walks are on 
wonderful firm sandy soil but the actual playing areas are soft and 
damp. Enough said, not recommended.

Here's the great part about the trip. There was a NASCAR race in 
Rockingham (forty miles south of Pinehurst) this weekend so every 
hotel room (including the Pine Needles resort) within a 100-mile 
radius was booked. Therefore, Pine Needles and Mid-Pines were almost 
empty. I played Mid-Pines for $25 on Friday and 36 holes at Pine 
Needles for $59 on Saturday. Normally, they charge $100 each plus $25 
for the replay this time of year. At one point late in the day on 
Saturday I made the following comment walking down the 12th fairway:

"Let me get this straight. We're playing one of the best golf courses 
in this part of the country, for free, on a sunny 60-degree Saturday 
afternoon. And we haven't seen another soul for over an hour."

Hard to believe but we basically had the course to ourselves for the 
whole afternoon. It would have been an all-time great day of golf for 
me playing by myself. Sharing it with Dave and Terry...priceless!