Ten for The Deuce

Ten for The Deuce

What do Bill Campbell in 1950, Tom Watson in 1973, Payne Stewart in 1999 and Michelle Wie in 2014 have in common? All made birdie-2s on the par-three 17th hole at Pinehurst No. 2 in winning important championships or setting a still-standing course record — the North & South Amateur for Campbell, the U.S. Open for Stewart, the U.S. Women’s Open for Wie, and a course-record 62 for Watson in the former World Open on the PGA Tour.

Only they were too early for a Deuce Coin.

Deuce Coin?

That’s the commemorative coin that golfers who make a two on any hole of Pinehurst No. 2 receive when they take their scorecard to the bartender at The Deuce, the popular restaurant and bar at Pinehurst Resort overlooking the 18th green of the world-famous course.

It’s all the rage on social media.

“Love the coins, the tradition and the memories on nine and 17,” one father posted of him and his son both making birdies in one round.

“Mine from last year is a prized possession.”

“I made a 2 on 17 on New Year’s Day. Really cool tradition.”

“Missed a two-footer for two on six and it still haunts me.”

“One of my best golf moments ever. Hit it inside 12 inches on 17 and tap-in.”

The Deuce is approaching its 10-year anniversary of changing the landscape on the east side of the Pinehurst Resort clubhouse and has earned its spot as a great F&B venue with close proximity to a world-famous golf course.

The veranda fills on nice-weather afternoons as golfers finish their rounds, slake their thirsts and watch their buddies finish their rounds or place bets on whether some random 15-handicapper from Wisconsin can two-putt from 35 feet.

“It’s changed a lot since The Deuce opened,” says longtime Pinehurst caddie Thomas Trinchitella. “You get a nice clap for a good shot on 18. People enjoy watching golfers come up 18. They make a lot of bets. You hear cheering and good-natured booing depending on what happens.”

“The Deuce has added so much energy to that side of the building,” adds Pinehurst President Tom Pashley. “You have a veranda full of people, and if you hit a good shot, it’s so cool to hear a round of applause. If you make a long putt, people get excited.”

The Deuce was the result of Pashley, Pinehurst owner Robert Dedman Jr., and resort golf operations and food and beverage staffers working to fill a void in the vaunted Pinehurst resume — a world-famous golf course that had hosted three U.S. Opens, eight more layouts designed by the greats of the golf architectural world from Donald Ross to Tom Fazio, and more than a century of history that staked it to its lofty position as the “St. Andrews of American golf.”

What it didn’t have as the 2014 U.S. Open concluded was a convenient venue for golfers coming off the No. 2 course to enjoy a post-round libation and the attendant scorecard parsing and bet settling. There was a portable “veranda bar,” or golfers could walk from the locker room down two corridors to the 91st Hole, which was mostly a grab-and-go station in the center of the clubhouse with a view of the practice putting green.

“It was kind of the missing puzzle piece,” says Pashley. “We did not have a fitting end to a round of golf on one of the world’s finest golf courses. It seemed like an odd omission.”

The result in September 2016 was the opening of The Deuce — a facility with an indoor bar and restaurant and outdoor veranda bar no more than 25 yards from the back edge of the 18th green of No. 2.

It has proven an overwhelming success.

The food is excellent. Prime rib is served both as a dinner entrée and thinly sliced for the popular French Dip sandwich. Buffalo wings and tater tots with three dipping sauces fly out of the kitchen. There is a lunch buffet to get golfers in and out and on to the first tee of No. 2 in timely fashion.

The drinks menu is creative and expansive — from Pinehurst 1895 Lager to margaritas made with cucumber-jalapeno agave to an old-fashioned cocktail flavored with orange and black cherry syrup — and accented with a piece of bacon cured daily in the kitchen with maple syrup and brown sugar. The Deuce Mule is a blend of vodka, ginger beer with a splash of cranberry juice served in a copper mule mug.

The décor is spot-on with sepia-toned photos of Donald Ross and his pencil-notated hole drawings. There are vintage postcards and scorecards and photos ranging from historical to contemporary, including, of course, the “Payne Pose” of Payne Stewart reacting to his winning putt in the 1999 U.S. Open. There’s a view out a series of picture windows onto the home hole of No. 2, and every visual of the name Deuce has the capital-D fashioned to resemble the numeral 2.

And then there are the coins.

Pinehurst officials considered a number of promotional tie-ins to the number 2, and the one that has stuck and become popular is awarding golfers a special coin if they make a 2 on any hole — generally a birdie on one of the four par-3 holes. One side features the word ‘Deuce’ and the year; the other reads, ‘2 on 2 / I’ll drink to that!’ The design is tweaked each year, and the coin for 2026 is copper colored. The resort handed out more than 5,000 Deuce coins in 2025, and the pursuit and acquisition of the coins has become a big deal on social media channels.

“I’ve been here eight years, and when I first started, we gave out a few coins a week,” says bartender Stephen Coleman. “Now we give out a couple every day. The level of golfer has gotten better over the years. Making a two on one of our par-3s, that’s no easy feat.”

It adds up to an experience that draws the likes of Bryson DeChambeau and his caddie when they were in Pinehurst early in 2024 — just months before he won the U.S. Open.

“No one noticed them or bothered them, they were wearing jeans and hoodies,” says Coleman. “They just had burgers and a couple of drinks and watched the golf on TV. They had fun hanging out. That’s what The Deuce is all about.

“Everyone calls it the Disney World of golf. A lot of people say that. Everyone is so into golf it’s hard to have a bad time.”

Lee Pace is a freelance golf writer who has written about Sandhills area golf for four decades and is the author of club histories about Pinehurst Resort & Country Club, Mid Pines, Pine Needles and Forest Creek.

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