One Hundred Years of Golf

Pinehurst, 1895: only barren and forbidding dunes welcomed those few who visited Pinehurst. Herds of wild boar were the dominant inhabitants.

Thick forests of mighty Carolina pines once dominated this thin slice of sandy hills. But the earth had been stripped, the wood harvested for timber and tar by-products, leaving a ravaged and lonesome landscape. Detractors referred to the region as the "Sahara of North Carolina."

Fortunately, Bostonian James Walker Tufts saw in this the perfect site to build a health resort that would be a haven for New Englanders escaping their own bitter winters. Tufts had heard of the marvelous healing virtues of the dry climate and sandy soil, of the therapeutic values of the longleaf pine tree. He was impressed, as visionaries are, by the beauty that nature, man and time would restore to the area. He recognized the worth of the year-round temperate climate.

Tufts purchased 5,000 acres of stripped timberland for about a dollar an acre. Many thought him a grand fool while he assembled architects, engineers, planners and workers o build his resort and create a New England-flavored village on his North Carolina land.

However, Tufts was not without a master strategy. The land he selected was only a few miles west of the Boston-to-Miami train line - the same one he came to town on - and not quite a full day's train ride from New England.

His resort opened with a modest hotel, a store, boarding houses and cottages. Tufts was fast to react to new technologies and ideas, quickly introducing such devices as electric lights and telephones in his town and resort.

Tufts hired the landscape design firm of Frederick Law Olmstead, the famed designer of such layouts as Central Park and Biltmore Estate. Together, they started a tree-planting program that began with 220,000 trees and shrubs. Over the next three decades, over 350,000 pines were raised, restoring much of the area to its one-time pristine radiance.

Recreation was important to visitors and Tufts provided a variety including horseback riding, hunts, tennis, trapshooting, croquet, bicycling and, later archery and golf. Many of these are essential to today's Pinehurst-area lifestyle. Tufts himself preferred roque, a game much like croquet but played on a hard surface.

In 1898, as Pinehurst legend goes, a disgruntled dairy farmer approached Tufts to complain that hotel guests were hitting little balls with sticks into his pastures and disturbing the cows. Tufts decided to investigate this new phenomenon called "golf". He hired Dr. D. Leroy Culver, a physician in nearby Southern Pines who fit that time's two qualifications for a golf course designer: he loved the game and had played on a links course in Scotland. Culver designed nine holes for Tufts.

This pastime-turned-passion quickly caught on and Tufts realized the need for more attention to the growing sport. He hired a young Scotsman, Donald J. Ross, who had apprenticed with Old Tom Morris at St. Andrews.

In the beginning, Ross' work at Tufts' resort was basic: take care of the golfers and the golf courses. As golf became the resort's mainstay, the Pinehurst Golf Club was established in 1903. A small wooden clubhouse was built near the site of the current one.

Ross eventually spent 48 years at Pinehurst designing and reshaping the resort's first four golf courses. He designed four courses in nearby Southern Pines including Mid Pines, Pine Needles and two courses, one nine and one 18 holes, at the Southern Pines Golf Club (known today as the Southern Pines Elks Club). Overall, Ross is credited with designing over 400 courses in North America.

The resort complexes at Pinehurst, Mid Pines and Pine Needles represented not only the manifest outgrowth of golf in the Sandhills area, but also the good times enjoyed by the Tufts with the village. Now the area became a place to be seen by the well-heeled - those who played golf and those who did not. The Rockefellers, duPonts and Carnegies, many riding their personal Pullmans on the main rail line to nearby Southern Pines, savored the area''s offerings. Will Rogers favored polo. Bing Crosby played golf but preferred the hunting just as well. Helen Hayes, Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks enjoyed simply relaxing.

Life in Pinehurst brought many of the sporting world's famous and soon-to-be-famous. Annie Oakley taught shooting while her husband, Frank Butler, managed the Gun Club from 1916-1922. Bill Tilden won the first North & South Tennis Open in 1919. Ben Hogan won his first professionals title in 1940 at Pinehurst.

The Village of Pinehurst and its surroundings suffered from the Depression. The Tufts lost both Pine Needles and Mid Pines when times were bad in the early 1930's. But golf and the Pinehurst area found their own again in the 1960's. Mid Pines and Pine Needles were growing under new and separate ownerships.

In 1994, Pine Needles purchased Mid Pines, creating sister resorts. At one time, they had buttons with the question: "Why did the golfer cross the road?" The answer: "To play the other Donald Ross course!"

Ellis Maples, who learned golf course architecture and construction from his boss, Donald Ross, at Pinehurst Golf Club, became a sought-after designer in his own right. He created courses for the Country Club of Whispering Pines (1959 and 1970), Whispering Woods Country Club (1974), Pinehurst Resort's No. 5 (1961), The Country Club of North Carolina (Dogwood course, 1963), and Woodlake Resort & Country Club (1971).

The region's eighth and ninth decades lured most of the era''s leading golf course architects to the area. Each attempted to leave his imprint in the sands where Donald Ross conceived his best works but also providing the area with a rich divergence of design styles. As they came, surveyed, laid out and built, each architect (no matter how big their reputation) knew his work would be compared, ultimately, with that of Ross. Many paid homage to Ross' genius in their creations.

Those who have left their brand in the area include: Jack Nicklaus (National Golf Club), Tom Fazio (Pinehurst No. 4, No. 6 and No. 8 as well as Forest Creek Country Club), Rees Jones (Pinehurst No. 7 and Talamore Golf Club), Arnold Palmer (Mid South Club), Gary Player (Pinewilds's Holly Course), and Jack Nicklaus II, whose first U.S. design was outstanding (Legacy Golf Links). Noted architects Gene Hamm, Tom Jackson and Willard Byrd designed several other area layouts.

Another of Pinehurst's own sons came into his own as a golf course architect. Ellis Maples' son, Dan, worked in construction and design with his dad and slowly developed an interest of his own in this field. Dan built his reputation designing beach courses but he returned home to build The Pit (1984), Longleaf (1989) and Little River Farm (1996). He owns the first two of his layouts.

Several of these new courses were built as stand-alone public facilities - without membership or accommodations, following the early success of non-membership courses such as Hyland Hills (1973).

Pinehurst Resort itself underwent changes in the early 1970's when the Tufts family sold the resort and land to Diamondhead Corporation. Club Corporation of America bought the property in 1984 and had led the resort into its second century. Plus, the Resort broke ground in 2001 for a spa and golf fitness center.

The Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen Area continues to keep an eye on the past while looking toward the future. With over 42 golf courses - and growing - it will continue to be a Mecca for golfers, both for those who treasure timeless golf.

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The Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen Area Convention & Visitors Bureau is an economic development organization and non-profit authority of Moore County, North Carolina. The CVB mission is to promote the area as a destination for visitors, meetings, conventions and tours. The CVB is funded primarily by a three percent hotel / motel room occupancy tax paid by visitors to Moore County.