The Carolinas Golf Association brought a special guest to its annual Golf Night celebration on Feb. 10 at Pinehurst Resort’s Carolina Hotel.
On a night that began with the election of a new president and included recognition of the organization’s players of the year, the star of show may have been the U.S. Open trophy, loaned by the neighboring United States Golf Association, which moved staff into its new Golf House Pinehurst facility in December.
Guests took turns posing with the U.S. Open trophy Feb. 10 at Golf Night at the Carolina Hotel’s Cardinal Ballroom. (Photos courtesy of the CGA)
USGA officials told Triad Golf that it hopes to have the second of its two buildings on the grounds at Pinehurst Country Club open in May. The second building, which will be open to the public, will have a museum, interactive displays to show the USGA’s work in advancing the game and a golf shop. The admission price has not yet been announced. The first of the two-level buildings include equipment testing spaces on the lower level.
The U.S. Open is scheduled for June 13-16 on Pinehurst No. 2. The CGA is one of the USGA’s 57 Allied Golf Associations throughout the country.
Many of the 100 or so guests at the dinner and program in the Cardinal Ballroom took turns posing for photos with the trophy throughout the night during a cocktail hour and following the awards program.
Rick Riddle (top photo) of Carolina Country Club in Charlotte was elected the CGA’s new president, succeeding Michael Smith of Greenville, South Carolina.
The CGA players of the year included: Men’s, Sam Jackson of West Columbia, S.C.; Women’s, Isabella Rawl of Lexington, S.C.; Senior Men, Steve Harwell, Mooresville; Senior Women, Kathy Hartwiger, Pinehurst; Super Senior Men, Steve Fox, Pinehurst; Junior Boys’, Will Hartman, Marvin; Junior Girls’, Madison Messimer, Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Less than three years ago, Nick Dunlap failed to close out a victory at the Wyndham Junior Championship at Sedgefield Country Club (pictured above), eventually finishing in a tie for second place.
But Sunday, at age 20, the University of Alabama sophomore was good enough to win the American Express tournament at PGA West with a gutsy up-and-down par on the 72nd hole.
Wow! But such is golf. Even Tiger Woods, the most dominating player in Tour history over a long stretch, has won fewer than 23% of PGA Tour events he’s entered. The most consistently good golfers don’t win every week. The best golfer that weekend wins.
How good are some college golfers? Well, playing on a big stage, Dunlap shot 29-under-par for 72 holes on a PGA Tour setup.
Given the current NIL policy in college sports, shouldn’t the PGA Tour have found a way to pay Dunlap the $1.51 million first prize? There’s really no such animals as amateurs in most sports.
Granted, Dunlap isn’t your average college golfer. He was the AJGA 2021 male player of the year, winning three times that year, including the U.S. Junior Amateur. He added a victory in the 2023 U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills, joining Woods as one of only two golfers to win the U.S. Junior and U.S. Amateur titles.
In 2021 at Sedgefield, Dunlap shot 2-under 278 to finish five shots behind Maxwell Ford of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, who played two seasons at the University of Georgia before transferring to join his brother David Ford on UNC’s No. 1 ranked men’s team.
Construction work on a new $15-million clubhouse at Tanglewood Park for one of the Triad’s finest public golf facilities was given the go-ahead Dec. 21 from the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners.
Samet Corp. of Greensboro will build a slightly smaller clubhouse on the site of the current clubhouse at the top of a hill overlooking the Park’s Championship and Reynolds courses. The new facility could be ready by fall 2015.
Tanglewood Park pro shop staffers confirmed to Triad Golf on Friday the new clubhouse would be built on the site of the current clubhouse, which will be demolished this spring. A temporary clubhouse, described as a “trailer” by the staffers, is planned a few hundred yards down the hill along the 18th fairway on Championship, on the west side of entrance road.
The project had been approved, but stalled, for the past few years, as the cost rose from $11 million. An amendment to move the cart storage away from the new clubhouse, to potentially save money, was rejected.
The aging split level clubhouse was built in preparation for the 1974 PGA Championship won by Lee Trevino on the Championship course. But the decor and furnishings throughout the facility have faded and much of the upper-level hospitality area and downstairs locker rooms go largely unused.
