ARE YOU READY FOR THIS…before you know it, the outdoor season will be here so why not get tuned up during the indoor golf season on the simulators in the lower level of the Schaumburg Golf Club on Roselle road in Schaumburg. Play PGA Tour Courses and Ryder Cup venue’s all winter long. Call the course and get your tee time today at (847)-885-9000, for information and a full list of available courses schaumburggolf.com. ______________________________________________________________________
THE GOG BLOG by RORY SPEARS, Director of Content and Creation. Follow Rory on Twitter @GogBlogGuy, and Linkedin or Facebook. At the Dormie Club.
IT’S PART OF THE PINEHURST golf scene, but in just a small way. It’s not far (about 15 minutes) from the all the activities of downtown Pinehurst and Southern Pines.
But West End, North Carolina is really just a suburb of Pinehurst. But it is where you find the next chapter of work done by architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw in the Pinehurst area. It’s where you find a nice piece of rolling terrain in the sandy foothills of North Carolina. As you drive on Rt. 211 in between the “pines” of Pinehurst, the Pinehurst resort, the Pinewild development, the Mid Pines and Pine Needles of Southern Pines, and all the other pines of the area, you will find a drug store from a major national chain, you make a turn and head off between the homes and the churches, then just keep going until it gets a little more remote, and that is where you will find the Dormie Club.
Bill Coore (L) and Ben Crenshaw (R)
When you arrive at the club you will find that nothing is over stated, in fact it’s the same touch that Coore and Crenshaw have applied at places like Mike Keiser’s Bandon Dunes and Sand Valley. It’s the kind of touch that Coore and Crenshaw will apply to another course waiting to reopen in the Pinehurst area, The Pit that the Pinehurst resort will have Coore and Crenshaw redo one of these years, and probably rename it Pinehurst 10 or 11. In the meantime, the Dormie Club just slowly ages like a good beverage.
It’s the type of course that Keiser and golfers that love his properties would like. Not much in the terms of cart paths, walking friendly, interesting greens, and the kind of course that allows one to get lost from the hustle and bustle of a fast-paced society.
A lone sign in the tall pines marks the entrance to the Dormie Club, (R) the approach on the 18th hole with a small cottage, complete with a fireplace, in the woods behind the green that currently serves as the clubhouse. A new clubhouse is expected to be built in the soon future.
The clubs logo is simple and understated, and not much different from the famed Coore and Crenshaw design on Long Island, Friar’s Head. It’s just a flag stick with a red flag, nothing more, nothing less.
The massive bunker in the middle of the uphill par 5, 17th hole.
The course opened to rave reviews in 2010, it received several top mentions from Golfweek, including a nod on the best “new” course list.
Before long GW had it in it’s Top 100 modern course list. If you ask Coore about the types of courses that he and Crenshaw design, he will tell you that there are certain types of land that just work for him and Crenshaw. Dormie Club is that type of property which is right in the wheelhouse of C&C design.
The elevation change tops out around 110 feet, and the rolling sand hills surround three natural lakes, with inspirations from the Scottish Highlands. The course is shaped with Bermuda Fairways that surround bent grass greens. While there are some reachable par 4’s, that are some bunkers that require one to think their way around them or suffer the consequences. There is a reverse-Redan par 3 hole, that can play 241 yards-good luck.
Dormie Club’s Short Par 3, 113 yards from the tips
While some courses will talk at length about their “short par 4’s”, the Dormie Club can brag about it’s “short par 3”.
Not much different from the “shortie” than Coore and Crenshaw created on the Red Course at Streamsong, is the par 3, 12th hole that you need to blast your drive a whopping 113 yards from the back tees.
Which is a nice break after playing the long par 5, 10th hole that is 653 yards all the way back. When it comes to golf at the Dormie Club, it’s golf that is right in front of you, keep it between the trees, out of Ben and Bill’s sandy bunkers, and test your putting on the subtleties of Dormie’s greens.
The Dormie Club over the past decade has bounced back and forth from private to public and back again through ownership changes, until now settling in as part of the Dormie Network. For further information on the Dormie Club, and the expanding Dormie Network of clubs, visit dormienetwork.com/dormieclub. The club is located at 6033 Beulah Hill Church Road, West End, NC. (910)-215-4587.