Donald Ross spent most of the last decades of his life living and working on golf course architecture in the Pinehurst area. When he wasn’t busy fiddling with Pinehurst No. 2, he took time to sketch out designs for other golf courses in the area. One of these was the course behind the Georgian-styled Mid Pines Inn, once one of the grand old hotels in this winter resort area. The course bears all the stamps Ross was famous for: tiny crowned greens, long par three’s, short par fours and a natural, unforced routing through the piney woods. You will encounter many Rossian challenges during the round. The short par-four 4th hole, for instance, requires just a flip wedge after a good drive. But woe to the golfer who lets the ball get above the hole on the steeply pitched green. The green on the 7th, another apparently straightforward par four, is dramatically undulating, so getting down in two is always a challenge. And just reaching the par three, 213-yard 13th, requires both length and precision. It’s typical Ross. Don’t be fooled by the 6,500-yard length of this course. Every shot must be precise and thought out if the card is going to turn out well. The old-fashioned Inn itself, now updated and modernized, still sends one back in time to an age when guests arrived by train, with steamer trunks and servants, as well as their bristling array of hickory-shafted weapons.