THE LIFE Refresher course AFTER A RADICAL RESTORATION, PINEHURST NO. 2 IS BETTER THAN EVER

The 13th hole at Pinehurst No. 2

44 • April 8, 2011 • www.golfweek.com By Bradley S. Klein Pinehurst, N.C. Every once in a while you find a place that reminds you why golf is so special and why golf courses are the most beautiful of all sports fields. Pinehurst No. 2 used to be one of those places, back in the 1920s through the late 1950s. But it hasn’t been Don Padgett II and owner for a while. The village Bob Dedman Jr. Kudos center always has been also go to the U.S. Golf enchanting, but the course Association, which has itself lacked a certain an inherent stake in the appeal. It wasn’t scenic. place as a recurring The holes looked too championship site similar. The fairway for Opens and the U.S. bunkers hardly were a Amateur. USGA president factor. And the demanding Jim Hyler and executive greens were more hard director Mike Davis – then work than charming. senior director of rules It was an exacting test, and competition – didn’t but not an aesthetic joy. initiate the restoration last That’s all changed now. year, but they backed it Donald Ross’ most fully, including the really famous design from radical part of the plan: a century ago has been expanding the fairways to utterly transformed their original width while through a restoration eliminating the roughs. The 13th hole before the restoration by Bill Coore and Ben Prior to the restoration, Crenshaw that is as the fairways and roughs radical and path-breaking as any in the comprised a total of 85 to 90 acres of managed history of golf-course architecture. The result is turf. The course now consists of 50 acres of stunning. Pinehurst No. 2 is strategically more turf , all maintained at fairway mowing heights, compelling than ever – and a whole lot more fun, essentially eliminating the higher rough. The too. Golf here used to be about the greens and rest of the marginal areas were transformed surrounds. Now it’s about every shot. into irregular, sandy ground dotted with wispy, Few resorts outside of a setting would unpredictable wiregrass. Bunkers that had been have dared introduce so much scruffy sand grown over also were reclaimed, while some waste. Some guests might perceive the resulting existing ones were tugged and extended into course to be less “attractive” than the resort lines of play. layout’s acquired look of lush green and flawless There’s more to deal with on every shot. The manicuring. The course also is wider to play and simplest way to explain what has happened is therefore seems easier, though in fact it now that - shot landing areas got wider but more offers more diverse angles of play and greater strategic, and approach lines got nipped a little variety of tee shots and lines of approach. so that incoming shots must deal with more No championship venue ever has undergone trouble along the way – whether delivered aerially such a radical retro move in the middle – or or along the ground. The change is evident on on the eve – of an upcoming major. The much- the opening tee shot, where the fairway on this heralded restoration work of 406-yard 4 feels football-fields wide for in Brookline, Mass., for the 1988 U.S. Open may drives up to 240 yards, but then gets pinched PHOTOS COURTESY OF PINEHURST have started a trend, but the work at Pinehurst by a second and third wave of bunkers starting far surpasses it in scope and ambition. The about 120 yards from the green. Big hitters who course, which is slated to hold the U.S. Open once could with impunity and nearly reach and U.S. Women’s Open on consecutive weeks the green downwind on dry turf now will have in 2014, has kept its routing but otherwise to think carefully before hitting away. bears scant resemblance to the layout that In some cases, the far side of the driving was home to U.S. Opens in 1999 and 2005. area has been squeezed. On the notoriously The folks running the Pinehurst Resort awkward, dogleg-right seventh hole, the goofy took a big risk. Credit Pinehurst president symmetrical mounds on Pinehurst, P46 >>>