Plans for the new facility have included a warming kitchen for the snack bar, meeting space for 150 people, a pro shop and a wrap-around porch with a view of the Championship course.
The Vantage (also RJR) Championship, one of the biggest events on the Senior PGA (now Champions) Tour was played on Championship from 1987-2002 with winners including Gary Player, Hale Irwin and Trevino.
Greens fees and cart for Championship are $54 on weekdays and $64 on weekends. Prices at Reynolds are $34 and $40. On weekdays, players 55 and over pay $37 on Championship and $27 on Reynolds. The walking rate for players 17 and under is $24 on Championship and $16 on Reynolds.
“A modern clubhouse will create more opportunities to host tournaments, and those tourism events will put dollars in local cash registers and enhance the quality of Forsyth County as a place to visit,” Stephanie Brown, the president of Visit Winston-Salem, told commissioners before their approval vote. “Redeveloping this community asset will maintain the clubhouse as a place of gathering and celebration for the people who call Forsyth County home.”
The Championship course, one of the top public layouts in the Triad, was renovated with new bunkers and putting surfaces in 2018. The Reynolds course, is much tighter with an interesting, and often difficult, series of holes. Both were designed by Robert Trent Jones, one of golf’s most acclaimed course designers.
A trio of Triad golfers were ranked in the top 100 of the women’s and men’s NCAA Division I rankings after the fall season, with Wake Forest and North Carolina No. 1 in the team rankings.
Freshman Macy Pate of Wake Forest (pictured) was No. 43 and former Reagan High teammate Morgan Ketchum of Virginia Tech was No. 92 in the women’s rankings. Former Eastern Alamance golfer Nick Mathews, a redshirt junior, at N.C. State, was No. 97 in the men’s rankings.
Wake Forest dominated opponents in the fall with four players high in the rankings and three team victories against elite completion. Caroline Chacarra was No. 9, Mimi Rhodes was No. 30 and Rachel Kuehn was No. 36.
The Demon Deacons won a 15-team tournament hosted by the University of Oklahoma as well as the Jackson T. Stephens Cup (beating Texas in the match-play title match) in Dallas, and finished third out of 15 at the Annika (Sorenstam) Invitational in Minnesota, and fourth of 15 in the Windy City Classic in Chicago.
Pate, the two-time reigning N.C. and Carolinas Junior Girls Player of the Year, finished in the top 25 of all four 54-hole events, and was second in stroke play in a field of 20 in the East Lake Cup. She was 3-1 in match play, including the title-clinching victory against Texas at the Stephens Cup.
Pate, who moved to Winston-Salem for high school after growing up in Boone, achieved national fame by shooting 14-under 57 for Reagan in a conference tournament in 2021 at Bermuda Run West.
While Pate and Wake won the team title at Oklahoma, it was Ketchum who earned medalist honors, shooting 9-under-par 201. She also finished 19th in a strong 15-team, 90-player, national field at Landfall Club in Wilmington and finished 29th in an event hosted by UNC and 32nd in a tournament at Michigan State.
Chacarra led the team with a 69.22 stroke average with Rhodes at 70.38 and Pate and Kuehn at 70.62.
On the men’s side, UNC was dominant with a 42-4 record with victories at the University of Illinois, a match-play title at the East Lake Cup and a triumph in a the Tar Heels’ tournament at Eagle Point in Wilmington. UNC also finished second at the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitation in Fort Worth, Texas, one stroke behind Vanderbilt.
Brothers David and Maxwell Ford of UNC, were No. 3 and No. 4, respectively, in the individual rankings.
Mathews was in the top 18 of each of his four tournaments, with his best finish, a sixth-place showing at Michigan State. He had an even-par 72 average in the fall.
His sister, Emily Mathews, a freshman at Virginia Tech, was No. 157 in the women’s rankings.
UNC Greensboro senior Symon Balbin from Pinehurst was No. 73 in the men’s rankings.
Due to problems with stat and rankings provider Spikemark, which replaced Golfstat in compiling the rankings, the first lists were not posted until mid-November. Spikemark also tweaked the formula, using player stats entering the event to weigh the field and assign point values for the tournaments.
