Tobacco Road Golf Club

Getting To Know: Tobacco Road Golf Club

An Insightful Interview With Joe Gay, Director of Golf

By Brian Weis

Whether you have played a course 20+ times a year or looking to play the course for the first time, insights from an insider can help enhance your golf experience. Below is an interview with Joe Gay who shares some valuable tidbits about the course, memorable holes and must eats and treats at the 19th.

Give Our Readers An Overview of the Golf Course/Property
Tobacco Road is a nationally ranked thrill ride of a golf course that is built in an abandon sand quarry by the late Mike Strantz. Using the sand features left by 50 years of excavating, Strantz strategically moves you through and over sand formations during this artistic journey.

If Someone Was Looking To Golf In The Area, Why Should They Play Your Course?
Every destination claims to have a "must play" course. In the golf rich, historic Village of Pinehurst Area, there are many courses that you should play but only one course you have to play. Tobacco Road is "that" course!

What Tips or Local Knowledge Would You Provide To Help Them Score Better At Your Course?
The architect at Tobacco Road certainly used intimidation to challenge the golfer. Know your limitations and keep the ball in front of you. Don't hesitate to give up distance off the tee by hitting a fairway metal or hybrid club to hit the fairways. Distance is not a premium, accuracy is.

Recent Awards or What You Are Most Proud About The Course?
Tobacco Road is two for two in arguably the two biggest ratings lists: Top 100 places to play in America in Golf Digest & Golf Magazine.

What Is The Signature, Most Talked About, or Most Photographed Hole?
There are truly 18 of them..........but if I were pressed on the subject, I'd say the 18th has it all: Tee shot overlooking massive sand pit, lush fairway flanked on both sides by love grass covered bluffs, semi-blind approach into multi-tiered green set into embankment.

What Is Your Favorite Hole? Any Tips to Play It?
My personal favorite is the 16th. To me, it summarizes the whole course. It is visually stunning, it looks impossible, yet it yields more birdies than one would expect.

Must Have Dish or Drink after the round at the 19th Hole?
Can you not have both? You're in the South and our pork BBQ is second to none. Yes, you need to eat it with slaw! The beer is cold and tends to calm the nerves.

Who Holds Course Record and What Was Their Score?
The late Vance Heafner, PGA tour player from the 1980's shot 61. He was a 4 time NCAA All-American collegiate golfer 40 miles up the road at NC State University.

Back Tee Stats
Par: 71
Yardage: 6532
Slope: 144
Rating: 71.7

More Information
Tobacco Road Golf Club
442 Tobacco Road
Sanford, NC, 27332
877-284-3762
www.TobaccoRoadGolf.com

Revised: 07/21/2013 - Article Viewed 37,847 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.