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GOLF came about almost by chance. Seeing guests practicing the game in a meadow, Tufts recruited a golfing friend to lay out a rudimentary nine hole course. Then while in Boston on business he bumped into a young Scot by the name of Donald Ross, fresh from Royal Dornoch where he'd been green keeper and professional. It may have been the happiest accident in the history of sport.
The meeting spawned a dynasty and an industry. Tufts hired Ross on a hand-shake and the age of the golf resort was born. In time Pinehurst proved to be the template for every resort built since and became the cradle of American golf in the process.
The Pinehurst Golf Club was founded in 1903, by which time Ross had extended the original nine holer into the 18 holes that became Course Number One.
Then, in 1907, came the esteemed Number Two, the stage for the 1999 US Open. Courses Three and Four followed before Ross turned his attentions elsewhere in the locality.
He built four courses in the nearby community of Southern Pines on land then owned by Tufts, and began a process which saw the construction of 40 courses in the Aberdeen area, of which Pinehurst is the epi-centre.
Ross enjoyed 48 years at Pinehurst before he died there in 1948, continually re-shaping the resort's first four courses and building more than 400 others throughout the United States.
He spent decades fine-tuning his Number Two, a memorial to his life and work, before finally declaring himself satisfied. It was, he said, the fairest test of golf he'd ever laid out. None will disagree. Consensus has it among the finest in the world, with a permanent place in America's top five.
Over the years Pinehurst has been the venue for many major events although oddly, until 1999, not the US Open: the 1951 Ryder Cup was staged here; the 1936 US PGA, the World Cup, the US Amateur, for both men and women, and the North & South Amateur, considered second only to the US Amateur, which was founded there in 1901 and has been an annual event ever since.
All of this when Pinehurst had only four courses, too. Now there are eight, served by four handsome clubhouses. (The first five courses share the main clubhouse known as the 91st Hole!)
The architectural pedigree of the additions is in keeping with the stature of the originals. Ellis Maples, father of Dan, laid out Number Five in 1961; Tom Fazio built Number Six in 1979; Rees Jones, son of Robert Sr., created Number Seven in 1986, and in 1995 Tom Fazio returned to add Number Eight, known as Centennial.
Each is individual in character but all have two common attributes: a matchless setting amid the pines that decorate this glorious resort, and an all-pervading sense of history that sets Pinehurst apart in the pantheon of the game.
'Tis indeed a venerable place. Anyone who considers himself a golfer should join the pilgrimage.
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