The Money And Business Behind This Year's U.S. Open At Pinehurst
When it comes to professional golf’s best major championship, many people automatically default to The Masters tournament. I mean, I get it. The fully-bloomed azaleas and no-phone policy alone will make you fall in love with Augusta National Golf Club. However, if the Masters is 1a on your list, then the U.S. Open is 1b on mine.
The U.S. Open is golf’s toughest test, intentionally designed for the winning score to hover around par. This often creates havoc, like when they had to water the greens between tee shots during the final round of the 2004 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills because players kept putting off the green due to its dry conditions. Or maybe a better example is when Phil Mickelson made a ten during the 2018 U.S. Open—back at Shinnecock Hills—because he putt the ball while it was still moving due to frustration.
“They’ve lost the golf course,” Zach Johnson famously said after his 3rd round in 2018.
You get the point — the U.S. Open is *supposed* to be hard. And when you add a historic venue like Pinehurt’s No. 2, everything feels slightly more elevated.
Pinehurst is one of those places that everyone has to visit. The 130-year-old golf resort officially opened its tenth course this year, a Tom Doak-designed masterpiece that makes Pinehurst the only property outside China with ten eighteen-hole courses.
Of course, Pinehurst also has three hotels, hundreds of villas, condos, and houses, more restaurants than you need, and a par three course called “The Cradle,” which many people refer to as a “religious experience” after playing barefoot with a drink.
Even so, many were concerned when Pinehurst was awarded its first U.S. Open in 1999. They talked about how it’s a small town with not enough infrastructure. The closest major airport being 75 miles away made people nervous, too, and that was all before John Daly accused the USGA of “ruining” the course with unfair pin locations.
Those question marks have turned into exclamation points, though. Pinehurst is now considered one of golf’s premiere destinations. But don’t believe me or the one million people that visit the resort each year. Believe the USGA, who recently named Pinehurst one of its new “anchor sites,” meaning Pinehurst will host the U.S. Open every five or six years for the next 30 years, beginning with this week’s tournament.
So, given that we’ll be talking about Pinehurst a lot over the next few decades, today’s newsletter will be slightly different. Similar to the one I wrote on the Masters, below are some interesting and fun facts about one of golf’s increasingly iconic venues.
Pinehurst’s Purchase: Boston soda fountain magnate James Walker Tufts purchased the 5,500-acre piece of land that Pinehurst Resort was eventually built on for just $1.25 per acre in 1895, or a total purchase price of less than $7,000. The first golf course was built two years later, and Pinehurst became the country’s first destination golf resort.
Current Ownership: Pinehurst is now owned by golf’s richest family, the Dedman family. Robert Dedman Sr. passed away in 2002, but he owned a company called ClubCorp., which owned over 200 golf clubs nationwide. His family eventually sold the business for $1.8 billion, but they made sure to keep just one club: Pinehurst.