Design & Build magazine March/April 2015

GreatEscapes
Photos courtesy of Pinehurst Resort
Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina is a
perfect escape for anyone who is a
fan of the golfing and sporting world.
From golf to equestrian pursuits, the
living is easy at Pinehurst. A three-time
U.S. Open Site and winner of Travel +
Leisure Golf Magazine’s Best Golf Resort
in America award, Pinehurst is considered
the “Home of American Golf.”
BLOOMING AZALEAS ARE A SIGNATURE STATEMENT
for Augusta National, but that storied course is not the only
spot in the South where the flowering plant is synonymous
with golf. Along with Carolina blue skies, the fragrant smell
of Pine trees announces the end of winter in the sandhills.
It’s always beautiful in Pinehurst, but spring, with the balmy
weather, flowers, and wind in the pines is exceptionally lovely.
Pinehurst is also a great family destination and one that
many from the Carolina’s consider “the place” to bring their
DESTINATION:
Golf
children to learn the finer art of how to play the game.
Pinehurst was established in 1895 by James W. Tufts, who
purchased 5500 acres to create a health resort in the sandhills
of North Carolina. He retained Frederick Law Olmsted,
esteemed landscape architect who designed New York’s
Central Park, to transform a timbered over landscape into
an idyllic village with winding streets and beautiful open
spaces. By 1898, the original golf course, Pinehurst No 1,
designed by Dr. Leroy Culver and John Dunn Tucker, was
challenging golfers around its 18 holes. Golf’s popularity
was spreading like wildfire in the early 1900s, and Pinehurst
was at the epicenter. “Pinehurst absolutely was the pioneer
in American golf,” Ross said. “While golf had been played
in a few places before Pinehurst was established, it was right
here in these sandhills that the first great national movement
in golf was started. Men came here, took a few golf lessons,
bought a few clubs and went away determined to organize
clubs.”
Pinehurst Resort draws people from around the world to
stay in the storied hotels, play the nine championship golf
courses, including the famed Pinehurst No. 2, (designed by
Ross), relax at the world class spa or just enjoy the peace and
quiet. Around the world, Pinehurst is where the American
golf story is rooted, and it continues to flourish. Most know
of its modern history – with stories like the Payne Stewart
putt that won the 1999 U.S.
“
Pinehurst absolutely
was the pioneer in
American golf. While golf
had been played in a few
places before Pinehurst was
established, it was right here
in these sandhills that the first
great national movement in
golf was started. Men came
here, took a few golf lessons,
bought a few clubs and
went away determined
to organize clubs.
~ Donald Ross
“
Open. But locked within its
archives are thousands of
moments that define each
generation for the past 100
years.
America’s longest continuous
running amateur
championship, the North
and South Amateur was established
in 1901. Players
who have competed and
won this event include Jack
Nicklaus, Curtis Strange
and Davis Love III. In 1940,
Ben Hogan won the North
and South Open at Pinehurst.
It was a landmark victory and considered one of the
greatest moments in Pinehurst history. This opened the
Among its stately monikers, The Carolina Hotel
has been dubbed the “Queen of the South” and
the “White House of Golf.”
interesting facts:
• Sam Snead was a huge fan of
Pinehurst No 2 and counted it
among his top five golf courses.
• Women golfers have always
had a strong presence at
Pinehurst. When the clubhouse
was built in 1898, it included
women’s locker rooms.
• America’s first driving range,
Maniac Hill, was designed by
Donald Ross.
• Famed legend Annie Oakley
gave shooting lessons at Pinehurst,
joining the staff in 1916.
• Bobby Jones described the
resort as “the St. Andrews of
United States golf.” Winner of
the Grand Slam, Bobby Jones is
considered the greatest amateur
to ever play the game.
• Pinehurst is the only site in the
world to have hosted all five
USGA championships. In 2014
Pinehurst hosted both the U.S.
Open and the U.S. Women’s
Open Championships - the first
time in history that both tournaments
were played in the same
year on the same course.
door for Hogan’s career to take off. He went on to become
one of only five players to win a career grand slam: four
U.S. Opens, two Masters, two PGA Championships and one
British Open. (Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack
Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods).
It’s been said that Donald Ross changed the history of
golf in America, bringing what he learned growing up on
the links of Dornoch, Scotland, he made the crowned green
his trademark. He was a detail man who took great patience
to make sure every slope and break met his approval. All
his bunkers looked like they hadn’t been built at all, but
had been made by the hands of nature. There is a seamless,
timeless quality to Donald Ross golf courses that required
very little earth-moving to construct. He spent more time
tweaking Pinehurst No. 2 than any other of his designs, for
the simple reason that Bob Jones selected Alister Mackenzie
over him to design Augusta National.
From Payne Stewart’s legendary putt to win the 1999 US
Open Championship to 2014, when golf history was made
again with the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open Championships
played back-to-back on the same golf course for the
first time ever, Pinehurst continues to delight visitors.
DB Information courtesy of Pinehurst Resort
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