Play Pinehurst No. 2 Online, Free
Pinehurst No. 2 is the crown jewel of American golf course design. Donald Ross spent a lifetime perfecting this course in the Sandhills of North Carolina, creating greens so clever and fairways so demanding that the USGA has returned again and again to host its most important championships here. Now you can play 13 holes of this legendary course free in your browser, built from real geographic data. No downloads, no sign-ups.
Click here to play Pinehurst No. 2 now
History and Setting
Pinehurst No. 2 was designed by Donald Ross, a Scottish-born golf professional who arrived at Pinehurst Resort in 1900 and spent the next 48 years refining the course until his death in 1948. Ross emigrated from Dornoch in the Scottish Highlands, and he brought with him a philosophy of golf design rooted in the links courses of his homeland — firm, fast playing surfaces that reward the ground game and punish imprecision. The course opened in 1907, but Ross continued to reshape and tinker with the greens and bunkering for the rest of his life. No. 2 is his masterpiece and the most important example of his design philosophy in existence.
In 2011, the course underwent a landmark restoration by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore that stripped away decades of rough and returned the sandy, wiregrass-covered waste areas that Ross originally intended. The restored Pinehurst No. 2 plays as a firm, sandy canvas where the ball rolls and bounces rather than stopping dead. The USGA has hosted the U.S. Open at Pinehurst in 1999, 2005, and 2014 — and in 2014, it hosted both the men's and women's U.S. Opens in consecutive weeks, the first time the two events shared a venue. Pinehurst will host the U.S. Open again in 2029 and 2041.
The Scorecard, Measured From Map Data
These are measurements, not quotations. Pinehurst No. 2 here comprises 13 holes at par 53 with 54 bunkers, every figure derived from the course geometry itself.
Direct distance means the straight line from tee marker to pin. On a dogleg that is shorter than the route you would actually walk, so treat it as the carry the hole asks of you, not a card yardage.
| Hole | Par | Direct distance | Bunkers | Water | Green |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 398 yd | 3 | 0 | 741 yd² |
| 2 | 4 | 474 yd | 6 | 0 | 756 yd² |
| 3 | 4 | 378 yd | 5 | 0 | 684 yd² |
| 4 | 4 | 498 yd | 4 | 0 | — |
| 5 | 5 | 565 yd | 5 | 0 | 735 yd² |
| 6 | 3 | 207 yd | 2 | 0 | 788 yd² |
| 7 | 4 | 351 yd | 7 | 0 | 762 yd² |
| 8 | 5 | 484 yd | 5 | 0 | 676 yd² |
| 9 | 3 | 161 yd | 3 | 0 | 650 yd² |
| 10 | 5 | 613 yd | 0 | 0 | — |
| 16 | 5 | 521 yd | 8 | 1 | 609 yd² |
| 17 | 3 | 202 yd | 3 | 0 | 666 yd² |
| 18 | 4 | 442 yd | 3 | 0 | — |
| Total | 53 | 5294 yd | 54 | 1 | — |
Every Hole, Drawn From Map Data
All 13 holes are plotted below from the same polygons the 3D course is built from. Fairway is green, putting surface pale, bunkers sand, water blue. Each hole is turned so the tee is at the bottom and the pin at the top, which makes the doglegs easy to read against one another.
Water is in play on 1 of the 13 hole here.
How We Mapped This Course
This layout is machine-converted from OpenStreetMap rather than traced from photographs. For Pinehurst No. 2 that produced 13 holes with 54 bunkers and 1 water hazards.
Because the source is surveyed rather than stylised, hazard edges come out irregular. See about the project for the conversion pipeline and its limits.
Course data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence.
Layout and Measurement Notes
Which hole plays longest?
Hole 10 is the longest at 613 yards tee to pin (par 5), and hole 9 the shortest at 161 yards (par 3). That is a spread of 452 yards across the layout.
Which hole has the most bunkers?
Hole 16, with 8 separate bunkers on it. The layout carries 54 in total across 13 holes, an average of 4.2 per hole, and each is drawn as its own traced outline rather than a generic circle.
What size are the putting surfaces?
The average mapped putting surface measures roughly 707 square yards. The largest belongs to hole 6 at about 788 square yards.
