Video: Pinehurst No. 2's Fourth Hole
/No hole has seen a greater visual transformation at Pinehurst No. 2 than the fourth, which plays from an elevated tee to an inviting landing area for righthanders and now meandering through artistically placed hazards. Camera shots from the 1999 and 2005 U.S. Opens here were painful to look at, showing a contrived fairway contour designed to make the shortish par-5 play longer because the golf ball was flying too far.
Mike Davis has solved part of that dilemma by reversing the fourth and fifth hole pars, with this now a 529-yard two-shotter approaching a green more receptive to a long second compared to the difficult fifth green. There is an alternate tee to the right of the view seen below, but Davis told me in February at the USGA Annual Meeting he would not be heartbroken if a concession stand ended up there, which translated sarcastically to: don't look for that tee to be used. And while it does help with congestion in the busy 3rd-4th-5th-6th intersection, the tee shot is not nearly as interesting.
The tee view in February:
