Dormie Club Honored Again

Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore design near Pinehurst, N.C., ranked as one of the best new golf courses in the country by Golfweek magazine.

PINEHURST, N.C — It has been described as “Bandon Trails East.” One golf writer said it represents “the soul of golf.”

Dormie Club, located just minutes north of the historic Village of Pinehurst, was tapped No. 3 in the United States in Golfweek’s “Best New Courses,” in the magazine’s Oct. 28 issue.

Dormie is the highest ranked of three North Carolina courses honored by Golfweek, and the only southeast course ranked among the Top 5. Joining the Tar Heel State’s noteworthy trio of layouts are acclaimed courses from 16 additional states, including Oregon’s Old Macdonald Course at No. 1 and Oklahoma’s The Patriot at No. 2.

Recognizing courses that opened for play in 2010-2011, this year’s Golfweek’s Best New Courses list highlights the top 25 new layouts.

“What’s remarkable in an era of slow industry growth is how many new markets are open to golf course development,” said Bradley S. Klein, national director of the Golfweek’s Best Courses ratings program.

Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, Dormie’s highly regarded golf course architectural team, have given the United States a stunning new golf masterpiece. After completing Dormie as their historic mark in the “Home of American Golf,” Coore-Crenshaw began their restoration of the Pinehurst Resort’s storied No. 2 course, which in 2014 will make history once again when it plays host to the Men’s and Women’s United States Open Championships in back-to-back weeks.

At Dormie Club, Coore-Crenshaw created a new treasure of American golf by incorporating a wide variety of old-school design features such as reachable par-4s, wind tunnels, a 241-yard reverse Redan par-3, as well as an impressive collection of natural-looking green complexes and bunkers that are remarkably varied in size and shape. Designed for walking, the spectacular golf course site encompasses over 300 acres that feature 100-foot elevation changes, two natural lakes, and mature forests of hardwood and pine. There will be no housing or artificial roadways within this large golf sanctuary.

Dormie Club currently accepts a limited number of reservations from visitors that wish to experience pure golf pleasure. Despite the downturn in the economy, Dormie remains an invitation-only private club with various membership categories including National and Junior.

“Dormie will most assuredly make the next set of Top 100 golf courses in the country lists, and may well be named the Top New Course of 2011,” wrote Larry Olmsted on TheAPosition.com. “What the Dormie Club manages is to muster a classic feel and ambiance, the soul of golf, with a routing that is anything but old fashioned. It feels old fashioned … and the many bunkers are raw and ragged and filled with brown sand and look like they were just gouged out of the earth. It has an unfinished, old-school feel, but it is very much finished (except for a 10-hole practice course they will be building). There are lots of doglegs, some real elevation changes, and enough water to make your heart skip a beat or two, all decidedly ‘unclassic’ touches.”

“Call it ‘Bandon Trails East’ if you’d like, and it wouldn’t be too far off,” wrote TravelGolf.com. “All-natural Dormie Club plays somewhat similar to the Coore-Crenshaw Pacific Northwest gem, with tall pines lining wide fairways bordered by sandy waste areas. Dormie Club, at just less than 7,000 yards and a 140 slope, should play a little longer and more challenging. Those who like the non-residential, wide-open feel of Pinehurst No. 8 will feel right at home at Dormie Club. As long as this course books (non-member) tee times, good players will want to factor it into their must-play list, along with Pinehurst Resort’s 2, 4 and 8, Pine Needles and Tobacco Road, among others.”

To produce the Golfweek’s Best New Courses list, an expert team of more than 675 evaluators rated each layout on the basis of 10 criteria, including routing, conditioning, variety and memorability of holes. The result is an average of scores, which then dictates a course’s overall ranking. Visit Top100.Golfweek.com/GolfweeksBest to view the complete list of Golfweek’s Best New Courses.

For information about Dormie Club, call 910-215-4587 or visit www.DormieClub.com.

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