Why 13 holes rather than 18?
Mapping coverage of Pinehurst No. 2 is uneven, so we include holes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18 — those where a green and a tee could be paired reliably. The rest are omitted rather than filled in with invented geometry, so what you play corresponds to real mapped ground.
Do these distances match the published card?
No. They are straight-line tee-to-pin measurements taken from our own geometry — the distance the game asks you to cover. A real card measures along the intended line of play, so published numbers for Pinehurst No. 2 will read longer wherever a hole doglegs.
Standout Holes
The 2nd, Par 4. A medium-length par 4 with one of Ross's most famous green complexes. The green is severely crowned — a classic turtle-back — with fall-off areas on every side. Finding the correct quadrant of the green is the only way to make birdie.
The 4th, Par 4. A demanding par 4 that bends slightly right through the longleaf pines. The approach is to a narrow, elevated green with deep collection areas on both sides. Missing this green leaves one of the hardest up-and-downs on the course.
The 5th, Par 5. The longest hole on the course and a true three-shot par 5. The fairway winds through towering pines, and the green is protected by Ross's characteristic bunkering and a crowned putting surface that sheds wayward approaches into sandy waste areas.
The 18th, Par 4. Payne Stewart sank a 15-foot par putt on this green to win the 1999 U.S. Open, one of the most iconic moments in championship golf history. Stewart's fist pump on the final green is immortalized in a bronze statue that stands near the 18th green today.
Where Scores Go Wrong
- Turtle-back greens. Ross's crowned greens are the defining feature of No. 2. The putting surfaces are domed so that balls landing even slightly off-center roll off the edges into collection areas. Approach shots must land on the correct tier or face a difficult recovery.
- Sandy waste areas. After the 2011 Crenshaw-Coore restoration, the rough was replaced by native sandy wiregrass. These waste areas are not maintained like bunkers and create unpredictable lies.
- No water, no gimmicks. Pinehurst No. 2 has virtually no water hazards. The difficulty comes entirely from the greens, the bunkering, and the demand for precise iron play. It is a thinking player's course.
- Recovery shots. Missing a green at Pinehurst leaves a short-game test unlike any other course. The ball often rolls 20 to 30 yards from the green into sandy hollows, requiring creativity and touch to get up and down.
- Firm, fast conditions. The Sandhills soil drains quickly, and the course plays firm. Shots that work at softer courses bounce and roll past targets here.
How to Play
Drag backward from the ball in the direction opposite where you want to send it — like pulling back a slingshot. The farther you drag, the more power you apply. A trajectory arc previews your shot while you aim. Works on desktop (click and drag) and mobile (touch and drag).
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I play Pinehurst No. 2 online for free?
Yes. This page hosts a free, browser-based version of Pinehurst No. 2 with 13 playable holes. There is no download, no sign-up, and no payment required. Click the Play button at the top of this page to start.
Is this the official US Open or Pinehurst golf game?
No. Let's Golf Online is an independent fan project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Pinehurst Resort, the USGA, or any professional golf organization. The real-world course reference is used descriptively to identify the course we have recreated. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
Who designed Pinehurst No. 2?
Pinehurst No. 2 was designed by Donald Ross, a Scottish-born golf course architect who emigrated to the United States in 1899. Ross arrived at Pinehurst as the resort's first golf professional and spent nearly five decades refining No. 2 until his death in 1948. The course is considered his greatest work and the finest example of his design philosophy.
What are turtle-back greens?
Turtle-back greens are putting surfaces that are crowned or domed in the center, causing balls to roll off the edges like water off a turtle's shell. This was Donald Ross's signature at Pinehurst No. 2. They demand approach shots that land on the correct section of the green — anything slightly off target rolls into collection areas, leaving difficult recovery shots.
What happened at the 1999 US Open at Pinehurst?
Payne Stewart won the 1999 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 by sinking a dramatic 15-foot par putt on the 72nd hole to beat Phil Mickelson by one stroke. Stewart's fist pump on the final green became one of the most iconic images in golf. Tragically, Stewart died in a plane crash just four months later, and a bronze statue of his final putt celebration now stands near the 18th green at Pinehurst.