PINEHURST, N.C. — This place can fool you. So charming and quirky that Mayberry has transformed from North Carolina’s sand dunes into a golf mecca.
As you stroll along the brick walkway through town, you’ll pass two-story brick buildings filled with cute shops and quaint bars. Every year, more than one million people come to Disney World for an idyllic golf-themed vacation.
It might trick you into thinking you’ve stumbled upon a golf oasis. It’s easy to forget that this is a sprawling resort and integrated enterprise with luxury hotels, cottages and 10 courses designed by renowned golf architects. Yes, it may have started with the owner of a pharmacy chain offering tuberculosis patients a chance to recover in a sanctuary designed by the man who designed Central Park. But the reasons a place begins are rarely the same reasons the destination continues to thrive.
Now Pinehurst Resort calls itself the cradle of American golf. The USGA announced this week that it will be the first of a series of new “anchor sites” that will host the U.S. Open every five to six years for the next 30 years.
Pinehurst returns to the World Golf Hall of Fame. It has strong ties to the city and is a bucket list destination for generations of recreational golfers. In the near future, it will be a central focus combining the casual and professional golf worlds.
But not too long ago, it was $70 million in debt, at war with its townsfolk, and embroiled in numerous lawsuits ranging from predatory management tactics to members feeling deceived.
And not so long ago, a private investigator calling himself “Fat Man” hung a poster of Pinehurst’s owner on the chair in front of his desk and gave him a simple mission. “I want to nail this guy to the wall.”
There is a mantra that Robert H. Dedman Jr. repeats at will. “It’s always Pinehurst, but it’s always better.”
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In the shadow of the US Open at Pinehurst, a game changer emerged.
But progress doesn’t always happen in a straight line. James W. Tufts hires Donald Ross as golf professional and plays Pinehurst No. 1, and in 1907 he published his masterpiece, Pinehurst No. As I completed 2, what started out as a company town turned into something else. Ross completed his fourth Pinehurst course before 1920, making the resort a premier golf course with three inns. The town and resort were so intertwined that resort employees were paid in notes redeemable only by Tufts-owned businesses during the Great Depression. It then began to enter the professional golf world by hosting the PGA Championship in 1936 and the Ryder Cup in 1951.
However, in 1971, the Tufts family sold Pinehurst to the Diamondhead Corporation. The project, a real estate project owned by Malcom McLean, attempted to stay rooted in tradition, placing condos on the course and modernizing the look of Ross’s design. desecration. The resort’s reputation and quality also declined, and by the time Diamondhead was forced to turn over Pinehurst to a consortium of eight banks in 1982, the resort’s debt had reached $70 million.
Crowds are coming in droves to see Tiger Woods and the rest of the U.S. Open field at Pinehurst this week. (Andrew Reddington/Getty Images)
The Savior appeared, a nickname that was controversial to many.
Robert H. Dedman Sr. is the founder of ClubCorp, a Dallas-based corporation that made a fortune buying and rebuilding distressed private golf and country clubs. They eventually owned more than 200 properties around the world, and Dedman Sr. was a billionaire who was frequently cited by Golf Digest as one of the most important people in golf. He was a charming, self-made man from Arkansas who successfully branded himself as something between a capitalist and a romantic.
“The first time I stood in front of the clubhouse and looked at all the ribbons on the fairway, I cried,” Dedman Sr. said in a 1999 interview with Sports Illustrated. “I have always admired Pinehurst’s place in history. And when I finally saw it, I immediately knew that we were going to take this fallen angel and make it better than it was before, although not as good as it used to be.”
Always Pinehurst, but always better. However, they usually cost more. Capitalism is a game of winners and losers, and progress often leaves others behind.
Pinehurst was the crown jewel of the ClubCorp empire, and Dedman Sr. made this dream a reality by restoring tradition and returning Pinehurst to its rightful place in the sport. In fact, he elevated it.
Fifteen years and $100 million after its purchase, the 1999 U.S. Open came to Pinehurst. Dedman Sr. died in 2002, but Dedman Jr. (known as Bob) ran most of the company until the 1990s. In 2005 he again hosted the US Open. Dedmans sold ClubCorp in 2006 but kept Pinehurst intact, and after a successful restoration, it made history in 2014 by hosting back-to-back men’s and women’s U.S. Opens. The men’s tournament has been running for 10 years. Although it never returned, the new anchor site designation successfully established Pinehurst at the forefront of American golf.
But there was pushback on that build. From 1991 to 2000, as many as 55% of Pinehurst members (more than 3,000) contributed legal funds to lawsuits alleging that the club brought in too many outsiders, refused to agree to tee times, and improperly increased membership requirements. . charge.
In 1990, ClubCorp sold its stake in nearby Pinewild Country Club to Japanese cookie maker Tohato Inc. and entered into an agreement under which Tohato would pay ClubCorp a management fee. In 1996, Tohato sued ClubCorp, claiming it had been deceived, alleging that the latter had used Pinewild as a cheap overflow course for guests paying to stay next door at Pinehurst Resort. Tohato officials also alleged that ClubCorp intentionally mismanaged the property, forcing Tohato to sell it back to Pinehurst for a fraction of the original cost.
