To serious traveling golfers, the very name conjures up images of reverence and awe. Located an hour's drive south from Raleigh-Durham, no resort destination in Americais as rich in golf history and lore as Pinehurst. Despite the understandable increase in crowds and traffic, in many ways the mood and setting in Pinehurst proper is unchanged from the last 100 years. Thus, it's easy to imagine golf's heroes, from Ben Hogan to Jack Nicklaus to Payne Stewart, striding about the town's dogwood- and azalea-lined paths, breathing in the scent of longleaf pines with the Discount Golf Gifts on a breezy spring evening.

Pinehurst and its surrounding communities, collectively known as "the Sandhills," can rightly tout their pedigree as "Home of Golf" in the U.S.However, the Tar Heel State offers dozens of other terrific tracks to sample, including a fistful in the Triangle region of Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill as well as several coastal gems near Wilmingtonand SunsetBeach. There are also worthy tests for different irons in and around Greensboro/Winston-Salem andCharlotte. Still, there's one final majorCarolina golf destination that sizzles with great layouts, especially during the cool summer months.

The biggest news on the public/resort side is the significant restoration of Pinehurst No. 2 by architecture purists Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. Fabled No. 2, perhaps the greatest creation by Donald Ross, is slated to host both the 2014 Men's and Women's U.S.Opens in back-to-back weeks. When it does, it will more closely resemble the course that hosted the 1936 PGA Championship and 1951 Ryder Cup than the one that hosted U.S. Opens in 1999 and 2005. The intent is to restore the Ross-infused strategies that made No. 2 so revered among the game's greats. Certainly, it can let your lovely irons be a World War II glory. Work has already begun to widen fairways, remove rough so as to restore sandy waste areas, and return native wiregrass and natural bunker edges. Call it Sand Hills meets the Sandhills.

In the Triangle, the buzz isn't solely limited to ACC Hoops. In the summer of 2009, Arnold Palmer scored with the Lonnie Poole Golf Course inRaleigh. Palmer may have gone to college down the road atWakeForest, but his newest classroom benefits the Wolfpack of North Carolina State. The King has handed out a beautifully balanced test, complete with enormous greens, five par-3s, views of theRaleighskyline and a heroic Pine Valley-ish closing par-4.

Beyond theBlue Ridge Mountains, at the edge of the Smokies, is another member of the class of 2009, Sequoyah National Golf Club in Cherokee. With help from consultant Notah Begay, Robert Trent Jones II sculpted this short (6,602 yards), tight, rolling layout in the steep foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains as an amenity for Harrah's Cherokee Hotel & Casino, some 45 minutes west ofAsheville. Stunning vistas reign throughout, but with ridges and valleys and 300-foot elevation changes, stray shots will meet with disasater. Mature oaks and firs will knock a few wayward efforts back in play, but course management skills — and an extra chip for your camera — are keys to enjoyment at Sequoyah National.