A Quick Nine of Holiday-Themed Golf Fun

Holiday-Themed Golf Fun

By Lee Pace

The three dozen golf courses in and around the Sandhills are certainly atop the entertainment option list for visitors this December and Christmas into New Year’s season.

But if the weather turns cold or wet or you’ve only got an hour to kill, following are nine ideas for golf-related entertainment.

USGA Experience & World Golf Hall of Fame

The museum is part of the USGA’s new presence in Pinehurst and is located in the Golf House Pinehurst campus, situated between Pinehurst Resort’s Carolina Hotel and its resort and member clubhouses. It is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the Hall of Fame includes 8,000 square feet of space, 164 lockers representing the inductees since its opening in 1974 and some 3,000 display artifacts.

USGA in Pinehurst

Caption: World Golf Hall of Fame, courtesy of USGA Museum & Library

Tufts Archives

After the founding Tufts family sold Pinehurst Resort to the Diamondhead Corp on the last day of 1970, Richard Tufts believed there needed to be a repository for the voluminous material that Pinehurst management and the Tufts family had accumulated over 75 years. Thus, the Tufts Archives were founded as an adjunct wing to the Given Memorial Library in the Village. The collection houses original maps of Donald Ross’s course designs, photos of Pinehurst Village in its earliest days and the original soda fountain on which James W. Tufts founded the Boston-based business that supplied the profits he later plowed into creating Pinehurst. Hours are Mon-Thurs 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday 9:30 to 3; and Saturday 9:30 to 1.

Tufts Archives

The Cradle

Take nine holes of Gil Hanse + Jim Wagner designed golf, add a beverage cottage, a fire pit and a dozen Adirondack chairs and you have one of the most unique experiences in golf. The course is located at Pinehurst Resort and open to resort guests and walk-up players on a space-available basis.

Take Nine Holes

Thistle Dhu

On ground right beside The Cradle is the massive putting green named Thistle Dhu in honor of Pinehurst’s first miniature golf course, which existed a century ago on the lawn of a Village of Pinehurst homeowner. The course was patterned after the Himalaya Course St. Andrews with 18 holes of varying length and challenge.

Putting Green

Wee Pines at Olmsted Village

Two miniature golf courses, Calamity Jane and Bullseye, are located in Olmsted Village just north of the Village of Pinehurst. The two 18-hole courses opened in the spring of 2024 so everything from the carpet of the “fairways” to the accessories are new. Golfers wind through lush greenery, charming water features and whimsical obstacles, and one of the courses is handicapped accessible. Opens 10 a.m. daily through early evening, weather permitting.

Minatare Golf

Golf Pride Retail Lab

Located at the Golf Pride company’s state-of-the-art Global Innovation Center at Pinehurst No. 8, the Retail Lab allows the company to both study and showcase the relationship between the grip and the hands — a golfer’s only physical connection to their clubs. Measuring more than 900 square feet, the facility offers over 100 different products, including full swing and putter grips, as well as other Golf Pride branded merchandise. Regular operating hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays.

Global Innovation Center

Pinehurst Clubhouse

From the front entry of the clubhouse back to the golf shop and The Deuce Restaurant is a display that includes nameplates for winners of the North & South Amateur (from Jack Nicklaus to Bill Campbell) and a case featuring trophies of every major championship held at Pinehurst — the PGA Championship (1936), the Ryder Cup Matches (1951), the U.S. Amateur (1962, 2008 and 2019), the U.S. Women’s Amateur (1989), the U.S. Senior Open (1994), the U.S. Open (1999, 2005, 2014 and 2024) and the U.S. Women’s Open (2014).

Pinehurst Clubhouse

CGA Museum

The Carolinas Golf Association has been in operation since 1909 running tournaments, administering the rules, processing handicaps and serving the game across North and South Carolina. It’s compiled quite an inventory of photos, paintings, trophies, scorecards and other artifacts saluting the careers of local-grown amateurs like Billy Joe Patton, Harvie Ward and the Ford Family to professionals like Ray Floyd, Beth Daniel and Davis Love III. It all makes a fascinating display in the Xan Law Hall of History (open 9 to 4 daily when the CGA office is open). The CGA is located across the street from the entrance of Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club.

CGA

Caption: Carolina Golf Hall of History

Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame

The CGA also administers the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame, but it borrows space in the convention hall of the Carolina Hotel to display the 88 plaques commemorating each of the inductees. Just a short walk from the main lobby toward the East Wing is the display, beginning with the inaugural class from 1981 of Harvie Ward, Richard Tufts, Donald Ross, Bill Joe Patton and Estelle Lawson Page. And while you’re there, enjoy the holiday decorations and the custom-designed and baked gingerbread village that Pinehurst Resort puts on display each December.

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.