County Rankings / North Carolina

The Best Golf Courses in Moore County, North Carolina

Thirty courses in one county, and the county is not in Florida or Arizona. It is in the Sandhills of North Carolina, where Donald Ross lived, worked, and built the course every other course here gets measured against. Moore County is the deepest golf county in America by quality per mile. Ranking it means leaving genuinely good courses in the teens. We score the golf first, then the day, then access, and the state context is in the full North Carolina state ranking.

1Pinehurst No. 2

Ross opened it in 1907 and refined it until his death in 1948. It hosted the U.S. Open in 1999, 2005, 2014, and 2024, with future Opens set for 2029, 2035, 2041, and 2047 as the USGA's anchor site, plus the first back to back men's and women's Opens in 2014. The crowned turtleback greens shed approaches into chipping areas, Coore and Crenshaw restored the sandy waste areas and wiregrass in 2010-11, and Payne Stewart's statue behind the 18th marks the 1999 putt. Resort access at premium pricing, $400 plus in the record, and it is not close at No. 1.

2Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club

Ross, 1928, in Southern Pines. Three U.S. Women's Opens (Sorenstam 1996, Webb 2001, Kerr 2007), the 2019 Senior Women's Open, and the Women's Open again in 2022 (Minjee Lee). Peggy Kirk Bell owned and taught here for decades. John Fought restored Ross features in 2004, Kyle Franz in 2017. It beats several famous resort courses on this list because its championship record is current, not antique.

3Pinehurst No. 4

Ross lineage from 1919, rebuilt by Tom Fazio in 2000, then fully redesigned by Gil Hanse, reopening in 2018 over exposed sand and a central lake. Co-hosted the 2019 U.S. Amateur with No. 2 a year after reopening and is generally rated the second best course at the resort. Boldest looking course at Pinehurst, and second place there is a high place.

4Mid Pines Inn & Golf Club

Ross, 1921, sister property to Pine Needles. Kyle Franz restored the bunkers and waste areas in 2013 to wide acclaim, and the routing is largely untouched: a time capsule of 1920s Sandhills golf, more intimate than Pine Needles, open to inn guests and the public. Some panelists would put it second in the county. We put it fourth and admit the gap is taste.

5Dormie Club

Coore and Crenshaw, 2010, in West End: their only Sandhills design, walking focused, wide fairways, native sand, private through the Dormie Network. Consistently ranked among the state's top modern courses. Access is its ceiling here; costs sit in a high estimate tier.

6Pinehurst No. 10

Tom Doak, 2024, in Aberdeen, the first new Pinehurst course in nearly three decades, built on a former sand mine with dramatic dunes. The Pit holes play through the old mine workings. Premium resort pricing, and already the most talked about new course in the county.

7Country Club of North Carolina, Dogwood

Ellis Maples, 1963, the club's championship course, around Lake Watson through longleaf pines. Hosted the 1980 U.S. Amateur won by Hal Sutton. Private, high estimate tier, and the best member course in the county.

8Southern Pines Golf Club

Ross, 1923, now municipal, owned by the town since 2020. Kyle Franz's restoration reopened in 2021, recovering the lost Little Nine land. National reviews call it one of the best muni values in American golf. At Sandhills value pricing, it is the county's best public bargain by a distance.

9Pinehurst No. 8

Tom Fazio, 1996, built for the resort's centennial on land including Ross's original Gun Club area, with a wetlands and nature preserve setting that sets it apart from the main campus.

10Forest Creek Golf Club, North Course

Fazio, 2005, private in Pinehurst, with more elevation and drama than its South sibling (2000, wetlands and a lake system, also ranked among the state's best private courses). Both Forest Creek courses and CCNC's Cardinal (Willard Byrd, 1970) form the county's strong private second tier.

Below that line, say it plainly: the back of this list is ordinary by Moore County standards and excellent by almost anyone else's. Pinehurst Nos. 9 (Nicklaus, 1988), 7 (Rees Jones, 1986), 6 (the Fazios, 1979), 5 (Ellis Maples, 1961, the local Beauty), 3 (Ross, 1910, 5,155 yards of tiny greens), and 1 (1898, where Pinehurst golf began) would headline most counties. So would The Cradle, Hanse's nine hole par 3 course from 2017, Talamore, Longleaf, Legacy, and Mid South. In Moore County they are the supporting cast, which is the whole point of the place: the supporting cast here starts where most counties end.

The county's center of gravity gets the full treatment in our Pinehurst town ranking, village course by village course.