The Deuce: Tips & Tricks

By Lee Pace

So, you were among the 5.9 million viewers watching Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy battle it out in the final round of the 2024 U.S. Open on Pinehurst No. 2. You might have been in the throngs of slightly more than 220,000 spectators who descended on the historical golf resort in the North Carolina Sandhills the third week in June for its fourth U.S. Open.

And now you want to play “The Deuce,” as it’s known around the Village of Pinehurst.

You have one option if you’re not a member of Pinehurst Country Club — book a package at Pinehurst Resort to stay in one of the resort’s half dozen hotels, inns and villas and secure your slot on No. 2 and any of the resort’s other nine courses, including the Tom Doak-designed No. 10 that opened in April.

Now you have that coveted tee time on No. 2, opened as 18 holes in 1907 under the design acumen of Donald Ross and tweaked until he arrived at his final routing in 1935. You sidle up to the Starter’s Hut beside the first tee, the structure designed and built to mirror the same building on the Old Course at St. Andrews. What do you need to know?

Here’s some advice from a cadre of caddies and insiders.

For beginners, hit the driver off the first tee, a par-4 played at 402 yards for the Open and listed at 376 from the middle tees for the club golfer. Thomas Trinchitella, a veteran on the caddie staff dating to 2001, has noticed a tendency over the summer among golfers to hit irons off the tee — just as they saw most pros do during the Open. That’s generally not the best play.

“If you don’t hit it 240, you need to hit the driver,” Trinchitella says. “That will put you where the pros were hitting their irons, in the fattest part of the fairway. Average golfers think they hit it a little longer than they actually do.”

The course is renowned for its inverted-saucer shaped greens, nearly all of them higher in the middle of the putting surface and gradually sliding off around the edges. That’s one reason Jeff Clay, a caddie since 2018, directs his golfers to always aim to the center of the green.

“This is not a pin-seeking golf course, but a very defensive, conservative strategy course,” Clay says. “If you decide to chase pins or play aggressively and you don’t pull the shot off, you will pay a dear price.”

One of the goals of the 2010-11 restoration of No. 2 by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw was to reinstitute the hole perimeters of hardpan sand, wire grass and assorted native vegetation. On most U.S. Open courses, missing a fairway off the tee means the caddie will hand you a wedge to hack your way out of four-inch thick rough. But on No. 2, missing the fairway is a different kettle of fish.

“In the natural areas, you just want to make sure you make contact with the ball first,” Trinchitella says. “If that means putting it back in your stance to promote hitting the ball first, do that. On those shots, it’s not so much about how far you hit it or even your direction. Make clean contact, advance the ball and get it out of trouble.

“Another challenge is playing off pine straw. The biggest thing is you’ve got to get your feet down on the dirt. If you try to hit it and you’re standing on pine needles, you’re going to slide and lose your footing. Get a good foundation.”

Trinchitella and Clay agree that using the putter from off the greens is the safest play.

“I always suggest the two ‘C’ words, which means your most comfortable and confident club,” Clay says. “Don’t come here and try to invent new shots with new clubs, stick to what you like and you do best. If you are familiar and confident with chipping off very tight lies, OK. Otherwise, let’s putt.”

The greens on No. 2 were converted to Champion Bermuda grass in the summer of 2014. There is an art to learning to read the nuances of the grain (i.e., the direction in which the blades lay) and how it will affect the roll of the ball.

Clay likes to take his golfers to the putting green beside the first tee before the round and talk about the grain.

“Anyone who has not played much golf south of the Mason-Dixon line or who only has played on bent or poa annua grass, has no clue how dominant the grain is here,” he says. “I talk to them about how to read a green so they’ll understand better when we get out on the course, and I give them a read they might otherwise have not seen themselves.”

Head golf professional Matt Barksdale has three kernels of advice and reiterates points made by Trinchitella and Clay:

“Hit to the center of the green, don’t worry about the pin,” he says.

“If you’re within 15 to 20 feet of the green, use the putter. Keep it on the ground and get it to the putting surface. Too many hit a chip shot too hard, it rolls into a bunker on the far side and you’re looking at a big number.

“And at some point, you’re going to watch an approach shot that you thought was pretty good roll off the edge. Just embrace it, enjoy it, realize this is Donald Ross’ fairest test of championship golf.”

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.