Some golf courses are built to solve a problem, and Mid Pines began that way. After the First World War, Pinehurst was overrun with visitors, and those who loved it went looking for breathing room. Its beginnings belong both to the Tufts family and to a circle of Pinehurst regulars who wanted a private club with lodging, somewhere a little apart. They found it about five miles east of Pinehurst, just north of Southern Pines, on 5,000 sandy, undeveloped acres. They gave the ground to Donald Ross, the man who had laid out Pinehurst's first four courses. Ross scouted that expanse and chose an attractive valley. He drew up plans for 36 holes, though only one 18 was ever built. It opened in 1921 to strong praise, and seven years later its sibling, Pine Needles, another Ross course, appeared across Midland Road. What sets Mid Pines apart from its famous neighbor is the land itself. Pinehurst's ground is subtle. Here the property rolls and varies, and perhaps the terrain inspired Ross, because he produced one of his finest routings. It moves nimbly between high ground and low, handing the player uphill shots, downhill shots, sidehill shots, and shots from one ridge to the next. The land is the main source of the challenge. To score well, you stand over a ball on an uneven lie and still have to hit a precise approach. The 4th shows the idea in miniature. It is only 330 yards and climbs uphill to a green that falls away sharply on its right. The 12th bends left over 380 yards, and the 17th bends right over 391, as though the course wants you to shape the ball both ways before it lets you go home. Then comes the 411-yard 18th. Behind its green stands the Mid Pines Inn, which also opened in 1921. New York architect Aymar Embury II designed the Georgian building, and it makes a handsome backdrop for Ross's final green. The course has not always been treated so well. During the Second World War, Mid Pines served as a military base. When it reopened in 1944, the inn was in disrepair and the course had grown over with hay and wild grapes. The owner, Durham-based Homeland Investment Company, appointed Frank and Marie Cosgrove to manage the place, and over the next three decades they nursed it back to health. In 1953 they joined Julius Boros, Mid Pines' head professional, and Peggy Kirk Bell to buy Pine Needles next door. That line of ownership still holds. Bell's son-in-law, Kelly Miller, oversees both clubs, along with nearby Southern Pines Golf Club, which the family bought in 2020. Over time, though, Ross's design became hidden beneath overgrown trees and lush turf. In 2013, Miller hired Kyle Franz, a former shaper for Tom Doak, Gil Hanse, and Kyle Phillips, who had also served as an associate on Coore & Crenshaw's 2011 restoration of Pinehurst No. 2. Franz had little experience as a lead architect, but he was well connected and brought a remarkable crew, among them George Waters, Kye Goalby, Dan Proctor, Jonathan Reisetter, Brian Caesar, Norbert Painter, Jeff Stein, Zach Varty, and Jose Avila. Working from a 1939 aerial photograph, they reinstated the waste areas, expanded fairways and greens to their former dimensions, and cleared some obtrusive trees. The restoration established Franz as an architect in his own right, and it restored Mid Pines to its place among the finest courses in the Pinehurst area. A century on, there is plenty of authentic Ross to be found here again, and the inn still stands behind the last green, waiting for the walk home.