Golfweek • April 8, 2011 • www.golfweek.com 45 THE GOLF LIFE

The 17th hole in 1935, <<< Pinehurst, P45 the benchmark era which splashing that the the inside of the dogleg Crenshaw and Coore old front hole location have been removed, pegged their restoration. no longer was usable. replaced with swept-up That has been fixed. bunkering; now the key Over the years, the here is that the far side greens at Pinehurst of this landing area has No. 2 appeared to been bunkered, giving have become higher and pause to anyone hoping more pronounced from to blast a tee shot over their original (1935) the bunker corners. The construction, which addition of a new back had been closer to the tee brings this par 4 to surrounding natural 431 yards and reduces grade level. There’s the likelihood that a plenty of speculation as long hitter simply will to the cause. It’s unclear bomb it over the trees. if it occurred through When you take out the accumulation of COURTESY OF PINEHURST COURTESY acres of rough, you get aggressive topdressing, a whole new feel. At the 385-yard par-4 written for the program of the 1936 the steady splashing of sand from 13th hole, a mindless carpet of turf PGA Championship at Pinehurst No. 2, surrounding bunkers or even faulty on the far left side has been replaced provided a guiding narrative for the reconstruction techniques that led to with sandy waste and wiregrass. kind of strategic flexibility and options the greens acquiring steep out slopes. Previously, a player could try to drive that Coore and Crenshaw looked to Whatever the cause, the result was the ball over the right corner bunker, bring back. Along the way, they had a set of greens that, far from being and if he tugged it left, no problem. Pinehurst director of maintenance Bob characteristic of Ross’ body of work, Now one’s ball will wind up in that Farren turn off sprinklers and return was in fact unique to Pinehurst No. 2. uncertain, broken waste area and to the simplest of irrigation plans – That puffiness is now largely gone. present an uneven lie and an uncertain straight down the middle, following It’s as if the greens have been “deflated.” stance. The area really will come into the lines of the old steel pipe they The explanation, says Farren, “is an play during the 2014 U.S. Open, when traced out in the ground. aggressive dethatching program that the hole is played, as it will be at least From a peak of 1,100 irrigation brought the greens down about an inch one day, from the forward tee of heads, Pinehurst No. 2 cut back to or an inch and a half – plus we floated 315-plus yards as a drivable par 4. about 450 activated sprinklers after out the edges into the surrounds and The year long reclamation work the restoration. The idea, says Coore, made the transitions less abrupt.” that began in March 2010 involved is “to starve the roughs” – to let those It helps, too, that Coore and recovering the course’s original playing areas struggle, giving the grassed areas Crenshaw rebuilt the bunkers to their width. In the process of removing the along the fairway edge and the roughs original heights, which in some cases dense turf cover, underlying contours an off-color, mottled look that blends project above the putting surfaces. have been revealed – lovely, crumpled, in more naturally with the restored The result of the higher bunker edges, scruffy and uneven. As long as wiregrass areas. marginally lower green profiles and conditions are kept dry in the marginal Coore and Crenshaw initially did less severe falloffs is that the greens areas, the thousands of hand-planted not intend to tinker with the basic now appear and feel as if they are more wiregrass shoots will prevent the contours of the greens. But problems naturally tied to the surrounding grades. spread of the dense, uniform with the existing G2 bentgrass required Coore and Crenshaw’s work at Bermudagrass they’ve replaced. replacing it with an A1/A4 blend more Pinehurst No. 2 is a revealing example It all was part of a carefully planned resistant to contamination by Poa annua. of the interpretive skills required of effort, based upon meticulous research While resodding – not rebuilding – the any restoration. There is no going back that included Coore, Crenshaw and greens, they mildly tweaked two to some pristine or mythic ideal past their field man for the job, Toby Cobb, putting surfaces where excess contours moment. There’s always a need for scouring the Tufts Archives at Pinehurst had developed over the years. They judgment and temperance. for old photographs, maps and irrigation softened a right-central slope of the In an era when it appears golf will plans showing how the course used to par-3 15th green that probably had built have to struggle to gain – and keep – appear. The benchmark era designated up through years of sand accretion from market share, artistic craftsmanship for the restoration was 1935-36, when a flanking bunker and had left that green and a love of land are proving to be the old “browns” with their sand sur- with fewer “pin-able” areas than any valuable guides. Courses that convey faces were converted to grass greens, other surface at Pinehurst No. 2. The these values always will have something and when the current incarnation of architects also lowered the front of the unique to offer. the course routing was finished. par-3 17th green, where so much sand Pinehurst No. 2 is now among those Ross’ own account of the layout, had built up from greenside bunker few special places. ❍

46 Golfweek • April 8, 2011 • www.golfweek.com Rater’s notebook: Pinehurst No. 2 1. Ease and intimacy of routing: 9 An elegant, meandering, continuous loop, easily walkable, with intimate connections between greens and middle and an admirable pattern of having to walk back to the longest teeing grounds.

