Tobacco Road: A Truly Unique Golf Adventure By Brian Weis

Tobacco Road: A Truly Unique Golf Adventure

By Brian Weis

If you are planning a golf excursion to the Home of American Golf, scheduling a round at Tobacco Road Golf Club is something you need to seriously consider. The Mike Strantz design is truly unique, one of a kind and unlike any other golf course you will ever play. Strantz was a rare breed of designer and a Tom Fazio disciple who was only able to design a few, but highly touted golf courses before passing way too young from cancer at the age of 50 years old. In 2000, Golfweek named him one of the Top 10 Greatest Golf Course Architects of All-Time.

From the very first shot on Hole #1, Tobacco Road gets your attention. The drive demands accuracy as two massive and heavily grassed mounds at least 60-feet high guard either side of the narrow fairway. The shot is like driving the ball through the eye of a needle. Fortunately, the hole is a par 5, so if your opening shot is not the best, you can still scramble for a par and make your way to the next hole.

If you are playing with others who have not played the course, do yourself a favor and get a yardage book for the course. The course mapping will give you an idea where to hit your drives and subsequent shots because Tobacco Road has several blind shots off the tee and on some approaches.

Overall, Tobacco Road is visually stunning, so be sure to take a lot of pictures. Early morning and late afternoon rounds are great because the shadows created by the low angle of the sun really accentuates the natural contours, massive waste bunkers and rolling fairways and greens. Play the course with an open mind as it is atypical of the traditional courses in the Pinehurst area, many designed by Donald Ross. You will either love it, or loathe it, but you will never forget it!

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Revised: 03/11/2020 - Article Viewed 17,639 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.