Pinehurst’s Clubhouse A Monument To The Game

“Pinehurst reminds me of a quote I read not long ago: ‘Golf is not a matter of life and death to these people.  It's more important than that.’ ” – Tom Watson

By Kevin McManemin, USGA

Far Hills, N.J. -- For those who have never visited the resort, it may be hard to comprehend the full grandeur of Pinehurst’s sprawling, historic clubhouse.  Here’s a suggestion: think of your local course’s clubhouse. Then, think big. 

Then, think bigger.

Think of a cart garage that holds an entire armada of fairway buggies – a total of 300 in all. 

Think of a pro shop that sells some 50,000 shirts a year and has enough space across the way to create 1,500-square feet of room for a U.S. Open store that carries all items related to the 2005 championship.

The Pinehurst clubhouse has undergone extensive changes in its 107-year history. (USGA Photo Archives)
More important, think of the Pinehurst clubhouse as the people who work and play here do – as hallowed ground on which the greatest legends of the game have walked for more than a century.  Nearly every important figure in American golf history has passed through the corridors of the Pinehurst clubhouse, and to walk its halls today is to be enveloped in their ever-present aura. 

“We’re surrounded by golf,” said Stephen Cryan, Pinehurst’s director of retail operations.    “It’s a way of life here. This clubhouse has been the backdrop to many great championships; to so much history … these are the things that make Pinehurst special.  This is pure golf.” 

Pinehurst Through The Ages

Pinehurst’s clubhouse sprang from fairly humble beginnings.  The simple wooden frame constructed in November of 1898 to hold dressing rooms and a reception area bore little resemblance to today’s sprawling structure.

According to Audrey Moriarty, director of the Tufts Library in Pinehurst, resort founder James Tufts would have seen no need for anything more spectacular in these early days.

“They thought golf was a passing fancy,” said Moriarty.  “But it ran away with them.  They couldn’t keep up with the demand.” 

So, in 1900, they doubled the size of the clubhouse to accommodate this golfing craze, added a caddie room and opened a second level.  Yet the growing swarm of golfers soon overwhelmed these facilities, and in 1903 they doubled the size of the clubhouse again.

More space was added in 1910 and five years later, an entire new wing was built, complete with a full kitchen and dining room. As the resort continued to grow from one golf course, to three, to six, and all the way to its present eight, the clubhouse expanded right along with the demands of the golfers. 

It’s this history of constant addition and expansion that makes the clubhouse the architectural mélange it is today.  Fronted by a classic colonnade, the two-story, multi-wing structure blends Southern charm and gentility with the features it needs to serve a resort that logs more than 300,000 rounds a year. 

Clubhouse Tour

Today, the spiritual center of the clubhouse (at least for those who view golf with religious devotion) is a long hallway known as Heritage Hall. Stuffed with photos, plaques, trophies and other memorabilia from 107 years of existence, the hallway echoes with the great names of the past.

The names that tumble from the plaques listing the winners of Pinehurst’s North & South Amateur and North and South Open tournaments – Collett, Hagen, Hogan, Nelson, Nicklaus, Ouimet, Snead and Zaharias – read like a roll call from the World Golf Hall of Fame. Hogan, in fact, won his first professional tournament at Pinehurst (North and South).

And the players aren’t the only ones given their historical dues. One wall is dedicated to Pinehurst’s Caddie Hall of Fame, providing an intriguing look at the under-appreciated bag men who for more than a century have navigated the pine-scented hills of the club.

Payne Stewart's legacy lives on outside the clubhouse. (John Mummert/USGA)
A series of display cases in Heritage Hall house memorabilia from men and women with deep personal connections to Pinehurst, like North Carolina’s favorite son and two-time U.S. Amateur champion Harvey Ward, LPGA co-founder Peggy Kirk Bell, and former PGA President Don Padgett Sr. One display case contains replicas of the trophies of the major events held at Pinehurst, including the U.S. Open trophy. Another contains memorabilia from Payne Stewart, commemorating his 1999 U.S. Open win, with another display bare, waiting for the 2005 U.S. Open winner to etch his mark in Pinehurst lore. 

A stone’s throw from Heritage Hall is the recently opened St. Andrews room, a meeting/dining room dedicated as a tribute to Pinehurst’s ‘sister club.’ (And yes, we’re talking about that St. Andrews in Scotland). The two clubs have long felt a psychic connection – no less a light than Bob Jones first dubbed Pinehurst “the St. Andrews of United States golf.”  A plaque in the room explains: “For to stand on the first tee of either place is to feel the full weight of the game's history descend on your shoulders. St. Andrews is the home of golf and Pinehurst is the guardian of its traditions in the United States.”

There is so much solidarity between the two clubs that on U.S. Open Media Day (April 11), Peter Mason brought a quaich of sand from St. Andrews’ famous Road Hole and blended it with greenside bunker sand on the 18th hole of Pinehurst No. 2.

More Than A Clubhouse

Pinehurst’s bustling pro shop, 5,200 square feet of real estate stands at the end of Heritage Hall.

On the opposite end is the Donald Ross Grill and the adjoining club bar, the aptly named “91st Hole” (as the clubhouse serves as the terminus of the five Pinehurst golf courses located on the main resort site. The other three courses are off the main property).

The grill’s grand veranda serves as the traditional staging place for trophy ceremonies while also offering a view of the surrounding courses.

Outside of the clubhouse on the “Walk of Fame” one can find impressive bronze tributes to Pinehurst institutions Donald Ross, Richard Tufts, Robert Dedman and Payne Stewart.  Stewart’s statue is especially noteworthy, capturing his body in the joyous contortion of britches-covered limbs that occurred the moment his 15-foot par putt dropped for a one-stroke victory over Phil Mickelson in ‘99.

“We call that pose the ‘One Moment in Time,’” said Cryan, “since it was the one moment in time Payne had to savor the victory for himself.” 

Finally, on a pedestal between the practice putting greens, is the statuary symbol of Pinehurst, and perhaps one of the most famous club symbols in all of golf – Putterboy. 

Like everything in Pinehurst, there’s a rich history behind the Putterboy statue.  Pinehurst’s first advertising consultant drew images of a young golfer decked out in a floppy white hat and baggy trousers in advertisements for the resort nearly a century ago.  Local artist Lucy Richards was asked to sculpt a statue/sundial of the character in 1912.  (Since Richards wasn’t a golfer, she needed a model to show her the correct stance. Ross, then a club pro, gamely agreed to demonstrate the proper form, thereby adding ‘statue model’ to his impressive list of lifetime achievements.)  

Known as ‘Golf Lad,’ in the early days, ‘Sundial Boy’ until the 1970s, and ‘Putterboy’ today, the icon has seen more than its share of golf history from its stony perch.  And like the Pinehurst clubhouse itself, the statue will no doubt witness more classic moments from new generations of golf legends in the centuries to come.

Kevin McManemin is a staff writer for the USGA. Contact him with comments or questions at kmcmanemin@usga.org. Ken Klavon contributed.
U.S. Open, U.S. Open Championship and United States Golf Association are registered service marks of the United States Golf Association (USGA) Copyright © 2005. United States Golf Association. All Rights Reserved. Use of this Web site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
 
Visit The USGA