By David Droschak Can it be that Kelly Mitchum is getting better with age? The veteran, award-winning Pinehurst Resort teaching instructor who will turn 50 in April, captured the PGA Carolinas Section player of the year honors in 2020 with a scoring average of 69.00. It is the eighth time Mitchum has won the award…
By David Droschak Few places embrace history like Pinehurst Resort. And the historic golf venue is preparing to add yet another piece of lore to its annals. Just five years after making history by hosting back-to-back U.S. Opens for the men and women on Pinehurst No. 2, the iconic resort and the USGA are once…
By Brad King School is out around the state. Which means summertime is … extremely busy for competitive golfers. The Carolinas Golf Association (CGA) alone conducts more than 300 amateur events for men, women, juniors and seniors throughout the calendar year. When the summer months roll around, the action really ramps up. The CGA championship…
By David Droschak Bob Farren has never won a championship, never hoisted a trophy for a global photo op or sank a clutch putt for hundreds of thousands of dollars. In fact, many causal golfers may have never even heard of his name, let alone know his title at one of golf’s most glorious venues.…
The U.S. Amateur torch has been passed from one famous resort to another in August By David Droschak It’s a great time to be among the world’s best amateur players, considering the recent venues for the U.S. Amateur Championship. The proverbial torch was passed in mid August from Pebble Beach to Pinehurst as the Sandhills…
By Dave Droschak Pinehurst Resort’s new 9-hole short course – measuring a total of 789 yards — has opened. Designed by golf architect Gil Hanse, The Cradle features holes ranging from 56 to 127 yards each. Mere steps from the resort clubhouse, it is the same area where, in 1898, Dr. Leroy Culver carved the…
By Brad King Golf course architect Gil Hanse and partner Jim Wagner are performing design work at Pinehurst No. 4, along with the resort’s new short course, which opened Sept. 30. Hanse’s firm was selected in 2011 to design the golf course in Brazil that hosted the return of golf in last summer’s Olympic Games.…
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 Griffin Ching fully understood that two points was the difference of a chip rolling an extra foot or two. That, however, could not mask the disappointment of finishing second at the Drive, Chip and Putt Championship’s regional qualifier at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club’s No. 2 Course in early September. “It was…
By DAVID DROSCHAK Tom Pashley has seemingly done it all at Pinehurst, from cooking omelets to raking bunkers to working the overnight shift as part of the audit team during his stint in the mid 1990s as part of the resort’s first-ever Manager in Development Program. So, even though some of the names have changed…