Tee times now available at tobaccoroadgolf.com
SANFORD, North Carolina – The Matchbox, one of golf’s most-anticipated and unconventional short courses opens August 1 at the famed Tobacco Road. Guests can now book tee times for August through December 2026 at TobaccoRoadGolf.com.
Twenty-eight years after Mike Strantz carved Tobacco Road into North Carolina’s Sandhills with his signature artistic flair, The Matchbox features a unique collection of 12 holes winding through trees and around a picturesque pond.
With holes ranging from 40 to 105 yards – and many playing under the tree canopy – The Matchbox was constructed using synthetic turf blended into the natural landscape. The result is a visually striking golf experience that brings fun and challenging shots into play.
“This is a special piece of property as it contains spoils shaped during construction nearly 30 years ago,” said Mark Stewart, whose family opened Tobacco Road in November 1998. “The more I’ve walked around this corner of the property through the decades, the more obvious it became that a unique golf experience could be revealed — and we’re excited to share it with Sandhills travelers.
“Utilizing synthetic turf enables us to deliver consistent playing conditions while maximizing the shade of the existing tree canopy.”
Located near the 12th and 13th fairways of Tobacco Road’s 18-hole layout, The Matchbox was built in just six months requiring no irrigation nor mass clear-cutting trees. The project is a design partnership with Carlton/Marshall Golf Design and Mark White. Justin Carlton trained under White, one of the original Tobacco Road shapers who learned his craft under Strantz.
“There’s a direct line from our past to the present — and we believe The Matchbox will become a must-play experience in its own right,” added Stewart.
“Mike Strantz was a master of scale,” said Lee Marshall of Carlton/Marshall Golf Design. “Having Mark White on the project provides an experienced knowledge of Strantz’ vision that we’re incorporating into our design.”
Multiple holes of The Matchbox play along and over a pond that few fans of Tobacco Road even know existed.
“During the design process for Tobacco Road, we talked about Mike building a par 3 over that pond, but it didn’t make the final routing,” Stewart recalls. “Now we have the opportunity to bring that bit of drama back into play in a different way.”
Additional highlights of The Matchbox include hole three which requires an 80-yard blind shot from one of the tee boxes, hole seven with a 60-yard shot over a cove, and hole 9 that plays through two large mounds and was inspired by the famed opening hole on Tobacco Road.
“The overall concept is to keep it fun with bold features and heroic shot values but also provide a short-game challenge for those who really want to test their wedge game,” added Marshall. “While the longest yardage was dictated for some to play with only one club and a putter, we are creating an amenity unrestricted by that thought process alone. The contours on the greens will focus more on shot selection depending on the type of shot the player decides to execute (high shot with spin at the pin or low shot to feed the ball toward the hole).
“This will provide a different experience each time the course is played, even without moving the pins to alternate locations.”
For more information on Tobacco Road Golf Club and The Matchbox, visit https://tobaccoroadgolf.com.