A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PINEHURST RESORT

This North Carolina resort is more than merely venerable and historic: it the oldest in the world, the template for every golf resort built since it opened in 1896. From small beginnings it evolved into the ultimate resort with renowned accommodations and an all-encompassing infrastructure with incomparable facilities, activities and service.

Initially it was a rudimentary holiday destination attracting New Yorkers escaping their harsh winters. Golf was a secondary attraction, catered for by a rustic nine holes created by a friend of owner James Tufts, a Boston pharmacist who discovered the 2,000 acre site by chance in 1895.

Nearby was a halt on the Boston-Miami railway line and that was the key to success. Tufts called in a Boston architect to replicate a New England village and named it Pinehurst. It had a small hotel (the Holly Inn, now beautifully restored), two boarding houses and cottages and a general store, all edging the village green.

Those buildings remain and although the village has grown to encompass a cluster of restaurants, a variety of shops and several boutique hotels it is still true to the original concept, formulated when electric lights were a novelty and the pace of life was unhurried.

Pretty soon, Tufts needed more accommodation and in 1901 opened what would become the most famous resort hotel in America. From that point the project expanded beyond imaginings. Now Pinehurst caters to every imaginable individual sport that doesn’t involve an engine, and has eight golf courses, served by three clubhouses. Its famed Number 2 course has a permanent place in America’s top five, has become a regular venue for the US Open and the stage for every major golf event, amateur and professional, in the United States.

Thousands flock there each month, pulse quickening as they turn into the driveway whose terminus is the regal Carolina Hotel, known for a century as the Queen of The South. Colonnaded, pristine white and with a gleaming copper roof, it oozes the style and the aura that is the very essence of Pinehurst and yet it is as homely and welcoming as your granny's parlour, with an ambience enhanced by the aroma of millions of pine trees that form the backdrop to this all-encompassing resort.

Some say that if Pinehurst had only one golf course the world would still beat a path there, week in and week out. As the great Jack Nicklaus has it: "Pinehurst is more than good golf courses. It's a state of mind." James Tufts would be delighted.

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 holes. 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. The Pinehurst Golf Club was founded in 1903, by which time Ross had extended the original nine holes into the 18 holes that became Course Number One.

Then, in 1907, came the esteemed Number Two, the future stage for the Ryder Cup and the US Open. Courses Three and Four followed before Ross turned his attentions elsewhere and in time became the doyen of US golf architecture, building more than 400 others throughout the United States.

Ross enjoyed 48 years at Pinehurst and he died there in 1948. He was continually re-shaping the resort's first four courses and 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, and always considered one of the top five in the USA.

Now Pinehurst has eight courses, served by three 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.

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