More on the Resort and the Area

Golfers find more courses and spicier nightlife in Myrtle Beach, and the coastal gems of North and South Carolina offer an abundance of charm and character. The Eastern Seaboard of the United States, in fact, boasts some sensational pockets of resort golf. But nothing compares to Pinehurst for tradition, history, relaxation, ambiance and the quality of golf. Pinehurst is a haven for those among us who love and respect pure golf and who want to retreat from the pressures and hassles of city life.

It's not easy to get to Pinehurst. The area is at least 1½ hours by car from North Carolina's urban areas, and the journey is mostly along country roads. Pinehurst's airport can only handle commuter planes and the smallest of jets. And yet despite the relative inconvenience of getting there, golfers from all over the world flock to Pinehurst--which says a great deal about the quality of its resorts and courses.

The epicenter of the Pinehurst area is the Pinehurst Resort and Country Club, 100-plus years old and the area's most important landmark. Its eight courses are all superb, and the famed Pinehurst #2 is usually rated as one of the 10 best in the world. In 1999, it hosted one of the best U.S. Opens ever, with the late Payne Stewart holing a number of difficult and dramatic putts--including a gut-wrenching 12-footer on the 18th green--to snatch the tournament from Phil Mickelson. The event was such a smashing success that the United States Golf Association has already announced that the country's Open Championship will be returning to Pinehurst in 2005--a quick repeat performance indeed.

Perhaps the most important celebrity in Pinehurst is Donald Ross, universally acknowledged as one of the greatest and most influential golf course architects in the history of the game. After leaving Scotland in the early 1900s, Ross settled in Pinehurst where he lived until his death in 1948. His legacy lives on strongly in the Sandhills, where locals and visitors revere his courses and personality.

Ross loved the Pinehurst area because he adored the rolling topography and the sandy soil, both of which reminded him of Royal Dornoch, his home course in northern Scotland. The Sandhills provide perfect land for golf courses, easily workable while providing excellent drainage and pristine scenery. Tom Fazio, Gene Hamm, Robert Trent Jones, Ellis Maples, Dan Maples, Tom Jackson, Ed Seay and Jack Nicklaus are a few of the well-known architects whose work is enjoyed in and around the area.

Pinehurst is also the home of tournament golf in the United States. Every course boasts a history of competition ranging from the North Carolina Dentist's Four-Ball to the Ryder Cup and U.S. Open. The list of champions reads like a Who's Who of golf and includes the likes of Watson, Irwin, Nicklaus, Palmer, Stewart, and Hogan.

The 1999 U.S. Open wasn't the first tournament awarded to the area by the United States Golf Association. Pine Needles hosted the 1996 U.S. Women's Open and will hold the tournament again in 2001.

In 2000, Legacy, another fine course in the Pinehurst area, will host the U.S. Women's Public Links. But the grandaddy of all the tournaments in Pinehurst must be the North and South Amateur, played each spring on Pinehurst #2. There are categories for men, women, men's seniors, juniors, and women's seniors. After the national championships, the North and South is probably the most important amateur tournament in the country.

Something else that makes the Pinehurst area so special is that just about every course is accessible to the public in one way or another. Out of the approximately 35 courses within 30 minutes of the traffic circle at the junction of U.S. highways 211 and 15/501, all but three or four are open to the public golfer. Some are more public than others--in other words, some courses are resort-oriented and your chances of getting a choice tee time at a famous track are better if you're staying in a room that's just a few feet from the first tee. But there's always a way to get on a chosen course should you be willing to ask around.

The key to getting on the course you desire is getting to know the professional staff at a local club or, better still, at the resort where you're based. In the Pinehurst area, everyone knows each other. The pro at resort #1 knows the pro at resort #3, who can get a tee time at #3 because he knows the guy in the starting tower who, in turn, plays golf with the guy who used to caddie on tour for the friend of the pro at course #4, where the greenskeeper is friendly with the bartender at bar A, which also happens to be Wayne Gretzky's favorite watering hole when he's down with family, friends and Mark Messier for a week of 36 holes a day. Ask around and you'll be amazed at what you can organize.

A lot of young and aspiring professional golfers come to Pinehurst to work, teach and hone their games for what they hope will be a life of professional golf on the big boys' tour. There are plenty of professionals and directors of golf whose knowledge and skills are excellent. What better place to be a professional than in Pinehurst, the capital of the golfing world?

The first major "in-season" period begins at the end of February and extends through late May and early June. You'll find plenty of fine sunny days with perfect temperatures interspersed with a few days of rain and gloom. The summer months are primarily quiet on most of the courses. The intensity of the summer heat and humidity makes golf a chore, and the frequent late-day thunderstorms render it dangerous and wet. In deep summer the fairways are excellent, but the greens will be slow as the greenskeepers fight to save them from death by heat by raising the blades on the greens mowers. Fall brings a second season: You'll find the greens back to championship speed and the courses filling up. The fall season ends around Thanksgiving. Winter is somewhat dead, but the courses are usually playable and the rates can be at their lowest. There can be plenty of wonderful and comfortable days in the winter season, and most area courses offer outstanding rates.

Even though the price of golf in Pinehurst has increased significantly in the past few years, there's still a course for nearly every budget. Inexpensive but comfortable lodging options abound, and if you're eating on a budget, Ronald McDonald has a secure presence here. You can spend a fortune in Pinehurst and feast on quail and rare clarets, but you don't need to take out a second mortgage to have an excellent time. Still, it's fun to have a couple of blowouts, and there are plenty of opportunities in Pinehurst to pullulate your visa balance.

Whatever the size of your wallet or golfing desires, the key is to plan and book ahead. Many, many courses host large outings and leagues, and there's nothing more depressing than showing up at a course only to find that you've arrived (without a tee time) smack-dab in the middle of the annual tournament of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Association of Undertakers and Mortuary Professionals. After an hour wait as the pro struggles to get your foursome on the course, the pace of play will be, well, funereal. Just remember, the desk clerk at your hotel or the pro at your resort can be incredibly resourceful if you're polite.

A pleasing trend in Pinehurst is the return of walking on many courses that previously made golfers cruise around in a cart. Pinehurst Resort offers caddies to its guests. Sadly, many architects designed the newer courses with carts only in mind, while the older courses are much more walkable. Our advice is to leave the carts at the cart shed and walk. It's how real golfers play real golf. And, as you should know by now, Pinehurst is all about real golf.

We come to Pinehurst to relax and enjoy the greatest of games. A trip to Pinehurst is a pilgrimage of sorts, a quest for golfing purity among the quiet and stately pines. In Pinehurst, golf is all that matters, which is why our hearts beat a little faster when, as we drive along those country roads, we see the soil turn from clay to sandy loam and we pass the signs that say "Welcome to Pinehurst, Golf Capital of the World." If a trip here fails to get you excited about the game, then you should sell your clubs and take up Scrabble.