Another prominent N.C. golfer, Caleb Surratt of Indian Trail, near Charlotte, was No. 21 in the men’s rankings playing for Tennessee.
Kyle Haas, the son of Wake men’s coach Jerry Haas, compiled a 73 stroke average playing in three fall events for the Deacons.
The highlight of the season for the Deacons was a tie for first with Missouri in a 15-team tournament outside Chicago with Michael Brennan earning medalist honors, his seventh collegiate victory.
The Wake women’s team may have the opportunity to play the NCAA regionals at Bermuda Run East before an expected trip to the NCAA Championships at La Costa Country Club in Carlsbad, California.
The UNC men could play in a regional on their home layout, Finley Golf Course in Chapel Hill, to qualify for the men’s NCAA Championships, also at La Costa.
The NCAA men’s and women’s regionals are held at six regional sites. Though the NCAA tries to balance the fields, the top-seeded teams are generally rewarded with assignments near their campus.
There’s no need for a pro in a team tournament when you’ve got an amateur shooting 64.
And 8-under-par, gross 64 is what Nate Hargett shot to lead a prominent team (pictured above) of local golfers to a three-stroke victory in the fifth-annual First Responders of the Triad charity tournament Oct. 6 at Greensboro National Golf Club.
Led by scratch golfer Hargett, owner of Greensboro’s Hargett Funeral Services, the team rounded out by Guilford County Commissioners chairman Skip Alston, attorney Mack Isaacson and Guilford County sheriff Danny Rogers shot a 32-under 112 total in a format counting one gross and one net score on each hole.
In a format change, all four players on each team were amateurs. In previous years, the event was a pro-am with individual pro and team prizes. Rogers shot net 54. Alston shot net 60 and Isaacson shot net 69.
Tournament sponsor Byron Development, owner of Greensboro National, will present the winner’s check of $25,000 to the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department, the recipient designated by the winning team. Other Triad First Responder groups will split another $35,000.
The Sheriff’s Department said it would use the money to buy food and presents for families in need over the holidays.
Hargett, a former player at N.C. State, shot 6-under 30 on the front nine, highlighted by an eagle at the par-5 third hole. He made seven birdies and a sole bogey at the long par-3 11th. The format allowed Hargett to play a few shots from teammates’ drives.
Hargett’s long drives provided an advantage for the entire team because the format allowed each player to continue play from the team’s best tee shot.
The team of John Barker, Matt Behe, EC Stophel and Josh Crouch was second at 29-under. The team of Jonathan Kiger, Jordan Taylor, Jerry Smith and Justin Windsor were third at 26-under.
The sizes of the undulating greens, gradually reduced over the past three decades, have been restored with new TifEagle Bermuda at one of the Triad’s elite golf courses. The bunkers have been rebuilt, with some moved and a few added, to compensate for distance gains due to improved golf equipment.
A few hundred encroaching trees were removed and a few new tees were built, adding distance, improving sight lines and allowing more sunlight to reach the greens.
But it’s still the Old North State Club, the spectacular Tom Fazio design that opened in 1991 on Badin Lake — just inside the Montgomery County line, about 10 miles northeast of New London, on the western edge of the Uwharrie National Forest.
The 5,350-acre lake — the focal point of the course — has an increased impact due to the restoration of several corner pin positions near the water that had been eliminated due to the receding of the greens.
And that was the intent of McConnell Golf’s $3 million project, which began in late March. The greens were ready around Labor Day. The last few fairway bunkers were completed in October. The changes, including the building of three new bridges, were intended as complementary updates of the Fazio design.
The TifEagle greens should roll just as fast and smooth as the former bent grass surfaces and easier to maintain in pristine condition during hot, humid summer months.
“Many members, especially those joining in the past few years, may be very surprised at the size of the ‘new’ greens, which have been restored to their original Fazio shapes and sizes,” said Michael Shoun, McConnell’s vice president of agronomy,
The new bunkers have Capillary Concrete liners, replacing liners that were top of the line when installed but wear out over the years. The new liners, a staple in renovations at other top courses, are designed to control moisture levels and hold the sand in place, eliminating washouts and plugged lies.
