Eat, play, Ross: exploring the Pinehurst area, on and off the course

In the early days of the destination, astir out-of-towners arrived by train.

Riding the rails from metropolitan centers on the eastbound seaboard, they disembarked astatine a recently built terminal successful Southern Pines, N.C., wherever horse-drawn carriages awaited to return them 1 municipality complete to their last stop: Pinehurst.

This was successful the early 1900s. More than a period later, trains still rumble into that aforesaid terminal. But the carriages person fixed measurement to shuttles, and the Pinehurst area has evolved from a sleepy getaway for play and wellness into 1 of the game’s marquee world draws.

On a caller activity travel that didn’t consciousness for illustration work, my colleague, James Colgan, and I met up to research what the region has to offer. Unlike travelers of the past, some of america flew in, rubbing down from other coasts successful Raleigh, and past driving an hr successful a rental car. Over the first 2 days, we enjoyed a study people successful classical play people architecture, spanning from the Golden Age to the modern-minimalist era that the Golden Age inspired. More specifically, we started retired astatine Pine Needles, wherever we sewage schooled successful the subtleties of Donald Ross, earlier moving connected to the newest people astatine Pinehurst Resort, Pinehurst No. 10, a brawny Tom Doak-and-Angela-Moser creation, portion of which rollicks complete the humps and bumps of dormant mining land.

Long shadows deed the 9th greenish astatine Southern Pines Golf Club arsenic our travel comes to a close. Connor Federico

Now, connected a 3rd and last time of what was admittedly excessively short a stay, we were brushing up connected everything other we could. As a basecamp, we’d chosen Talamore, an under-the-radar stay-and-play edifice that combines sweetly appointed condo accommodations pinch 3 18-hole courses: Talamore Golf Club, Legacy Golf Links, and Mid South Club, by Rees Jones, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, respectively. Like Ross’ Golden Age work, these 3 designs bespeak the artistic of their time, connected tranquil, tree-lined properties, pinch varied changeable demands to fairways and greens kept successful impeccable condition. On plushly kept Mid South, James, who is half my property and astir doubly my size, routinely outdrove maine by 50 yards. But arsenic ascendant arsenic he was disconnected the tee, he couldn’t support up pinch maine that evening astatine the table. One of the awesome perks for guests astatine Talamore is simply a complimentary all-you-can-eat ‘pig pickin,’ offered connected Monday and Thursday evenings, and featuring slow-smoked BBQ pork, pinch sides of slaw, beans, collards and a slate of varyingly piquant sauces. By consuming my bodyweight successful each of the above, I near James successful the particulate connected the gluttony front.

For each the nickname it receives for golf, the Pinehurst area gets comparatively scant attraction for the value and eclecticism of its cuisine. Sushi. Tacos. Yakitori. Cacciatore. A composite sketch of the section edifice segment belies the golf-world’s estimation for subsisting connected small much than burgers, dogs and beer.

Of course, if that’s what you want, you tin get it, too. Local trade brews abound, and the burgers astatine Chapman’s, successful downtown Southern Pines, are reliable to beat. We ate ours astatine the bar, wherever we washed down our repast pinch Marytinis. How these drinks differed from classical martinis, different than the truth that they were mixed by an amiable bartender named Mary, I can’t opportunity for sure. What I cognize is that they were bracing and delicious, and because James wasn’t driving, he ordered two.

It wouldn’t beryllium a world-class play destination if location weren’t a batch of first-rate 19th holes. The Pinehurst area has excessively galore to count. But nary has a much compelling backstory than BHAWK, an American whiskey distillery founded by hubby and wife, Brad and Jess Halling. Both are subject veterans, pinch 49 years of mixed service, 1 of which was 1993, erstwhile Brad mislaid a limb successful the Battle of Mogadishu, a deadly conflict that was later memorialized successful the movie Black Hawk Down. The distillery the Hallings built together — an expansive, modern abstraction pinch barroom and array seating, a patio successful back, and a terrific paper of casual, location cooking to complement the spirits  — is easy-going and inviting, and is filled pinch tasteful tributes to servicemen and women, including the aviation unit who helped prevention Brad’s life connected the battlefield. 

We stopped astatine BHAWK successful the early afternoon, and by the clip we left, humbled by our conversations pinch Brad and Jess, and wowed by the bourbon and whiskey flights they poured, location was conscionable capable daylight to compression successful 1 past sojourn to a course. 

As a farewell to the fairways of the Pinehurst area, we picked a fitting campaigner successful Southern Pines Golf Club, different prima successful a section constellation of Ross designs. For years, though, its glitter had gone mostly unnoticed by outsiders until a 2021 restoration by the designer Kyle Franz that brought muted Ross features backmost to the fore. 

Once a sleeper, Southern Pines has been go a darling of architecture buffs astir the country, and anyone, frankly, who enjoys a bully locomotion that can’t beryllium spoiled. But if Southern Pines is nary longer a section secret, it still seemed undiscovered erstwhile we showed up precocious that afternoon. The people was mostly quiet and, clutching a fewer clubs, we breezed astir a fewer holes, savoring the parting shots of our travel connected a Golden Age canvas, brought to vivid life by the ray and protector of the aureate hour. 

On the measurement backmost to our condo, we trim done downtown Southern Pines. A train was rumbling slow toward the terminal. The show and sound of it — relics of what look now for illustration a simpler clip — made maine want to linger longer. There was much to do and see, and a batch much play to play. But early the adjacent morning, I had a level to catch.