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Winter Wonderland

These photos of Pinehurst covered in snow are proof that nowhere is safe from the icy grips of winter

January 24, 2022

Winter is a four-letter word we can’t type here. The sun goes down at 3 p.m. Popping out for a gallon of milk becomes an episode of ‘Man vs. Wild.’ You snow blow your driveway, shovel the sidewalk, scrape the windshield, and then slip and tear a meniscus going up the front steps. Worst of all, it means no golf, at least in the northern half of this great golf continent. For years, seasonal players have slept easy in the knowledge that no matter the weather outside, they were a mere plane ride from emerald Poa and non-temp greens. If the photos rolling in from Pinehurst this weekend are any indication, however, perhaps even that is in jeopardy.

That was the scene at the North Carolina golf mecca this weekend after a rare winter storm slammed the region. Northeast North Carolina was hit hardest by the system, which dumped up to eight inches on the area, caused a Delta airlines flight at Raleigh-Durham International to skid off the runway, and had state troopers scrambling to respond to over 900 reported accidents.

Of course, you wouldn’t have known it to look out across the ivory expanse of Pinehurst No. 2—Golf Digest’s 29th-best track in America, for what it's worth—on Saturday morning. Sure, tee times were a pipe dream, but even the frostiest winter hater has to admit it looked kind of nice … for a couple of hours at least.