Kris Spence, the Greensboro-based course architect and builder who oversaw the renovations, said much of the tree removal involved trees planted during original construction to hide cart paths. Their removal allowed for a few new tees that added 160 yards to the course, pushing it to more than 7,200 yards. The tee changes included Nos. 1, 3, 9 and 14.
Spence said he found the new bunker near the green at 18 on an old sketch — he said, possibly by Fazio — of the hole, and it with McConnell’s approval. With about 15 feet reclaimed on the back-left of the green, Spence was able to put a new pin position perilously close to a slope feeding into the lake. He created similar pin placements on the other greens near the lake.
Another change on 18 (pictured above) was the breakup of two long fairway bunkers into four smaller bunkers stretching along the lake.
Badin Lake comes into play on Nos. 2, 14, 16, 17 and 18, and provides the backdrop for greens at 4, 7 and 9, though rarely reached by shots.
Bermuda sod was installed around all the course’s bunkers.
“This renovation not only enhances playing conditions but also the overall membership experience and draws people back for more fun on Badin Lake,” said John McConnell, whose company now owns more than a dozen courses in the Carolinas, Virginia and Tennessee, including Sedgefield Country Club and The Cardinal by Pete Dye in Greensboro. “It’s exciting to have the course return to its former glory with Tom Fazio’s original plan in mind.”
Rated as one of the state’s top five courses by Golf Digest in the mid-1990s, Old North State Club slipped to No. 29 in the magazine’s 2023-2024 rankings. Courses typically peak in rankings shortly after they open, and 11 of the courses in front of Old North State Club are newer, or like Pinehurst No. 4 and Southern Pines, have been thoroughly redesigned or rerouted.
Spence, known for his expertise in restoration and renovations at courses originally designed by Donald Ross and other classic architects, said he approached his work at the modern Old North State Club in a similar fashion.
“I tried to be very respectful of the original Fazio design,” Spence said. “I was very pleased with the way it turned out.”
McConnell properties include 14 private courses, two semi-private (including The Cardinal) courses and one nine-hole course.
McConnell’s N.C. courses include Raleigh Country Club, Sedgefield and The Cardinal, Wakefield Plantation in Raleigh, Treyburn in Durham, Brook Valley in Greenville, Porters Neck in Wilmington, Country Club of Asheville, Providence in Charlotte, and Wilson. South Carolina courses include The Reserve in Pawleys Island and Musgrove Mill in Clinton. McConnell owns Holston Hills in Knoxville, Tenn., with Virginia properties The Water’s Edge in Penhook, and in Radford, Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech.
The front nine at a well-maintained Triad muni is closed as crews repair a pipe leak.
Jamestown Park closed its front nine, which had been the course’s back nine prior to a change this fall, to make repairs near a pond and the fourth green, according to staffers in the pro shop.
The employees said the front nine was closed Monday, with the project expected to take at least “two or three weeks.” According to the club website, the staff hopes to have the entire course open by Nov. 30.
Trucks and evidence of excavation could be seen Thursday from East Fork Road, which runs along the course, owned and operated by the Town of Jamestown.
Staff encouraged disappointed players who had not seen the website notice to play the back nine twice. At $24 for nine holes and $30 for 18 holes with cart, many players elected to do that. The course plays to 6,700 yards from the longest of five sets of tees.
The website’s posted prices on weekdays are $24 for nine and $36 for 18. With the new routing, the first hole is next to the driving rang and the 18th green is near the clubhouse and pro shop.
Forest Oaks Country Club reopened to the public on Nov. 1 with repaired putting surfaces.
The former home to the PGA Tour’s Greater Greensboro Open, known now at the Wyndham Championship, had been closed for more than a month after a fertilizing application mishap left wide strips of dead bent grass.
Will Andrews, who manages the pro shop at Forest Oaks, said the damage — some greens were harmed significantly more than others.
Andrews said the southeast Guilford County course reopened to members the previous week.
He said a company from the Charlotte area brought in sod to replace the damaged greens.
With temperatures in the 70s expected during the first weekend in November, Andrews said he expects the course to be busy.
“We should get lots of play,” he said.
