Earthquake in Eden
A massive shakeup in the Top 10 rankings redefines
what are the best courses in the best state for golf

A foursome finishes at the 18th green at Grandfather Golf and Country Club

By Bill F. Hensley

The hierarchy of the very best golf courses in North Carolina has been so rigid that it was considered a major news event last year when a few courses swapped places within the Top 10 list and a newcomer elbowed its way into the elite field. Compared with that upheaval, there's only one appropriate response to the latest balloting by members of the North Carolina Magazine Golf Panel: Stop the presses.

This year there are different occupants in eight of the Top 10 spots, with only Pinehurst No. 2, the Donald Ross masterpiece that hosted the U.S. Open Championship last year and which will do so again in 2005, and Tom Fazio's great Old North State Club retaining their customary first and second place rankings, respectively. Pinehurst No. 2 and Old North State have been ranked 1, 2 each of the last four years.

Vaulting two spots up the Top 10 list is Grandfather Golf and Country Club, a beautiful Ellis Maples course in the shadow of Grandfather Mountain that has earned the panel's acclaim as the state's best mountain course. Pine Needles, in Southern Pines, climbed from sixth to fifth, continuing a rise up the chart that began after it hosted the 1996 U.S. Women's Open Championship. Pine Needles, owned by Peggy Kirk Bell, one of the founders of the LPGA, will host the prestigious event again next year. Linville Golf Club, a wonderful old course that Donald Ross carved out of the Blue Ridge Mountains with mules and drag pans back in 1924, inches up from seventh to sixth.

For those courses to move up, some others had to move down. The Charlotte Country Club, among the very oldest of the state's many Ross courses (he built it in 1910), dropped from fourth to seventh. Forest Creek, the four-year-old Fazio design that turned heads last year by becoming only the second of the state's “new” courses to crack the Top 10 list, coming in at ninth, fell back one spot to 10th this year. Dropping out of the Top 10 were Wade Hampton, a Fazio design rated eighth last year and seventh most years before that; and Treyburn, which had been ranked ninth or 10th in recent years. Treyburn, in Durham, also is a Fazio course.

If Grandfather's two-spot movement up the poll is considered vaulting, then Elk River's three-spot climb, to ninth place this year, can only be described in NASA terminology. No Top 10 course has moved that many places in the years that the Golf Panel has ranked courses. Elk River, in Banner Elk, is a Jack Nicklaus design.

Equally impressive is the upward movement by Pinehurst No. 8. The famed resort's centennial course was crowned by the Golf Panel as the Best New Course in the state for 1996 and built on that achievement the following year by becoming the first “new” course to crack the Top 10. But Forest Creek's impressive showing in 1999 pushed No. 8 back to 11th place. This year it regains its Top 10 ranking, coming in at eighth place.

The new Top 10 has four Donald Ross courses, four by Tom Fazio and two by Ellis Maples.

More than 200 courses from the mountains to the coast received votes from members of the Golf Panel, which is composed of 130 leading players, golf professionals, golf writers, and business executives who are involved in the game.

Ranking the state's best courses was twice as hard for panelists this year. In the past they were asked to vote for their 15 best courses under a scoring system that allowed the magazine to compile a list of North Carolina's Top 50 courses. This year panelists were asked to identify their 30 best courses, allowing the rankings to expand to the state's Top 100 courses. Of the 130 members of the panel, 100 returned signed, completed ballots by the specified deadline.

“We had an active and enthusiastic balloting this year,” said magazine editor Steve Tuttle of Raleigh. “Our panelists take this annual project seriously, and the result is an accurate portrayal of our state's golf courses and their popularity.”

A firm rule panelists must follow is that they cannot vote for courses they haven't played. The rule forces each course to rise or fall depending on current playing conditions. However, it tends to penalize exclusive resort courses which don't make themselves available to course raters. That's the case with Wade Hampton in Cashiers, which Golf Digest considers one of the two or three best courses in North Carolina but which is 12th in our survey because not all panelists have been able to play it.

Following tradition, panelists also voted for the best new course in North Carolina, handing that honor this year to Tobacco Road in Sanford. See page S 14 for that story.