2. Integrity of original design: 10 The integrity here is to the 1935 design, when Pinehurst No. 2 finally got grass greens and its current routing, and when it still had width and lots of scrubby sand areas and wiregrass.

3. Natural setting and overall land plan: 7 Beautiful approach road through topiary and sports lawns, and the resort side of the clubhouse with its Donald Ross Grill is elegant, especially as it spills out to the golf courses on the other side. Pinehurst No. 2 presents a lovely opening sequence along the town road, but then there are a few stretch marks. Among them: some awkward back tees that brush up against other holes or course perimeters; that unfortunate netting for the Maniac Hill range behind the 13th green; and a straight-line roof on the clubhouse behind the 18th green that flattens out what ought to be a welcoming vista as you walk up the final fairway.

4. Interest of greens and surrounding chipping contours: 10 They’ve been “deflated” just enough and their surrounds tied in so that the legendary surfaces no longer have quite the pop-up, COURTESY OF PINEHURST turtle-back gawkiness they had acquired; they now sit closer to grade than before while retaining their elusive character.

5. Variety and memorability of par 3s: 8 A modest liability has now been fixed. There’s now a bigger mix of shots and clubs thanks to additional teeing grounds and the The opening hole at Pinehurst No. 2 tweaking of two par-3 greens (15th and 17th), allowing for more hole locations and variance of distance. 9. Landscape and tree management: 8

6. Variety and memorability of par 4s: 9 Tree canopies have been thinned out lightly, mostly for tee shots. A great mix of long, medium and short par 4s, with wider driving The place looks much airier because the playing surface has zones bringing the ball closer to lateral trouble and requiring been widened. more careful utilization of seemingly wide berths. 10. “Walk in the park” test: 10 7. Variety and memorability of par 5s: 7 It’s a dazzling walk, thanks to the recurring juxtaposition of This long has been the bête noire of Pinehurst No. 2. The layout playing textures: green turf and tawny wiregrass make for an and topography leave the four par 5s all too short from the white attractive palette, more so now that the exposed rough ground tees (440-478 yards) and lacking strategic interest on the second shows off the smallest elevation changes and makes them look shot. Maybe it didn’t matter, because the domed eighth green more pronounced. was elusive even with a mid- approach. New and extended bunkers short of the greens now make those second shots more Overall vote: 9.2 interesting. From the U.S. Open (gold) tees, the two par 5s, the As with any major renovation, we’ve thrown out the old votes. 569-yard fourth and the 619-yard 10th, are solid, strategic holes. Pinehurst No. 2, most recently rated No. 17 on the Golfweek’s Best Classic list (8.38 average), should be moving up the list. 8. Basic conditioning: 8 The revised course is in its infancy, but the turf quality is coming >> 80 Carolina Vista Drive, Pinehurst, N C 28374 along fine. The re sodded A1/A4 greens have taken well, which is >> 910-295-6811 ; www.pinehurst.com crucial. The transitional areas at the edge of the Bermudagrass >> Par 72, 7,491 yards (76.0 rating/137 slope)/par 70 for U.S. Open fairways are meant to look scruffy and half-starved, the idea >> Green fee: $329-$410 being they are kept alive only by center-line irrigation, with the >> Walking allowed with ; otherwise, carts required intent to starve peripheral areas and keep away Bermudagrass .

Golfweek • April 8, 2011 • www.golfweek.com 47