0

Pinehurst: A Small, Ironic World of Golf

by Jeff Skinner

us open logo 14For such a small community, the village of Pinehurst has had an immense impact on golf in America. The epicenter of course is Pinehurst Resort and Country Club and its championship course, No.2.

The resort is a huge place with eight, now wait, cancel that, nine golf courses as they just bought another Sandhills tract to add to their inventory of courses. There are many courses in and around Pinehurst and it is a bit of golf heaven.

It’s been called a golf Mecca, the home of American golf and the St. Andrews of the United States. Whatever you call it Pinehurst is a little place with a big impact on the American golf landscape.

It all started in Pinehurst when James Walker Tufts who made his money in soda fountains built a resort and decided golf would be its main attraction.

Now, we hear all these names associated with Pinehurst No.2: Tufts, Bill Coore, Donald Ross, Pete Dye…wait Pete Dye? Yes, this is where this big, little resort course’s story gets interesting and a little ironic.

In 1900 Mr. Tufts brought in Donald Ross to build a course and for the next forty years Ross preened over his design. Ross died in 1948 but not before a young U.S. Army infantryman made his acquaintance sometime around 1945.

That infantryman had the best duty in the Army, he was in charge of maintaining the course at the Army’s base pinehurst resortat Fort Bragg, just down the road from Pinehurst. That infantryman played Pinehurst and No.2 many times. His name: Pete Dye.

Now, Dye says he had no inkling that he would ever design courses back then but we all know how that turned out. Dye is one of the most famous and prolific designers of his time.

When the folks at Pinehurst decided to go back to the future, if you will, with a restoration of No.2 they had their choices of eager architects. But when they talked to Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw they knew they found their team. Crenshaw is known as a true historian of the game and Coore, well his designs with Ben have been nothing but phenomenal and with a very strong sense of old school, classic course designs.

You see Coore is a North Carolina boy who grew up some fifty miles from Pinehurst and would play No.2 all day for $5 back in the 60’s.

When Coore began his career in golf course architecture he started with none other than that old infantryman, Pete Dye.

So here is Coore and his partner Crenshaw back on the course he knew as a youth, restoring it to the way Ross had envisioned it. I guess it is a small world after all.

But here is the bit of irony that came with Pinehurst’s return to the past.

Back in the fifties the USGA was going through a transformation. They reached an agreement with the Royal & Ancient to manage the rules of golf together and it was then that they truly started setting up the U.S. Open the way it was played for the next sixty plus years.

In came the narrow fairways along with the deep, punishing rough. The greens were kept as fast as possible and the U.S. Open became the toughest championship in golf.

The man who was responsible for the transformation of the USGA and its premier event was Richard Tufts. Tufts served as USGA President from 56-57 and just happens to be the grandson of James Tufts, yes the original owner of Pinehurst.

Ironic isn’t it. The restoration has brought back No.2 to what Grandpa Tufts had signed up for but they were actually undoing the work that his grandson had done for decades. And it was all done by a few boys with some serious Sandhills ties.

It is a small world here in Pinehurst with a smidgen of irony but its place in golf history is huge.

 

Share

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.