Pinehurst No. 2 will be home to the U.S. Open for the fourth time in 25 years when the national championship returns to Pinehurst Resort and Country Club in 2024. “Pinehurst has elevated itself to one of the great and historic places for golf in this country,” said Thomas J. O’Toole Jr., the former president of the USGA. “Some say it’s our St. Andrews – it’s certainly something special, and that’s why we’re going back there for the 2024 U.S. Open.”
Pinehurst consists of nine 18-hole golf courses, each named simply by a number, and a 9-hole short course. Pinehurst No. 2 has consistently been ranked as one of the top courses in North Carolina and among the best in the United States.
With its classic Donald Ross design, Pinehurst No. 2 was restored by the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw in 2010 to reinvigorate the historic course with Ross’ original 1930’s playing conditions. First opened in 1907, it is considered to be Ross’ best work and he called it “the fairest test of championship golf I have ever designed.” He continued to perfect it until his death in 1948.
The course is famous for its exceptionally difficult green complexes which were a signature of Ross designs, and many of the greens are crowned causing shots that are short to roll off the green, leaving a difficult chip shot. Johnny Miller once famously compared trying to land a shot on a Pinehurst green as “like trying to hit a ball on top of a VW Beetle.
The 2024 U.S. Open will be the 13th USGA championship to be hosted by Pinehurst and the 12th Pinehurst USGA event in the last 35 years, which is more than any other site in the United States. Other significant championships played on Pinehurst No. 2 include the 1936 PGA Championship (won by Denny Shute), the 1951 Ryder Cup Match (won by the USA), the 1999 U.S. Open (won by Payne Stewart), the 2005 U.S. Open (won by Michael Campbell), and the 2014 U.S. Open (won by Martin Kaymer).
Measuring 7,562 yards, the par 70 is a beast of a course. In the 2014 U.S. Open, the cut was 5-over par and the tournament was won by Martin Kaymer with a score of 5-under. There is some room for players off the tee with wide fairways. However, even then, strategy is a must, with strategically placed bunkers and deceptive fairway undulations ready to test even the world’s best players.
Pinehurst, like many courses in the North Carolina Sandhills region, was without long rough for much of its early history. However, in 1974 a redesign by R.T. Jones led to the installation of thick bermuda rough throughout the course. This lasted until a restoration in 2010 by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, who removed all of the rough and reshaped the fairways and bunkers to restore the course to its original Ross design. In lieu of rough, golfers now find hardpan sand and native scrub bordering the fairways.
Almost 35 acres of Bermuda rough had been replaced by the waste areas, with roughly 250,000 wiregrass plants added, said John Jeffreys, course superintendent for No. 2. Darin Bevard, USGA senior director of championship agronomy, said that after the 2014 U.S. Open there was a “backlash” from the public and some of the golfers about the course’s aesthetic appearance being scruffy and brown. “We would like to present a greener golf course than what we had in 2014 … if the weather cooperates.”
The greens are one of the many things that make Pinehurst No. 2 so unique. “It’s very challenging,” said Scott Langley, the USGA’s Senior Director of Player Relations who finished 54th here at the 2014 U.S. Open. “It’s very difficult to get the ball close to the hole with the approach shot into these greens, particularly if you’re in the wrong part of the fairway.” Players will need to be both mentally and physically strong. Brevard said the greens should roll 12 to 13 on the Stimpmeter
ODDS TO WIN 2024 U.S. OPEN
- Jon Rahm +800
- Scottie Scheffler +800
- Rory McIlroy +1000
- Brooks Koepka +1400
- Xander Schauffele +1800
- Patrick Cantlay +1800
- Viktor Hovland +2000
- Cameron Smith +2000
- Collin Morikawa +2200
- Jordan Spieth +2500
- Justin Thomas +2800
- Tony Finau +3000
- Jason Day +3300
- Matt Fitzpatrick +3300
- Dustin Johnson +3300
- Tyrrell Hatton +3500
- Max Homa +4000
- Rickie Fowler +4000
- Tom Kim +4000
- Hideki Matsuyama +4000
- Tommy Fleetwood +4000
- Sungjae Im +4000
- Cameron Young +4000
- Sam Burns +5000
- Wyndham Clark +5000
- Bryson DeChambeau +5000
- Corey Conners +5000
- Shane Lowry +5500
- Justin Rose +6600
- Sahith Theegala +6600
- Min Woo Lee +7500
- Si Woo Kim +8000
- Patrick Reed +8000
- Adam Scott +8000
- Keegan Bradley +8000
- Michael Thorbjornsen +8000
- Gordon Sargent +10000
- Eric Cole +10000
- Justin Suh +10000
- Harris English +10000
- Nick Taylor +10000
- Austin Eckroat +10000
- Keith Mitchell +10000
- Gary Woodland +10000
- Abraham Ancer +10000
- Joaquin Niemann +11000
- Brian Harman +11000
- Russell Henley +12500
- Denny McCarthy +12500
- Sepp Straka +12500
- Mito Pereira +12500
- Adam Hadwin +12500
- Aaron Wise +12500
- Taylor Moore +12500
- Sam Stevens +12500
- Seamus Power +12500
- Billy Horschel +12500
- Ryan Fox +12500
- Sergio Garcia +14000
- Cameron Davis +15000
- Thomas Pieters +15000
- Tom Hoge +15000
- Phil Mickelson +15000
- Mackenzie Hughes +15000
- J.T. Poston +15000
- Aaron Rai +15000
- Jordan Smith +15000
- Victor Perez +15000
- Joel Dahmen +15000
- Patrick Rodgers +15000
- Cameron Davis +15000
- Emiliano Grillo +15000
- Kyoung-Hoon Lee +15000
- Andrew Putnam +20000
- Kurt Kitayama +20000
- Sebastian Munoz +20000
- Kevin Streelman +25000
- Danny Willett +25000
- Padraig Harrington +25000
- Pablo Larrazabal +25000
- Carlos Ortiz +30000