The host of the Triad’s annual PGA Tour event for three decades through 2007, Forest Oaks’ facilities have been vastly improved since members Terry Lee and Eddie Stephens purchased the course from Japanese ownership that allowed the facilities to deteriorate under eight management firms. The course closed for short periods in 2014 and 2019.
“When the professional tournament moved the interest from the ownership was no longer there. And they were vocal about it, too. They asked for the club to be closed multiple times,” Geoff Dail, whose management team was brought in by Lee and Stephens, told Triad Golf in 2019, but has not been involved at the course in since 2022.
Forest Oaks offers golf and social memberships, and is also open to public play. Current greens fees on the club’s website are listed at $45 on Monday through Thursday and $55 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Cart rental is $10.
Kris Spence couldn’t see much when he first visited the Maples Course at Woodlake Country Club, a residential community in Moore County about 14 miles northeast of Southern Pines.
In 2021, when the Greensboro golf architect first looked over the remnants of a course designed in 1971 by Ellis Maples and Ed Seay, he said he saw only limited signs that a golf course had been on the site. Lake Surf, which bordered the first few holes and the finishing holes, was drained and filled with vegetation, resembling a wetlands area.
“I couldn’t see most of the greens when I first came out here,” Spence said. “I knew it was an Ellis Maples design. It turns out, it may be one of his best.”
Spence rebuilt the bunkers and added surrounding native grasses.
A former 36-hole club, Woodlake has permanently closed an Arnold Palmer-designed course, where Spence is planned to design a par-3 layout on some of that property.
A veteran in renovating courses designed by Donald Ross and Maples, a protégé, Spence took the project, which at the beginning required a solid three months of bush hog clearing. Several encroaching trees and vegetation had to be eliminated. He had to undercover fairways and greens.
Now, Spence takes pride and satisfaction in looking over the course, which plays over undulating fairways to challenging greens with new Bermuda TifEagle surfaces. There’s a new 18th hole, but for the most part, Spence said he tried to restore the layout to its original design, albeit with a few modern enhancements and some new back tees.
Spence jokes that his work at Woodlake was neither a renovation nor a restoration.
“This is a resurrection,” Spence likes to clarify. “We’re bringing this thing back from the dead. It’s probably one of the most satisfying things I’ve done.”
Finished almost a year ago, Woodlake management waited until mid-September 2023 before opening the course to residents — one round per resident. For 30 days beginning Sept. 20, more than 600 homeowners at Woodlake had the opportunity for a “sneak peek” at the course.
Memberships will be sold, though the course and grill also will open to the public in May, offered in Pinehurst area golf packages.
Wreckage and Recovery
Hurricane Matthew in 2016 wiped out the two Woodlake courses in Vass, as well as the Oates House, its stately clubhouse, leaving property owners without golf courses and other amenities. And after the state made a post-hurricane check of the community’s aging dam of creeks that created the 1,200-acre Surf Lake, they lost the lake, too, as the state mandated the dam be breached for safety purposes.
Spence said the reaction of homeowners over the past two years has been particularly gratifying.
“When we were first out here, there was not a 2 by 4 being nailed whatsoever, and that went on for about 6-8 months,” Spence recalled. “When it was known the lake would be restored, within 30 days they were clearing lots and buildings houses like crazy. They were just sitting there waiting for that assurance.”
A few weeks ago, Spence was playing the course when he saw a retired military officer he’d gotten to know sitting on his back porch. Back in 2021, the same man had seen Spence in his yard and questioned what he was doing there.
“I yelled to him, ‘I bet you thought you’d never see this,’ and he was grinning ear to ear,” said Spence.
The fairways at Woodlake are undulating, requiring sidehill stances on many approach shots.
Maples’ designs included much-heralded layouts such as Grandfather Golf & Country Club in Linville and Country Club of North Carolina’s Dogwood Course. Seay, then a Maples associate, joined Arnold Palmer in 1971 to form Arnold Palmer Design Co.
The course has a new irrigation system. As a result, the tee boxes, greens and bunkers are in mint condition and the fairways are plush. All that remains is the restoration of the lake, and work commenced last year on the new dam.
The lake is expected to fill quickly once the dam completed — as early as 2025, according to Cara Spencer, Woodlake’s marketing director and the daughter of owner Keith Allison.
