In the spring of 2004, Arnold Palmer came to Pinehurst for a day. He didn’t come to play golf; he came to show the village and the resort to his then fiancée (now wife), Kit, who wanted to see this place he speaks of with such fondness. When he contacted Pinehurst about his visit, he indicated that he wanted to stay at The Manor. "Mr. Palmer, we would be happy to have you stay at one of our more luxurious accommodations," he was told. "No," he said, "I want to stay at The Manor, because that’s where I used to stay when I’d go down there with my father."

Palmer’s warm memories are hardly unique; generations of vacationers have been visiting and revisiting the Pinehurst resort and the Village of Pinehurst in North Carolina for more than a century. Fathers and sons, husbands and wives, golf pilgrims have walked the circling streets of the beautifully landscaped town together, rocked gently on the covered porches, enjoyed the modest and graceful architecture, and faced the challenges of the fairways and greens — and then come back years or decades later to find the charm unabated, the traditions upheld. No wonder the U.S. Open Championship is returning to the fabled Pinehurst No. 2 course just six years after its initial visit in 1999 — the quickest return to an Open site in nearly 60 years.

It’s been said that if you sit long enough on the shaded veranda of the Pinehurst clubhouse, every golfer you know will eventually pass by. From its founding, Pinehurst has existed at the crossroads of many influences, beginning with the singular vision of James Walker Tufts. The soda fountain magnate from New England dreamed of a welcoming town in a healthful environment that would serve as a winter destination for northern travelers. In 1895, Tufts purchased 6,000 acres of land in a desolate region often referred to as the Great Carolina Desert; the area had once been home to longleaf pine forests, which were razed for manufacturing turpentine, pitch, and tar. He paid nearly a dollar and a quarter per acre for the land, and most locals felt he’d been fleeced in the deal.

Tufts turned to the firm headed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect responsible for New York’s Central Park, to lay out the town. While Olmsted almost certainly did not draw up the plans himself (he was in the early stages of the dementia that took his life, and he never visited the site), his associate Warren Manning visited often, and the firm created a version of a New England town complete with a village green and winding streets spiraling from it to the north, east, and west. More than 200,000 trees and shrubs were planted to create the shaded roads; the small lots called for modest houses and provided the comfortable scale of the village that is so pleasing to walk through today.

HEALTHY GETAWAY
Tufts envisioned Pinehurst as a health resort; the pine air was believed to be good for northerners with respiratory complaints, and early advertisements described the climate as "a happy medium between the malarial, enervating qualities of the more southern states and the rigorous winter of the North." The first reports from visitors to Pinehurst were not all enthusiastic. The Andover (Massachusetts) Townsman carried a letter dated April 6, 1896, noting, "While the claim is constantly made that this is pre-eminently a healthy region, one would be surprised to find how many people about him are afflicted with rheumatism, colds, la grippe, and kindred ailments. ... Mr. Tufts, manufacturer of soda water fountains, has built Pinehurst, seven miles from Southern Pines and connected with it by trolley cars, where no land is sold as yet to settlers, but elegantly furnished six-room cottages are rented for the winter (or for the whole year if wanted) at $60 and eight-room cottages are rented at $80, either for the season or the year. A nice hotel and boarding house are near, for the convenience of those who would board rather than keep house, and walks are artistically laid out and bordered with imported and costly shrubbery. … This winter both places are well filled, and I am told by traveling men it is distressing to hear the coughing of visitors who are there seeking relief. It is not best for an invalid to go where there are many others with like trouble." With the growing understanding that tuberculosis (or consumption, as it was commonly known) was a contagious disease, it became clear to Tufts that his vision of a North Carolinian equivalent of Palm Beach, Florida, or White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, would require some adjustment, and another lure would be required.

Salvation came in an unlikely form. Some of Pinehurst’s early guests brought with them curious sticks and balls, and hit the balls around the dairy fields south of the village green. Local farmers complained to Tufts that this activity was disturbing their cows. When Tufts looked into it, he discovered that the guests were playing a game, so he asked Dr. LeRoy Culver, a physician in Southern Pines who had visited many of the great British links in his travels, to lay out a nine-hole golf course on the grounds. This first rudimentary course was opened for play in 1898, and within a few years golf was a significant aspect of Pinehurst’s appeal to northern tourists. (Another part of its advertising was the assurance that "Pinehurst is the only resort in America in which consumptives are absolutely excluded [emphasis in the original].")

