Golf Digest's "Best Places to Play" Ratings - 2006

The Golf Digest star rating for golf courses provides the most comprehensive information on public access golf courses, helping compare golf destinations and courses. Golf Digest conducts the only objective, comprehensive survey of golfers in creating this biannual rating. It is the standard by which public access courses are judged.

For the 2006 edition, 29 of the Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen Area's 44 courses were rated. Those that weren't did not receive enough ballots because the course was either too new or it was a private or semi-private course.

In 2006, only 17 U.S. courses garnered the coveted 5-star rating. Pinehurst No. 2 has achieved this distinction since these ratings began in 1992 and is the only course in NC to be designated with the 5-star rating.

Twenty-eight of the 29 courses in the Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen Area (97%) were rated 3 stars or greater. Based on the 2006 edition, no other U.S. mainland golf destination offering 25 or more rated courses can claim this high a percentage. Seventeen golf courses in the area were rated 4-star or better (59%) - again the top U.S. destination with 25 or more courses.

The cumulative rating for the destination - 3.8 - designates North Carolina's Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen Area as one of the top three, highest aggregate rating of any U.S. golf destination offering 25 courses or more.

And the golf quality in the Sandhills is only getting better as 2 courses in the area saw their rating improve by a half star or more between 2004 and 2006. Now is a great time to visit and enjoy NC golf.