Pinehurst — The Trip We Almost Didn't Take
Booked nine months out, almost cancelled twice, ultimately the trip everyone in the group still talks about. No. 2 lived up to it. The cradle did not.
- Guest
- Sam P.
- Destination
- Pinehurst, North Carolina
- Budget
- $2,200–$2,500 / person
- Run-It-Back
- One-and-Done (Worth It)
Listen
The Setup
Four guys. Two of them friends since high school, two of them friends only because the first two are. By Day 3 you wouldn’t be able to tell which was which. That’s the trick of a good golf trip.
The Format
Match play. Old-school. Two singles, two foursomes, totaled across the three big rounds. No money on the line — just a dinner buy at the Carolina Hotel for the losing team. (For reference: that dinner is not cheap.)
What’s Worth It
- No. 2 in person is somehow more demanding than every video makes it look. The crowned greens are not a meme. They are real.
- The Cradle at sunset, two beers in, is the most fun nine-hole anything any of these guys have ever played.
- Pinehurst No. 4 doesn’t get enough love. Get a tee time on it.
The Off-Course
Carolina Hotel rocking chairs. Pizzeria on the village square. Caddies who have absolutely seen worse golfers than you and will tell you so politely.
Why “One-and-Done”
This isn’t a knock — Pinehurst is a pilgrimage. You go once, you cross it off, and the next “big” trip needs to be somewhere else (Streamsong? Sand Valley? Cabot?). The MOD captures the worth-it-ness without forcing it into the annual calendar.