The panel also voted on North Carolina's best “hidden gems,” courses that boast excellent, well-maintained tracks but which don't get a lot of media attention. The leading vote-getter in that category was the Southern Pines Elks Club, a long overlooked Ross creation in the Sandhills.

The second ten remained relatively intact, with Treyburn and Wade Hampton in the 11th and 12th spots to go along with Biltmore Forest, Mid Pines, Tanglewood, Quail Hollow, Landfall (Dye), the Governors Club, Sedgefield, and Duke University moving in to the 20th spot replacing Linville Ridge.

Wade Hampton's fall likely is a result of the rule requiring panelists to play a course before rating it. The private course is ranked among the nation's best by Golf Digest but it isn't easily accessible to non-members.

The third ten was made up of Linville Ridge, Pinehurst No. 7, Plantation, Gaston CC, Grandover (East), Willow Creek, National, Tobacco Road, Bald Head and Porters Neck.

One of the best showings was made by Tobacco Road course, designed by Mike Strantz, which made its debut in the 28th spot, which is unprecedented for a new course. Other new or newer courses cracking the top 100 included Trillium, Thistle, The Point and Verdict Ridge.

“It is doubtful that any course will ever beat out Pinehurst No. 2 for first place,” offered one panelist. “The course is just too good.”

That point was clearly illustrated last year when Payne Stewart won the U.S. Open in one of the event's most memorable and successful championships. One veteran national golf writer said the tournament was the best conducted in the 27 years he had been covering it.

The USGA didn't miss that point and has announced that the Open will return to Pinehurst No. 2 in 2005. The course was highly popular with the players who praised its many challenges.

Next year the U.S. Women's Open returns to Pine Needles, site of the acclaimed 1996 Open. Again, the USGA selected the Ross classic for the same reasons it picked No. 2: great course; great management; record-breaking attendance; successful corporate involvement; superb course conditions; volunteer involvement; acceptance by the state and local area; and a friendly, hospitable environment.

From the top-rated course to those in the 90 to 100 spots, the state offers a variety of outstanding courses as the results indicate.

1. Pinehurst No. 2
The gem of North Carolina's Donald Ross courses hosted the U.S. Open won by the late Payne Stewart last year and will welcome the Open again in 2005. It remains unchallenged for the top spot and is the pride of the state.

2. Old North State Club
Located east of Charlotte on Baden Lake in Montgomery County, it's the best of the many new Tom Fazio courses, having opened in 1992. Home to the state's best three finishing holes winding along the lake.

3. Grandfather Golf and Country Club
Sits below the famous peak and Swinging Bridge, making it hard to keep your head down at this Ellis Maples gem because the views are so magnificent. The course requires accurate drives to well-protected greens.

4. CCNC Dogwood Course
One of two layouts at the famed country club in Pinehurst, it's the state's other Maples jewel, which he built four years before Grandfather. It's a bit long at 7,154 yards and had major renovations last year.

5. Pine Needles
Another Ross classic, it has steadily moved up the list since hosting the U.S. Women's Open in 1996; the event returns there next year. The food and beds are as good as the golf here, where owner and LPGA pioneer Peggy Kirk Bell offers her famous “Golfari” school.

6. Linville Golf Club
Carved from the mountains by Donald Ross in 1924 using mules and drag pans, what he achieved still stands serene amid the mountain peaks.

7. Charlotte Country Club
Slips three spots this year, but the Ross classic –– he built it in 1910 –– still commands deep respect.

8. Pinehurst No. 8
The resort's centennial course won Best New Course in 1996. The Tom Fazio design is his tribute to Ross. The course returns to the Top 10 after being knocked back a bit by Forest Creek, its rival just down the road.

9. Elk River
The tough but beautiful Jack Nicklaus design high up in Banner Elk makes its second appearance in the Top 10. It's getting a winter touch-up.

10. Forest Creek
Fazio designed it the same year he did Pinehurst No. 8. There's more water and other hazards here than at the nearby No. 8, but the argument seems settled that both belong in the Top 10.