Tufts’ crowning stroke of luck came in 1900 when he met a Scottish golf professional and greenkeeper at Oakley Golf Club in Watertown, Massachusetts. Donald James Ross had come to the States from Dornoch in the Highlands the year before, having served an apprenticeship under Old Tom Morris at St. Andrews, and Tufts engaged him as professional, clubmaker, and general director of the budding golf operation. Ross quickly set about reworking the original nine-holer, and created a second course as well, this one an 18-hole affair that stretched over 6,000 yards and was quickly hailed as the finest course in the south. Because the summer heat was hostile to the grasses required for greens, the putting areas were flat regular areas made of sand and dampened or oiled to provide a firm surface. The sand greens remained in place until 1934, when Ross, armed with the experience of watching play on the course for three-and-a-half decades, sculpted the greens complexes that are the challenging and beguiling heart of Pinehurst No. 2 today.

THE ROSS EFFECT
In his career as a golf architect, Ross was responsible for hundreds of courses around the United States, many of which he never saw. He would lay out a routing based on topographical maps, and his associates would take charge of the building and shaping. As a result, there are "Donald Ross" courses still in existence that bear very little relation to his guiding philosophies. This cannot be said of Pinehurst No. 2, unquestionably Ross’ masterpiece. Drawing on the links tradition of his native Scotland, Ross built holes that always leave a safe if indirect route for the golfer willing to take it, with more hazardous options for the player willing to test his mettle by playing to the flag. "I doubt that there’s any modern architect who hasn’t come to study No. 2 and try to learn and understand what Donald Ross had in mind," says Don Padgett II, today the president of Pinehurst, whose father was director of golf at Pinehurst for 16 years. "The strategies don’t overwhelm. It’s all about what’s in the ground, and it’s an almost perfect work of golf architecture."

From the beginning, No. 2 was the site of several prestigious tournaments, most prominently the North and South championships, both Amateur and Open. The idea of a "united" North and South tournament was a bold one just 36 years after the end of the Civil War, but the first North and South Amateur was held in 1902, and the Open commenced a year later, with the Women’s North and South Amateur just another year behind. The North and South is today the oldest consecutively running amateur tournament in America.

When the U.S. Golf Association brought the U.S. Open Championship to Pinehurst in 1999, it felt less like an inaugural visit than a return home. There is no other community in the United States where the residents and guests embrace the sport with such genuine and equal fervor. The village J.W. Tufts envisioned exists today in much the form he’d have hoped: 32 of the 38 boarding houses and cottages built between 1895 and 1897 still stand, and any new construction is tightly monitored to assure it fits into the tone and setting. Membership in the Pinehurst Golf Club, comprising the first six of the eight courses that are now part of the resort, is tied to home ownership in the town. So long as the owners of the house have paid their dues through the years, membership is conferred upon new purchasers for a modest transfer fee. Of the 10,000 residents of the Village of Pinehurst, about 6,500 are members, and about 2,500 participate regularly in the resort’s activities. This blending of community and resort is rare, and it means that whether you’re in Dugan’s Pub or the Pine Crest Inn or Burchfield’s Golf Gallery or any of the establishments where people gather in the afternoon or evening, the question, "How was your round?" is as reliable a conversation-starter as you can ask for.

BEYOND GOLF
While management knows that Pinehurst is firmly fixed in the American mind as a premier golf destination, its recent efforts have broadened the resort’s appeal. Few people likely realize that Pinehurst ranks among the nation’s top 50 tennis experiences, with a separate tennis pro shop and 24 courts (18 Har-Tru and six hard-courts), four of which are lighted for night play. Its croquet and lawn bowling facilities are unsurpassed, and the Pinehurst Beach Club at Lake Pinehurst offers 200 acres of sailing, pontoon boat tours, beach sports and activities, swimming, and fishing.

The centerpiece of the recent redevelopment is the $12 million Spa at Pinehurst, located alongside The Carolina hotel. The posh facility has a three-lane lap pool, 28 treatment rooms, changing facilities outfitted with Jacuzzis and steam rooms, and a salon offering the latest in polishing and pampering. The spa’s talented massage therapists can soothe, stimulate, and rejuvenate worn muscles with an array of techniques ranging from reflexology and deep-tissue massage to anointing with aromatic botanical oils or pressing with smooth hot stones (a particularly fine way to let go of the day’s double-bogeys). You can pamper your body with the Sculpting Seagrove Clay Wrap, in which you are slathered with the region’s silica-rich soil and then wrapped in a Mylar sheath, left to lie relaxingly in a heat-lamp-infused room as nature’s richness draws out the toxins from your pores. (The effect is stimulating and pleasing, if you can put aside the thought of being prepared like Beggar’s Chicken at a Chinese banquet.) Facials, waxing, manicures, and pedicures complete the sybaritic survey for those seeking head-to-toe perfection.

