The Tarheel Golf Foundation is holding the inaugural 54-hole CCNC Amateur, its collegiate/amateur tournament, at the Country Club of North Carolina Tuesday through Thursday.

The top 12 players after the three rounds will qualify for the Pinehurst Winter Amateur Shootout to be staged on Pinehurst’s Resort’s No. 2 Course on Friday.

All three rounds of the qualifier will be played on CCNC’s Dogwood Course, one of the most highly ranked layouts in the state. The Dogwood Course has hosted several CGA and USGA events, including the 1980 U.S. Amateur, the U.S. Girls’ Championship and six Southern Amateurs.

The Dogwood has a course rating of 74.9, assuring the players of a challenge.

Mike Hicks, the caddie for the late Payne Stewart when he won the U.S. Open on the No. 2 Course in 1999, will carry the bag for the medalist in the qualifier at CCNC.

The No. 2 Course, which is home to the prestigious North and South Amateur and which has hosted numerous PGA and USGA events, including two U.S. Open Champions and the 2008 U.S. Amateur, recently underwent a major restoration project by the architectural firm of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.

The restoration, which returned the course to its original Donald Ross design, has drawn rave reviews internationally.

Ranked the No. 1 course in North Carolina and one of the best in the world, Pinehurst No. 2 has served as the site of more single golf championships than any other course in America. Its reputation will be further enhanced in 2014 when it hosts both the Men’s and Women’s U.S. Open in consecutive weeks.

There is no cut in the CCNC Amateur and several of the players are taking advantage of private housing on the host course.

Among local players entered are Robert Hoadley, Patrick Barrett, current Moore County Amateur champion Joshua Stockwell, Dylan Harris and Jason Cox.

Ties among the 12 players advancing to Pinehurst No. 2 will be decided by on-course playoffs beginning on either the first or the 18th holes.