The existing holes at the Maples Course had to be reclaimed. Assorted vegetation had grown over the former Bermuda fairways. Little pine trees and shrubs had grown in bunkers. Spence had trouble finding the location of some of the former weed-covered greens. Intruders had used many of the former fairways for their ATVs. The course, which over the years had a reputation as neglected due to financial problems, looked like a “jungle,” recalled Spence.
Plus, the lakebed, which Spence said ranges from about 6 feet in depth near the edges to about 20 feet, was filled with tree stumps that had to be removed to meet state requirements. The cleanup was hard work, managed by Jim Harbin, a Spence project manager. Spence said he made many 75-minute drives from his office to check the project.
Bermuda Fairways Survived
That was the situation facing Spence in 2021 after he was contacted by Allison, the Fayetteville businessman who bought the community’s assets for $3.5 million at a foreclosure auction in March 2021, with plans for saving at least one of the courses and building a newly completed clubhouse.
The hurricane and state-forced breach of the dam had left Woodlake, which had gone through an earlier foreclosure, without its major amenities. The German developer, Woodlake CC Corp., went bankrupt and lost the property. In 2018, a Superior Court judge awarded a homeowners’ group almost $162 million in damages for negligence that led to the loss of the lake, plummeting property values and an adverse effect on quality of life. According to several reports, that award remains unpaid.
The opening holes skirt Lake Surf, which is expected to be refilled in 2024 soon after a dam is rebuilt.
A group of property owners, the Restore Woodlake Committee, won a class action lawsuit in 2018 against Woodlake CC Corp. after claiming the company’s negligence led to the loss of the lake, adversely affecting residents’ quality of life and property values.
In some ways, the course’s resilience surprised Spence. The Bermuda 419 grass fairways were mostly intact when weeds and overgrowth were removed. After mowing and spraying with herbicides and the application of fertilizer and some rain, the Bermuda fairways were in such good condition, no sprigging was needed. Some sodding was done, especially where new trees and overgrowth had blocked sunlight.
Spence also found a working pump station from the lake to help irrigate the course.
Due to flooding concerns downstream, the state voted to pick up a $9.6 million bill for replacing the dam. Spence said that in a year or so, the lake should return to form, creating 25 or so new lakefront homesites on the former 18th hole as well as rejuvenating the property values throughout the community. A new sales office is in future plans.
Allison, the owner of Systel Business Equipment, and a Woodlake property owner prior to buying the golf courses, has his three daughters learning the golf business. Jeff Crabbe, the general manager, was hired from Lakeside Park Golf Club in Richmond, Virginia. He was previously a golf pro at Pinehurst Resort.
Greens Restored, Bunkers Rebuilt
The Maples Course begins with four holes along the western bank of Lake Surf, before turning inland. The final four holes return to the lake, though the new 18th hole is now on the location of the first hole on the former Palmer Course.
Spence had particular respect for the green designs by Maples and Seay. Spence said Maples was known for creative, undulating greens in a variety of sizes and shapes.
“For the most part we restored the greens,” Spence said.” We did not rebuild the greens — we just stripped off the overgrowth.”
To bring the course up to date, Spence did create some new back tee boxes to add 300 yards or so, extending the course to 7,350 yards — enough to play host to top local or statewide tournaments. Some bunkers were also repositioned to bring them into play more for today’s bigger hitters.
Though the lake — lakebed, for now — provides a formidable hazard at the start and finish of the course, the par-3 eighth, a downhill beauty that stretches to 236 yards, may be the most memorable hole.
Spence said he expects significant feedback in June when golfers from throughout the world come to the Sandhills for the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2. Many will bring their clubs and play at courses throughout the region when not at the tournament.
“This golf course is going to have a lot of eyes on it … when they get things ramped up and the U.S. Open is here,” said Spence.
Spence, whose Quixote Club design in Sumter opened in 2022, has remained busy with several projects, including a renovation at Hope Valley Country Club, an original Donald Ross design in Durham. His future projects this year include renovations at Starmount Forest Country Club and Holston Hills Country Club in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Spence’s renovations in the Triad have included Sedgefield Country Club, Forsyth Country Club and Cross Creek Country Club. Within the state, Spence’s projects have included prestigious courses at Roaring Gap Club, Country Club of North Carolina Dogwood Course, Grove Park Inn, Blowing Rock Country Club, Cedarwood Country Club, Gaston Country Club, and Providence Country Club.