The director of the spa, Kim Huber, devises creative preparations for special events, such as her program of grape-scented essences to complement the resort’s annual wine festival. Fresh strawberry smoothies are on constant offer as you relax before and after your treatments, and full-day packages are available — a nearly five-hour procession of delights, with lunch brought in via room service to the pool area.

The 3-year-old spa is open 365 days a year. Resort guests can reserve their treatments as far in advance as they like, though walk-ins are welcome. Spa and golf packages are an increasingly popular option, as one-golfer couples are discovering the pleasures of Pinehurst that go far beyond those promised by the image of Putter Boy — back, in fact, all the way to the roots of the resort itself.

For all the non-golf development at Pinehurst, the main activity is still out on the links, and that experience is being enhanced as well. In 2005, the newly reworked Pinehurst No. 6 course joins courses No. 2, No. 4, No. 7, and No. 8 as championship-level venues. Tom Fazio is responsible for the redesign; all the greens have been cored out and redone, and several of the holes have been completely reworked. As with Fazio’s redesign of Pinehurst No. 4 in 1999, the course will be dated from the time of the reopening, in recognition of the extent of the changes.

PINEHURST NO. 2 AND THE SPIRIT OF ’99
But the main lure is and will always be Donald Ross’ masterwork, Pinehurst No. 2. It is a course that inspires affection as well as awe. Because of the many junior and amateur tournaments that are conducted on No. 2, generations of great golfers have had the experience of competing on it — or just making a pilgrimage to it as a visiting player or resort guest — in the days before golf was their way of making a living. It’s a course the pros have probably played for fun, or at least under less pressure than the major-championship crucible.

Without question, the 1999 U.S. Open added greatly to the aura of the venue. "I was here for the 1999 U.S. Open," Padgett recalls, "and it was like there was something magical in the water. Everybody involved was overwhelmed by the holistic experience of that tournament — not just the drama, but the facilities, the transportation, everything."

That U.S. Open marked the first time since the 1936 PGA Championship that one of golf’s four majors had been held at Pinehurst. (Golf historians remind us that the idea of four major titles — the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, and PGA Championship — is a relatively recent development. Writer Dan Jenkins argues that the North and South Open, held at No. 2 until 1951, was as much a major through the 1940s as the others, maybe more. Byron Nelson told Jenkins that when he lost in the match-play final of the 1939 PGA, he felt it cost him the professional "Grand Slam," his other major victories that year being the U.S. Open, Western Open, and North and South.) The final 1999 round matched Payne Stewart, who had lost a four-shot lead in the last round of the Open the year before, with Phil Mickelson, who was seeking his first major victory while his wife Amy was back in Scottsdale, Arizona, and due to deliver their first child at any moment. Mickelson carried a beeper throughout the four rounds, and insisted that if Amy went into labor, he would head home regardless of the state of the tournament.

On the 72nd hole, Stewart, leading by a stroke, drove into deep rough and had no chance to reach the green with his second shot. Mickelson drove in the fairway, and put his second shot 25 feet from the flagstick. Stewart laid up, then hit a lob wedge to 15 feet. Mickelson putted first, and left his putt short. Stewart stepped up to his putt, needing two putts to force a playoff.

He only took one. Bucking history that showed that no one had ever made a substantial putt on the final hole to win the U.S. Open, Stewart curled his par putt home, and as the ball dropped, he thrust his fist forward and kicked his leg back, balancing on one foot in triumph. And then, in a gesture of excitement and compassion that may have reflected the fiery Stewart’s recent religious awakening, he went directly to the vanquished Mickelson and held Phil’s face in his hands. "You’re going to be a father!" Stewart reminded him. "You’re going to be a great father!"

Stewart’s epic putt, his joyful reaction, and his consoling words to his fellow competitor epitomized high-level sportsmanship at its best. The events cast a warm light over the tournament, the players, and the magnificent venue. And then, tragically, just four months later, Payne Stewart was dead, victim of an airplane malfunction. The ’99 Open was validation and valedictory for Stewart, and his passing gave a near-beatified glow to the events of that June weekend. Pinehurst has long been at the center of American golf; the way the 1999 Open unfolded cemented its place as the spiritual home of the game as well.

