Tobacco Road GC - Sanford, North Carolina

First impression:  This is a fun house.  Cue the wavy mirrors and spinning tunnel.  From the moment you pull in, you can't help notice there are as many bunkers as fairway greenspace.  The flat landscape on the roads leading to the club are far different from the rolling landscape we've now entered.  The atmosphere of the course is something you feel as if you've stumbled upon.  Pines tower all around like soldiers in a row.  The road narrows, and we start to wonder if we're in the right place.  The clubhouse is unassuming.  A plantation-type house with a front porch spanning the front.  You would think it's someone's house.  Plows and cultivators line the tee boxes.   I guess this is all a pretty big first impression.  Overall, our excitement was growing by the moment.  

The clubhouse

The finer details.  I played from the cultivator tees.

Just outside the golf mecca of Pinehurst, Tobacco Road has been on Shawn's unofficial list of "must play" tracks even prior to our decision to play a course from every state.  It's more than we imagined.  Warming up, the driving range served it's purpose, but wasn't anything remarkable, and it's irons only.  On the other hand, the putting green proved a challenging start to the many other challenges that would come throughout the day.  There were putts I sent five different ways, and somehow none of them had the proper line.  The edges of the holes on this double-tier green were pretty tight as well.  

First hole.  Note the cart path winding up the "mountain" at right. 

Looking back at the first tee from the fairway.

The putting green sits alongside the first tees, and pictures don't begin to do justice to the elevation changes and awe of the land on the first hole.  The cart path runs up a plateau that's to the right of the narrow valley that is the first fairway.  I would compare it to the layout of a miniature golf course.  The only aspect missing was one of those windmills you have to hit through.  I suppose that makes Tobacco Road a big, miniature golf course.  So that's just a golf course then, I guess, but that's no way to describe what we're getting into here. 

Ten

You'd think it's a mirage in this desert-like oasis.
The only water on the course is on 14.  

Interesting to note, you can pick up your ball in the sand, ground your club, and take as many practice swings as you want.  Given most of the course is sand, there are no rakes.  You just smooth over the sand with your hand when you leave.  There are also a number of holes with bells to ring once you've left the fairway.  Therefore, it always sounds like it's dinner time, as you hear the bell chime from around the course, and, more importantly, it eludes to the fact there are a number of blind tee and fairway shots.  We had the luxury of having a great cushion between the groups in front of us and behind us.  Thus, we could take our time, and not worry about hitting into anyone (or being hit into).

Thirteen's hillside separating the fairway from
the green (to right in this picture).

Notable holes: It's hard to pick favorites because it was all so picturesque and sculpted.  Shawn's favorite hole was the thirteenth.  This zig-zag, or double-dog leg, par 5 makes the GPS a must.(Sidenote: TRGC has their own app.  Turn your phone into landscape mode, and you get a flyover of each hole.  After two holes, you realize why they really had to provide their own app.)  Shawn landed his shot right in the fairway, only to follow that with a blind seven shot.  His shot was a little thin, but that was clearly the work of the golf Gods, as it was thin to win.  His next shot was over a plateau covered in "monkey grass" (words of the starter, not my own...I liken monkey grass to McDonald's fry guys) that creates a mountain range between the fairway and the green.  Chipping out of the monkey grass, Shawn landed within 15 feet of the hole.  It was meant to be because he sank his par putt.  Maybe it wasn't all luck.  Maybe he's just that good.  I'll let him have that one.  

Sixteen.  One of my favorites.  Straight into the valley, and then dogleg left up a hill to the green.  Note the monkey grass EVERYWHERE.  It's like a dog shed really badly all over everything. 

11: from the green looking back at the
fairway over the expansive bunker. 

Caution: Bunkers are deeper than they appear.
Here's Shawn playing around in the sandbox on 11.

Eleven was pretty remarkable as well.  It's really just the bunker that had us in awe. You hit over a wetlands wash into the left-hand fairway bordered on the right by a bunker that's easily thirty feet deep and 130 yards long.  We both made our way safely into the fairway only for me to land in the aforementioned bunker on the next shot.  For the record, I was thisclose to clearing it.  Caught the lip and bounced down.  The difference one foot would have made...  Shawn cleared the bunker, but decided to take the stairway to heaven (or maybe hell...you are stepping down into red sand, after all) to try chipping out just for shits and giggles.  He was unsuccessful.  Doesn't hurt to try though.  My favorite would be fifteen or sixteen.  I did play my best golf on those two holes, so that surely doesn't hurt.  Both had Sedona-like red sand bunkers and amazing elevation changes. 

View from the seventeeth tee

Stairway to 17th tees

18: Hit over the road and sea of red sand to the elevated fairway that quickly doglegs left.

Off-road adventures

At the end of the day, we thoroughly enjoyed our time on Tobacco Road.  The course was challenging, beautiful, and fun.  We also thoroughly enjoyed being able to drive through the bunkers.  It was the perfect marriage of four-wheeling coupled with golf.  Cruising up hills and back down the bumps of others felt, at times, like a rollercoaster ride.  This is officially our new favorite course, and I have a feeling we'll be back to this area sooner than later to hit this track again and possibly try out some of the other Pinehurst offerings.  

http://www.tobaccoroadgolf.com

More of our Tobacco Road experience

Tobacco Road Golf Club (Sanford, NC)