If you want a play a course that’s hosted a major United States Golf Association tournament, the best place to go is Pinehurst.
It’s probably no coincidence that the USGA is building its second headquarters adjacent to Pinehurst Resort. And the USGA’s arrival with memorabilia, testing facilities and more is only one of the region’s exciting changes for golfers.
Maybe it’s time for the Sandhills region to alter its slogan “The American Home of Golf” to include “And the Most Frequent Home of USGA Championships.” And what better time than now, with Pinehurst No. 2 preparing to host its fourth U.S. Open next year on June 13-16?
Triad Golf took a recent trip to Pinehurst to check out progress on the USGA additions and other recent or ongoing projects and news, including Country Club of North Carolina’s Dogwood Course, which will play host to the U.S. Senior Amateur in 2030 and the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 2037.
Pinehurst No. 2 will not be the only Sandhills course staging USGA events in the scheduled future.
We also had our first look at Southern Pines Golf Club, the former Southern Pines Elks Club course that reopened in 2022, and were stunned by the quality of the renovations to the Donald Ross layout by Kyle Franz.
Updates include the reopening of Woodlake Country Club’s Ellis Maples layout after renovations by Greensboro’s Kris Spence, and Tom Doak’s Pinehurst No. 10 design on the site of the former Pit Golf Links.
While Pinehurst No. 2 grabs the most attention as a regular U.S. Open site and host of the Women’s Open, the U.S. Amateur and the PGA Tour Championship, several other area courses – public and private – have played host to USGA events and are on the USGA calendar to host more.
Three are on the USGA’s future schedule. And at least a few other area courses are worthy of USGA – or PGA of America, PGA Tour and LPGA Tour — consideration. Dormie Club and Forest Creek come to mind quickly.
Pine Needles Resort stands out as a regular host of the U.S. Women Open, beginning with Annika Sorenstam’s victory in 1996 and continuing in 2001, 2007 and 2022.
Golfers already know about famous Pinehurst No. 2 and it’s USGA legacy, spurred by Payne Stewart’s 1999 U.S. Open victory, followed by U.S. Opens in 2005 and 2014 and next year’s Open, hopefully with of the game’s top stars reunited in the field. Going back a little further, No. 2 hosted the 1936 PGA Championship and the 1951 Ryder Cup Matches.
In 2014, the USGA staged its Women’s and Men’s championships back-to-back at No. 2 in 2014 and will again in 2029.
The USGA has already green-lighted No. 2 for additional Opens in 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047, ensuring the Donald Ross design will stay in the spotlight for another two-plus decades.
Let’s not forget the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Women’s Amateur, both played at No. 2.
CCNC DOGWOOD TO HOST SENIOR, WOMEN’S AMATEUR
Dogwood is due for the worldwide exposure in 2030. Designed by Ellis Maples – a longtime Ross protégé – and Willard Byrd, it opened in 1963. Dogwood has played host to three previous USGA events – the 1980 U.S. Amateur won by Hal Sutton, the 2010 Girls’ Junior Amateur and the 2021 U.S. Junior Amateur.
While Dogwood’s large undulating greens may exhibit similar characteristics to Ross’ No. 2 greens, the course has more hills and a variety of doglegs and water hazards that come into play. The par-72 layout, which was included in Golf Digest’s top 100 U.S. courses for more than three decades, stretches to 7,301 yards from the back markers with five other sets (the third set or regular member tees are 6,440 yards) of tees.
The par-3 13th hole at Dogwood has one of the biggest greens on the course perched in front of a lake.
CCNC has another course, Cardinal, that is also well-regarded, and a favorite of many of the members. Byrd designed Cardinal’s original nine, and Robert Trent Jones designed the back nine.
A private country club, the CCNC community sits in relative seclusion only a few minutes from the Village of Pinehurst behind a modest gate. The club has about 950 members.
“The big thing with the club is it has the feel of a golf club with all the amenities of a country club,” said Nick Gray, the assistant general manager.
Gray said the club has about “300 single-digit” handicappers.
