By Kurt Dusterberg Willie McRae sits comfortably on the veranda at Pinehurst Resort, looking out over a golf course he knows better than anyone who has ever lived. That might sound like an overstatement, until you consider that he is in his 73rd year caddying at Pinehurst No. 2. When a man’s career endures longer…
By Stuart Hall Tami Bright was sitting in her Heritage Golf Club office three days after the reopening of the course’s putting greens following a nearly two-month renovation when a member stopped in her doorway. The brief conversation served as a litmus test for whether the renovation was well received. “It’s good to be back…
By DAVID DROSCHAK Certain victors and venues in sports are forever connected. There is Babe Ruth and The House That Ruth Built, Bobby Jones and Augusta National, and a legendary University of North Carolina hoops coach and the Dean Dome. As the U.S. Open Championship approaches this June – for the third time in the…
By DAVID DROSCHAK Few golf courses stir up emotions for Webb Simpson like Pinehurst No. 2. His family owns a home in the area, he’s a huge fan of Donald Ross layouts and as a youngster was a standard barrier for Tom Watson’s group during the 1999 U.S. Open. Simpson was dejected when he failed…
By David Droschak To use baseball vernacular, Pinehurst Resort “hit one out of the park” with its restoration of the famed No. 2 course. Play on the world-renowned Donald Ross design increased by 10 percent last year after it re-opened in March as the architectural team of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore created a reverse…
By David Droschak The work is complete …. Now the reviews start. In what some have described as a bold move after two successful U.S. Opens and a unique USGA double-header on the horizon in 2014, Pinehurst Resort is ready to unveil the throwback design of its classic No. 2 course to the golfing…