Pinehurst No.2 is about to get a rival design by Tom Doak. Check out the notable new courses set to open in 2024, including Sir Nick Faldo’s new design.
Pinehurst No. 10
The legendary golf resort of Pinehurst in North Carolina is home to nine 18-hole courses, each named by a number, and a 9-hole short course. The famed No. 2 course, originally designed by Donald Ross and restored by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw in 2011, has consistently been ranked as one of the top courses in the United States. An anchor site of the U.S. Open, the championship returns there in 2024. The resort is about to get a new course, its first in nearly three decades. No. 10 has been designed by Tom Doak and will open April 3, 2024.
It features native wiregrass, sweeping landscape and rolling hills. Midway through the course there’s rugged dunes carved out by previous mining operations. The result is said to be a spectacular layout with 75 feet of elevation changes that winds its way through the local sandhills. The enormous valleys and huge contours on some holes are said to be unbelievable
With the world renowned Pacific Dunes and Barnbougle among his credits, Doak is one of the most sought-after designers in the business. A former pupil of legendary architect Pete Dye, Doak has gained worldwide respect for his natural, minimalist style. His company, Renaissance Golf Design, is one of the world’s leading architectural firms.
“No. 10 starts fairly gentle, then it starts going into the old quarry works where it gets downright crazy for a little bit, then the course gets up on the hill and there’s a beautiful, sweeping view,” Doak says. “All of the holes coming in are challenging, even when you move down into the gentler terrain. It’s a dramatic golf course; more than I originally thought.”
New Faldo course at Royal Long An Golf & Villas, Vietnam
This new course from Faldo Design at Royal Long An Golf & Villas, near Ho Chi Minh City, has very recently opened but will properly begin its life in 2024.
The 18-hole par 72 golf course plays at 7,233 yards from the back tees and 5,424 yards from the forward tees to ensure the newest golf addition to Long An province can attract new golfers to the sport. The course features vast open flat spaces with yet to mature trees, large lakes and huge fairway bunkers.
A vast integrated lake system was designed to capture rainwater for irrigation while also ensuring the course would be elevated to ensure playable surfaces all year. With lakes and bunkering being the courses main defences, additional trees are being added to bolster the landscape.
Herdade do Pinheirinho, Portugal
A course completed in 2012 by Jorge Santana da Silva will finally be opened for play at the Herdade do Pinheirinho development on Portugal’s Costa Azul in 2024. The course is set between two other new courses in the area, David McLay Kidd’s Comporta Dunes and Fazio Design’s CostaTerra, which is Discovery Land Company’s first opening in Europe.
After being on long-tern hold due to financial issues, Herdade do Pinheirinho is now due to open and is set on a 90-hectare piece of land in a protected area a few hundred yards from the coast. Several lakes were built, four of which come into play. There’s expansive and undulating greens, the short par-four hole 10 has two fairways and a narrow green, and 17th has an island-green and the final hole requires an approach over water.
It close to the resort of Terras da Comporta in southern Portugal, predicted to become of Europe’s finest golf venues for tourists, home to McLay-Kidd’s Comporta Dunes which is eventually going to be joined by the Torre Course, a collaboration between Masters champions Jose Maria Olazabal and Sergio Garcia. Terras da Comporta is around an hour south of Lisbon, close to Pego Beach near the village of Carvalhal.
Sedge Valley, Sand Valley Resort, Wisconsin
Sand Valley Resort has been likened to famed resort Bandon Dunes in Oregon and is located in the prehistoric sand dunes of central Wisconsin. It offers unique golf experiences inspired by the Heathland golf courses south of London towards the coast.
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw designed Sand Valley here as well as the short course Sandbox, David McLay Kidd designed Mammoth Dunes, and The Lido, C.B. Macdonald’s long-lost gem, was recently restored here by Tom Doak.
Set to open in 2024, Sedge Valley is Doak’s latest creation at the resort. His 18-hole course should entertain golfers with its half-par holes. There’s prominent rock outcroppings and it provides contrast to the broad, links landscape of Coore & Crenshaw’s Sand Valley and the huge scale and contours of McLay Kidd’s Mammoth Dunes.
McLemore, Lookout Mountain, Tennessee
The resort of McLemore invites golfers to “play above the clouds”. The McLemore Highlands Course is a cliff-edge par 71 layout by Bill Bergin and Rees Jones. McLemore’s second course, The Keep, will boast five cliff-edge holes and is scheduled to open in late 2024. The course promises to be extremely dramatic.
At 2,300 feet above sea level, McLemore is a two-hour drive from Atlanta atop Lookout Mountain in Northwest Georgia. Also a Bergin / Jones design, it will feature stunning vistas and unbelievably dramatic holes along the eastern side of Lookout Mountain.
