Pinehurst (No.8)

For years, golf course architect tom fazio has polarized sentiment, but some of his courses have brought all sides of the spectrum together. All of them is pinehurst no. 8. As part of the resort's centennial celebrations, the architect was hired in 1996 to design the resort's eighth course.

Players will not see a donald ross homage, but they will find a 7,100-yard path that is beautifully integrated into the resort's existing standards, illustrated most notably by the no. 2 course, which is the resort's main attraction. Fazio uses swaths of waste to divide fairways at different stages and to line the inside of the par four no. 4's long dogleg left. Fazio punctuates the crater with smaller bunkers at other stages, such as no. 2 (the pit, not the course). and, on occasion, a combination of the two models fits well, such as no. 12, which has two huge sand installations for those who don't want to lay up.

This area of pinehurst also helps fazio to play with water hazards, like he would on one of his more "new" courses. No. 14 is a full-on cape-style tee shot, tempting players to take as much of the wetland as they can.