Pinehurst Readies For U.S. Open Golf Tournament

Intense efforts are underway to polish up the clubhouse of the Pinehurst Resort, the place where the city of Pinehurst will welcome the world to the 105th U.S. Open Golf Tournament. It is estimated that over 45,000 golf fans will flood the streets of Pinehurst over the four-day period, and the city and its residents are involved in a flurry of activity preparing for the festivities. Pinehurst hosted the U.S. Open in 1999, so being chosen again so soon is a tremendous honor. Not since the 1940s has the tournament returned so quickly to the same golf course. The resort’s selection is due in part to Pinehurst #2, the course where the tournament will be held. Pinehurst #2 is considered to be the flagship course of the 400 golf courses designed by Donald J. Ross, whose commentary on the design of a golf course is featured on a bronze marker at the eighteenth green.

Golf fans attending the Open will enter through tall portals, still under construction, and pass by planters that have been constructed of the porticos of the clubhouse. Although it is already a place of serene natural beauty, many elaborate measures are being taken to enhance the landscape, including thousands of new plants that will adorn the facilities in and around the resort. The clubhouse store is always open, both before and after the Open, but fans attending the tournament will be able to shop in a specially constructed tent enclosing 40,000 square feet of space for 60 vendors of golf-related souvenirs. The "tent store" will be stocked with all kinds of memorabilia, such as caps, jackets, shirts, and anything a fan could want, to commemorate one of the greatest tournaments in the world of golf. Major corporations will pay from $175,000 to $225,000 to entertain clients during the tournament inside special tents that are being erected to serve as the corporate village around #2. Tents have also been constructed over the pavilion rea adjacent to the clubhouse, and they are being equipped with air conditioning units. Bleachers have been erected at every hole, and towers are being erected for the media to be able to broadcast every single putt, to be sure the tournament-winning shot isn’t missed.

Payne Stewart, who won the 1999 U.S. Open at Pinehurst and died in a plane crash shortly afterward, is memorialized in many photographs in the clubhouse and by a statue near the 18th green. Golfers from all across America are yearning to play on these famed links, and fans are anxiously awaiting the performance of Tiger Woods, fresh from a third-place tie at the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio. The lockers in the clubhouse that have been prepared for Woods and his fellow players are made of burnished wood, much more upscale than the lockers seen in a high school or college gymnasium. But then again, the players in the U.S. Open are well beyond their high school days. And the city of Pinehurst is standing ready to welcome them, as the world awaits the first exciting tee off.