The International: The Pines
Alex Elias
Ryan Montgomery (@ryanmontgomeryphotography)
Best known for decades as America’s longest golf course, The Pines was reimagined by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.
“Over the last 20 or so years, there’s been a significant change to the perception of what constitutes a ‘great’ golf course,” said Jeff Kindred, COO for Escalante Golf, owner and operator of the club. “While the new Pines Course will still challenge players, it will do so without overly relying on sheer length. Instead, it will combine Bill and Ben’s classically inspired architecture with firm-and-fast course conditioning to create a playing experience that requires both creativity and skilled shot-making. This throwback to option-oriented golf is embraced by today’s players and drove our decision to rethink The Pines and begin a new chapter in The International’s 125-year history.”
With the exception of the Par-3 6th, not a single hole corridor or green site remains from the prior version. In rerouting the golf course, Coore and Crenshaw utilized the land’s rolling topography and incorporated the quarry that borders the second, third, and thirteenth holes.
“It may be the best golf course routing I have ever seen,” said Crenshaw. “Bill did a great job linking up the holes like a chain and creating such a nice rhythm and balance.”
“By routing the golf course through the natural landscapes, the golf course feels as if it’s been here for a hundred years,” said Michael Galvin, General Manager at The Pines.
Beyond its naturalness in appearance, the routing uses the site’s natural features to generate variety from hole to hole.
“We’ve failed, to be quite candid, if we have a signature hole,” Coore said. “To me, that basically is saying that you spent all your efforts on that one hole. You grounded the entire golf course around one hole. Instead, we believe that every hole could be a signature hole to someone, and we are proud to say we’ve accomplished this on The Pines.”
For Galvin, that hole is the Par-5 11th, where the tee shot invites players to take on as much risk as they want, and then navigate cross bunkers.
For Paul Celano, Golf Professional Emeritus, it’s either the Par-4 9th or Par-4 17th.
“On Hole 9, from the tee, it visually makes you think you need to hug the left side,” said Celano. “But if you hug the left side, then you’re blocked out. From the right side, you can use the slope behind the green.”
As for seventeen, the dogleg-left Par-4 features Coore and Crenshaw’s rendition of the Lion’s Mouth template. First employing the template at Sand Hills Golf Club—widely recognized as a turning point in modern golf course architecture—Coore and Crenshaw have since proven that it can be designed into almost any setting, whether as a standalone structure in a flat environment or benched into an upslope, often a dune or hillside—as is the case at The International. A ridge runs from directly behind the bunker to the back of the green, resulting in an upper tier on the left and a lower tier on the right.
Ryan Montgomery (@ryanmontgomeryphotography)
Reflecting on a conversation with Coore, Celano said, “When Bill was asked to describe the golf course in one word, the word was ‘natural.’ When he was asked to describe the playability of the golf course in one word, the word was ‘bounce.’”
With the implementation of fescue on the tees, fairways, and rough, firm-and-fast conditions present options and require strategic decision-making. If you want to bounce it on, where do you land it? What is the trajectory? Do you play it lower and chase it up a ridge? Do you play it well away from the hole and let the slopes and contours feed the ball back to the hole? On the Par-4 2nd and Par-4 5th, players can land the ball short of the green and let it release, while on the 213-yard Par-3 14th, the ideal play is to land the ball right of the green.
“The contours are there for your benefit, not to hurt you,” said Celano.
Now open for roughly a year and a half, Galvin reflected, “Bill and Ben created a masterpiece, and we were blessed to not just have them, but the entire team from Ryan [Farrow] to Zach [Varty]. We couldn’t be more excited for the years to come.”
