Originally labeled a freak course? Possibly converted to an employee's course? Two sets of greens? Replacing acres and acres of grass with the very sandy wasteland it started as right before hosting two U. S. Opens in consecutive weeks? It can't possibly be so.
In 1895, the inventor of the soda fountain bought more than 5,000 acres of barren, sandy wasteland in Pinehurst, North Carolina. He started his own village for consumptives but soon realized he made a grievous error. Fighting to preserve what was left of his investment, James Walker Tufts was saved by a little white ball. Witnessing a few guests swatting it around his dairy field with sticks, he realized his saving grace was a new game recently imported from across the Atlantic. The game was called golf.
Fast forward to the twenty-first century: Seemingly on top of the golfing world, Pinehurst Resort dismantled Pinehurst Number Two, host of numerous worldwide events, a mere three years before hosting unprecedented U.S. Opens in consecutive weeks. The dismantling eliminated acres of turf and hundreds of irrigation heads, the exact opposite of what the golfing world expected, in order to return to its past.
The intervening years saw the evolution and challenges of one of the top golf destinations in the world. Inside these pages is the story of Pinehurst Resort, Mid Pines, Pine Needles, Southern Pines Golf Club, The Country Club of North Carolina, Tobacco Road and countless other golf courses of the Sandhills. The story of Pinehurst is one of dumb luck, ingenuity, grand visions, and tremendous risk. This is the story of the Home of American Golf and it isn't what you think...
The Legendary Evolution of Pinehurst, Home of American Golf is a completely updated and re-written version of his 2007 International Network of Golf Book of the Year tome on the history of Sandhills golf, Pinehurst ~ Home of American Golf (no longer in print and very difficult to find).
The Legendary Evolution of Pinehurst, Home of American Golf has forty-five new pages added and numerous updates, including a brand new chapter chronicling one of the most important restoration projects of the twenty-first century - Pinehurst No. 2 in addition to the Mid Pines restoration, the evolution of The Dormie Club and other advances in the recent past. This is a must have for those who love Pinehurst and the history of golf courses.
In addition to the new pages are 112 new, never - before - seen images as well as an introduction from two-time Masters Champion, Ben Crenshaw.