A $4.5 million renovation by Kris Spence in 2016, highlighted by the installation of Zoysia grass on the fairways, Champion Bermuda on the greens and many tweaks to bring bunkers and water more into play, made Dogwood longer and better than ever. Some greens were rebuilt, others were modified.
When possible, Spence said he tried to restore any of Maples’ green contours that had been lost over the years. Maples, whose other highly acclaimed courses include Grandfather Golf & Country Club in Linville, Forest Oaks in Greensboro and Cedarbrook Country Club in Charlotte, was known for challenging putting surfaces with challenging spines and tiers requiring shots to specific sections of the green, depending on pin placement.
Spence said Maples’ expertise in crafting testing greens made the collaboration with Byrd, who often built flatter putting surfaces, especially noteworthy.
Founded by a “Who’s Who” in Charlotte and Raleigh business leaders, CCNC enjoys a reputation for its typically pristine conditions.
SOUTHERN PINES GC RANKS WITH ROSS SISTERS
If you go to Southern Pines Golf Club, don’t expect to find the typical remnants of a muni. The Bell Family, whose Ross Resorts courses include fellow Ross designs Pine Needles and Mid-Pines, and Franz turned the layout into one of the best in the Sandhills.
That was my opinion before I saw Golf Digest’s new list of the top 100 U.S. public courses, which ranked Southern Pines No. 72, between Pine Needles at 63 and Mid Pines at 86.
The first hole at Southern Pines provides an inspiring start to the round with a mostly open, downhill, landing area with an approach to a green surrounded by sand.
The course is that good. Not just good for a former muni, but good by any standard. In the same league as Pine Needles and Mid-Pines. In some ways, with its natural look and rolling topography, Southern Pines is similar to Pinehurst’s latest No. 4 layout with natural sand and vegetation lining the fairways and fast, undulating greens.
The course grabs your attention fast. The opening hole is beautiful downhill par-4 framed by natural sand and vegetation.
But with all the improvements, Ross Resorts maintained some of the course’s casual feel and blue-collar history. The simple pro shop and snack bar were kept, though remodeled and updated.
Southern Pines’ modest history and superb layout may make it a candidate for future USGA amateur events.
WOODLAKE GIVES MEMBERS SNEAK PEEK
Spence’s restoration of Woodlake Country Club’s Maples Course is open, but for now, to residents — only one round each during a 30-day “sneak peek” ending Oct. 20. The course will open to outside play next spring with members receiving preferred booking and tee times.
Hard to blame the members for not wanting to share their course yet. They’ve suffered for several years as the course was closed due to finances and a breached dam.
The limited play during the sneak peek should give the facility some wiggle room to complete construction. Plus, it will give additional time for a new fleet of Club Car carts to arrive. Spence
The centerpieces of a housing development in Vass, about 10 miles north of Pinehurst, Woodlake had two courses that closed and fell into disrepair – Spence compared the Maples property to a “jungle” – prior to the restoration.
After the dam of 1,200-acre Lake Surf along the course was almost breached by Hurricane Matthew in 2016, the state drained the lake and the course was closed, The German owner lost a lawsuit filed by homeowners and the course was closed.
Community assets were saved in 2021 when Atlantic National Capital and Keith Allison of Fayetteville bought them for $3.5 million. Another course at Woodlake, designed by Arnold Palmer, remains idle with no public plans to open.
The routing of the Maples course remains much the same, though the former 18th hole was converted into 25 lakefront lots with a new finishing hole constructed on the remnants of the Palmer Course’s opening hole.
But building a new dam was a major project that needed state approval, eventually obtained this summer. The lake is expected to gradually fill up enhancing the beauty of the layout. Bobby Jones Links was brought in to operate the course.
We’ll have an eyewitness appraisal with more details about the course in the next few weeks.
PINEHURST NO. 10
Pinehurst No. 10, long-awaited since The Pit property was bought by Pinehurst Resort in 2011, is under construction with a design by Tom Doak. The resort has set April 3, only a few months prior to the U.S. Open, as the opening date.
Though the resort has made few details public, the former quarry property has the makings of an interesting, unique Pinehurst layout, though probably with fewer quirks than The Pit.