Things changed dramatically when Tohato hired famous private investigator William Graham to help with the case. Graham was an eccentric who appeared on “Late Night with David Letterman” and “20/20” and was in talks with a studio to make a movie about his life. Graham pursued ClubCorp so hard that he ended up suing him for defamation. And all the while, Graham was giving the Dedmans constant headaches.
In 1997, Graham sent a fax across the country detailing 33 alleged “civil and criminal violations” against ClubCorp. He was quoted in South Carolina’s The State newspaper calling Dedman Sr. and his company “slanderers, corkscrews, double-dealers, lies, cheats and thieves (SOBs).”
Of course, all of this ClubCorp was used in the defamation case, which was settled by a seven-figure settlement paid by Tohato to ClubCorp. But these faxes allowed major media outlets like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times to investigate and publish large pieces that painted ClubCorp in an unflattering light. According to the New York Times, in the two years prior to the U.S. Open, at least seven of the company’s 70 country clubs were involved in lawsuits filed against ClubCorp by member homeowners or co-owners. (ClubCorp eventually withdrew from Pinewild’s management agreement and told members in a letter that it had “put us in a position where we are unable to carry out our duties.”)
So when Pinehurst hosted the 1999 U.S. Open (expected to be Dedman Sr.’s crowning achievement), he instead sat down with Sports Illustrated to write a profile about how a figure so beloved by many around the club was suddenly disliked .
“Because we have a good reputation, people think that if they say a few big things, we will give in and pay for the intimidation,” Dedman Sr. told SI. “We can’t afford to do that. We made people go to unpleasant lengths to get consensus. We have zero tolerance for such behavior. To quote one of our former presidents, our philosophy is to spend millions of dollars on defense, but not a penny in tribute.”
When Pinehurst hosted the 1994 U.S. Senior Open, the No. 2 course bore little resemblance to Donald Ross’ original design. It has since been restored. (Gary Newkirk/Allsport via Getty Images)
But once the fighting with the townspeople began, Pinehurst’s public relations problems really came to the fore. In 1995, a Pinehurst resident named Edmund Dietrich wrote a letter to Southern Pines’ local newspaper, The Pilot, saying tips were being withheld from resort employees. Dietrich was sued for defamation, which ClubCorp later dismissed. ClubCorp then reportedly threatened local businesses using Pinehurst as their name for trademark infringement. They claimed that Pinehurst was only the name of the resort and facility, and that the village was ‘Pinehurst Village.’
ClubCorp lawyer Stephen Trattner famously said: “I don’t believe there is a Pinehurst in NC. If you call it that, your mail might arrive that way (but) you don’t live in Pinehurst. “You live in the town of Pinehurst.”
Dedman Sr. created an environment where members and guests were treated like royalty. His staff remembered his favorite cocktails and made sure to use his name at least four times on the trip. Helping people get healthy. He felt left out. The Pinehurst Business Guild became the Village of Pinehurst Business Guild. Companies like Pinehurst Interiors were forced to change their name to Village Design Group, which still stands today.
While Dedman Sr. was a charming personality who could light up a room, Bob Jr. was a cool-headed, enterprising CEO and, by his father’s admission, a more organized executive. But if Dedman Jr. was then categorized as the ultimate executive driving growth, he was also the man overseeing public rehabilitation.
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US Open Big Board: How does Pinehurst stack up on the field after Scottie Scheffler?
Another interesting thing about progress is that success tends to heal most wounds. Pinehurst has become a golf powerhouse, bringing millions of dollars in tourism to the area each year. Dedman Jr. founded the local Boys & Girls Club chapter in Pinehurst in 1999 and currently receives local hospitality awards. While the mayor in 1999 called his father arrogant and a bully, former Pinehurst Mayor Nancy Roy Fiorillo (2011-2019) raved about all the good work Dedman Jr. is doing and how great the Pinehurst Resort is for the town.
“Bob Dedman Jr. is doing everything he can,” was the headline of an article in The Pilot last week. He has written similar articles for Global Golf Post and PineStraw Magazine. Maybe some of that comes from the ClubCorp sale. It’s much easier to be a generous owner if you’re running an iconic club rather than a large corporation fighting for small profits.
What is clear is that Pinehurst is currently thriving. According to the National Golf Foundation, more than 12 million Americans have traveled to play golf each year over the past two years. This is approximately a 20% increase over the historical average. Pinehurst attracts a big part of that.
Every resort is trying to keep up with a place that can boast an incredible history and constant innovation and new courses, with everyone from Bobby Jones to Tiger Woods playing here. A team of architects including Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw restored No. 2, removing rough patches and leaving coarse sand areas in the fairways, taking the already famous course to a new level. Gil Hanse’s redesign of the No. 4 took on even greater significance. All the best designers past and present have contributed to one course or another.
And the resort continues to veer off course, converting an abandoned steam plant into a brewery and sprucing up the clubhouse with lush new grounds for members. They expanded the Deuce Grill, restored one inn, and renovated another. All of this comes in addition to the USGA’s new Golf House Pinehurst and the return of the World Golf Hall of Fame to St. Augustine, Florida.
The Dedmans have always been about Pinehurst, but they’ve always tried to get better and they’ve just kept pushing and pushing to a point where they don’t seem to be able to stop. And now this week’s conversation is entirely about the course and how awesome it is to watch. It’s not a problem of the past.
They couldn’t pin Dedmans to the wall.
(Top photo: Tracy Wilcox / PGA Tour via Getty Images)