The spirit of golf is that it is a game played by all, great professional and duffer alike, on ground that is accessible and natural and pleasing to the eye. Amateur and pro, man and woman, young and old can walk the fairways of Pinehurst’s finest course, can play the shots the game’s greats have played, may even face the same putt that Payne Stewart faced on that fateful Sunday. And then they can walk over to an image in bronze, titled One Moment In Time, that now stands behind the 18th green: a knickered champion, balanced on one leg, fist thrust forward, the Open winner in eternal triumph on one of the game’s finest stages. And so in 2005, the professionals return to this remarkable village, where the threads of past and present, north and south, American innovation, and a Scottish game all come together to celebrate the values of good sport and good living that we so often rush past in our day-to-day existence. We walk slower in Pinehurst, we greet strangers, we make friends. And we know that we too will come back, to this place that welcomes us to find and create our own moment in time under its fragrant pines.

Jeff Neuman is a writer and editor based in New York. His last article for Private Clubs, in April 2004, described a baseball bus tour.

THE GREATEST BACKYARD PUTTING GREEN IN THE WORLD
On a comfortable August night, Bob and Carol Hansen are out practicing chipping in their backyard. Theirs is no ordinary yard, however; they’re taking their practice shots behind the fifth green of Pinehurst No. 2. Their home is no ordinary house, either; they’re the owners of Donald Ross’ former residence, alongside his greatest creation.

"We were looking for a place in Pinehurst, and Ross’ house just happened to come onto the market," Bob Hansen says. Ross lived beside the third and fifth greens from 1924 until his death in 1948. These are generally considered the two toughest greens on the course, and his proximity to them enabled him to keep testing them and tinkering with them throughout his life.

Hansen, a golf course developer himself, has warm words for the management at Pinehurst. "They give us passes that allow us to walk the course in the evening, play a few holes, come out and practice," he says. "ClubCorp does a fantastic job balancing the needs of the community members and the public that stays at the resort. Anybody who thinks that’s easy hasn’t tried it."

Has his frequent exposure given him any special insights into how to play the notoriously difficult par-4 fifth? "Wherever the pin is, I aim for the back of the green," he explains, as he rolls a putt over 20 feet of fringe, downhill then up, and up over the rear hump on the convex green to within three feet of the pin. "You can play from over this green; you can’t play from short, and left is death.

"Ross always gives you a way to play the hole," he concludes. "You just have to find it."

STANDING IN MEMORY
ClubCorp founder, the late Robert H. Dedman, has been immortalized with a full-sized bronze statue on the Pinehurst Walk of Fame, located behind the historic Pinehurst resort clubhouse. The Dedman statue, which was sculpted by Philadelphia-based Zenos Frudakis, stands among the likenesses of golf architect Donald Ross, Pinehurst’s third president Richard Tufts, and 1999 U.S. Open champion Payne Stewart. Dedicated in April, the statue depicts Dedman leaning on his favorite driver. Frudakis began the piece prior to Dedman’s death in August 2002.

"I read his book before I actually met him," Frudakis said. "I could tell he was a rich character, not just in wealth but in vitality, in his love for poetry and literature, and in his generous spirit. I was able to add a fourth dimension to this piece after spending considerable time with him, where I learned firsthand about that spirit."

Dedman founded ClubCorp in 1957 and purchased Pinehurst from bankruptcy in 1984. Under his leadership, nearly $90 million in improvements restored the resort to its current stature as one of the top 10 golf destinations in the world.

A WELCOME DIVERSION
In Raleigh, North Carolina, Associate members can visit the Capital City Club and the Cardinal Club. Both clubs are located downtown and boast panoramic views over the "Capital City." Each offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner service. Chef Kirk DeLoach of the Capital City Club strongly recommends his King Salmon, caramelized to bring out the sweet flavors of the fish and accompanied by little neck clam custard and sautéed spinach. Chef Steve Pexton of the Cardinal Club has a master touch for balancing a variety of flavors and textures from around the world. Of course, the perfect ending to your meal will be your favorite after-dinner beverage and a dessert prepared by the clubs’ pastry chefs.

Raleigh also offers a variety of local attractions. Through Aug. 7, the North Carolina Museum of Art features a collection of contemporary art glass from North Carolina, showcasing both American and European styles. The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences includes the largest comprehensive collection of North Carolina gems and minerals. And the Raleigh City Museum highlights the rich history of the state capital.