Unless you were here 25 years ago in this quaint little village off the beaten path in the sandhills of North Carolina, you can’t comprehend the angst that hovered over the storied resort where Donald Ross spent years of his life perfecting his architectural masterpiece — the No 2 course at Pinehurst. Well, maybe you can understand if you were in Portrush leading up to the 2019 Open Championship. The fear of failure was palpable from the moment the United States Golf Association (USGA) made the daring decision to stage its first major championship in the southern US during the peak of summer.
Would the course present the proper test Ross intended? Would the modern grasses hold up under the strain and the heat? Would the weather and daily threats of thunderstorms become intolerable? Would anyone come? If they did, would they be able to get tens of thousands of people onto the property comfortably and conveniently? In short, would a US Open at Pinehurst be a boon or a colossal bust? “I think there were valid questions and concerns at the time,” said Tom Pashley, president of Pinehurst Resort. The 1999 US Open, won in dramatic and unforgettable fashion by Payne Stewart with a long putt on the 18th green, was a huge success. Pinehurst answered all the questions correctly.
The USGA returned six years later in 2005. Then it tested an even more audacious idea in 2014 by holding the men’s and women’s US Opens on consecutive weeks on the same No 2 venue. Twenty-five years .