Golfweek’s Visit to Dormie Club, Explore the Trip Recap
By Jason Lusk • Golfweek • July 13, 2026
Jason Lusk, Travel Editor at Golfweek and Gabe Gudgel recently visited Dormie Club. Read about their experience, then watch the video recap.
Slide into the Sandhills with ease at Dormie Club in North Carolina
WEST END, N.C. – One of the best phrases in golf? “We had the entire place to ourselves.”
Nobody in front to slow you down. No singles zipping up behind, staring at you through a rangefinder, waiting to be waved through. Just fairway after fairway to yourself. Play at your own pace and focus on your own game. Glorious.
Golfweek’s Gabe Gudgel and I experienced it for ourselves at Dormie Club, just a few miles northwest of Pinehurst. Part of Dormie Network – a collection of seven clubs stretched from Texas up to Nebraska and over to New Jersey – the Dormie Club brings an incredibly relaxed vibe to the Carolina Sandhills. It started in the Dormie Club’s parking lot, from which our bags were whisked to a luxurious four-bedroom cottage stocked with everything from drinks and cigars to energy drinks and a jar of bitesize Bit-O-Honey candies. We had a tee time in 30 minutes but there was no rush, just well-rehearsed organization that led us through the well-stocked pro shop, into the adjacent restaurant for a quick hydration break, then onto a range we had all to ourselves on this late-May afternoon. Twenty swings later, we headed to the main attraction.
All the slick service in the world cannot hide a golf course lacking in character. No worries of that here, as Gudgel and I had the first tee all to ourselves and our caddie, John. The course laid out before us was designed by the famed team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and ranks among the top 12 private clubs in North Carolina and the top 200 modern courses in the United States.
Sure, the bag drop experience was great, as far as such things go and much better than at so many bustling destinations these days that might feel a bit like a factory. But the golf course was even better, and with two nights booked in that cottage overlooking the fourth fairway, the trajectory of this trip just kept rising from that first tee.
That’s the goal of Dormie Network. To allow players to do what they want, when they want, all at a reasonable pace. To wow with what comes across to members and guests as simple efficiency, then stun with days of interesting golf. To make a foursome feel like the only people on the entire golf course. To offer a prime table for dinner. To provide a cool drink on the 18th green before it is even requested. To make every single thing effortless, a whole trip seamless. I’ve experienced it at other Dormie Network clubs as well, but the staff members at Dormie Club were on their game.
“As much as we can cater to make people happy,” said Brandon Kammerer, the hospitality manager at Dormie Club, “our goal is just to see you smile.”
The golf course at Dormie Club
It definitely was all grins for Gudgel and me as we lobbed birdies and bogeys at each other across the front nine, which starts with a series of five strong par 4s. Coore and Crenshaw’s creation, which was built in 2010 and acquired by Dormie Network in 2017, checks all the boxes for great Sandhills golf. Firm conditions, rolling ground, an exposed and natural aesthetic, and fun shot after fun shot keep first-time players wondering what interesting hole is around the next corner through the pines.
Coore and Crenshaw are masters at what has come to be known by many as minimalist design. Coore has better described it as trying to make a course fit into its natural environment without artificial features. At Dormie Club, the design duo had a beautiful 1,000-acre canvas on which to work, with rolling and sandy hills that allow a ball to bounce and roll after it lands.
The bent grass greens are the stars of the show. Often low and open at their fronts, the putting surfaces tend to increase in severity and interest as they stretch from front to back. The runoffs to the sides and bunkering also frequently increase from front to back, challenging players who want to attack pins set deeper into the greens.
Watch the full video recap here. It features insights from Jason Lusk, Travel Editor for Golfweek, “Service at Dormie Network is a big part of the program,” says Lusk. “From the moment you pull up at the cart attendant to the moment that you leave when they take your bags out of the cabin for you, everything is curated to make this an effortless, easy experience,” says Lusk.
Throughout the video, Lusk highlights the details that left the biggest impression—from receiving a One Iron as he walked off the 18th green to the 15-minute tee times. “It really does feel like you’re the most special person on the golf course and that you have it entirely to yourself,” says Lusk.
The video also features insights from Dormie Club Head Golf Professional Kalan Fread and Dormie Club Hospitality Manager Brandon Kammerer about the experience.
Lusk closes with a recommendation for golfers seeking exceptional private golf travel: “If you’re interested in playing some of the greatest private clubs in the eastern United States, you got to give Dormie Network a try.”
Read the full article published by Golfweek on July 13, 2026.
