Playing Pinehurst
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In 1901, Scottish golf professional Donald Ross fell in love while walking in the sandhills of North Carolina. He gazed at the landscape, touched the dry ground and thought of his birthplace. This land was his opportunity to pay homage to the links of Dornoch. It was his chance to design an exceptional course in America.
Six years later, Pinehurst No.2 was finished. “I sincerely believe this course to be the fairest test of championship golf I have ever designed,” Ross stated. The golfing world agreed and Pinehurst No.2 went on to become one of America’s finest layouts. Then something went wrong.
In a bid to stay relevant in the face of big-hitting equipment, the course’s owners slimmed down the fairways and cultivated the rough. On the plus side, it meant that the 1999 and 2005 US Opens were won with scores of 1-under and level par respectively. On the minus side, the spirit of the course had been lost.
It was time to call Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. The leading design duo took a look through the archives, decreed that Pinehurst’s past was its future and set out to recreate Ross’ original test. They widened the fairways, eliminated the rough, exposed some sandy ground, planted native vegetation and re-introduced old tees. It was a project that took 12 months and cost over $2.5 million, but when it was completed in 2011, critics, players and, crucially, the USGA, deemed it to be a resounding success. “The renovation has made Pinehurst No.2 a good bit better,” said USGA Executive Director Mike Davis.
All of which brings us to the 114th US Open. On June 12, the world’s best players will face off against the new ‘old’ Pinehurst No.2 for the first time. With this in mind, we asked a variety of experts what the game’s elite can expect from the celebrated layout. Their replies suggest the week’s going to be a mixture of heaven and hell…
