Pinehurst '98 ============== Dave Tutelman - Feb 18, 1998 The Thor effect was more subtle than usual, but definitely there. No parting of the rain clouds at our course, no thunderstorms starting as soon as we left the 18th green. But the locals told us this was the first weekend in '98 that hadn't seen any rain. And by Monday morning, it was raining hard again in Southern Pines. But while we were on the course, it was mixed sun and clouds, and mid-fifties temperatures. (Sweaters in the mornings came off on the front nine.) Our plan was three days of golf, or as close as our travel plans would permit. I wound up golfing 75 holes between 1PM Friday and 3PM Sunday (a little over two days). Thor and Joe Dean set the record for the group, at 93 holes. And Thor walked all of them. (My holes were about evenly divided between carrying, pulling, and riding. Ironically, my best golf was when I was carrying; take that, Casey Martin!) I flew down Friday morning, landing in Raleigh-Durham about 9AM. Fred Stluka and his nephew Matt Brophy were waiting there, so we grabbed my bags and were in Southern Pines before 11AM. Thor, Joe Dean, Mark Merritt, and Wayne Rhodes were already out on the course for their morning round. Our tee time was for about 1PM; so we checked into our rooms, lunched at the buffet, and headed for the range to de-rust our swings. John Luce had arranged a package for us that included Friday/Saturday lodging, two breakfasts and two dinners, and three days of "all the golf you can eat." The golf was at Mid Pines and Pine Needles, across the road from each other. Our rooms were at Mid Pines, but it was just a short walk to Pine Needles. THE COURSES: OK, the important stuff first... The courses are both Donald Ross designs, meaning that their distinguishing features were on and around the greens. Lots of bunkers, some tight greenside and some deceptively well short of the green. Subtle breaks; the hilly terrain played tricks with perspective, and many putts seemed to break uphill. The most apt quotes of the weekend about the Ross style of golf course? - "I HATE Donald Ross courses. I only play them to remind myself why I hate them." Mark Merritt at Mid Pines. - "How did Ross die? Was he shot by a disgruntled golfer?" either Bob Preston or John Luce, during our Sunday round at Pine Needles. One of the nice things about Pinehurst courses is the pines -- of course. Even the wayward tee shots (and I hit more than my fair share of those) seldom resulted in a lost ball or an unplayable lie. The ball would be a shining white dot on top of the brown needles, which cushioned it nicely for a clubhead to reach it. The condition of the courses was mixed. The fairways were great. The rough was adequate but not punitive. The greens, unfortunately, were not in great shape. At Mid Pines, they were a little bumpy, and Pine Needles had been aerated only a week before. But for those of us who came down from the cold north, the conditions were much better than we had seen in months. And the Carolinians said the fairways were better than they had been in months; at least the ball bounced and rolled instead of plugging. So much for the similarities; there were differences between the courses. Mid Pines is shorter and distinctly tighter than Pine Needles. Pine Needles has two long tee shots over lakes, Mid Pines just one. Pine Needles was the venue for the 1996 US Women's Open, and will be again in 2001. (I'll be glued to the TV.) THE GOLF: I'm sure I'm forgetting someone, but I think I managed to play golf with everyone except Tim Roeder and Phyllis and Chuck Bennett. We met the Friday morning crew coming off 18, and hit some range balls while they had lunch. I played the afternoon with Ash Harrison and Joe Dean, and Thor joined us for the back nine. I started very strong; I was two over after six holes. Then I remembered who I was, and racked up a couple of double bogeys. Wound up the round with a 42-49. My two best shots of the weekend came early on the Friday back nine: - I was struggling on the par-5 tenth hole, and found myself lying three and still 190 yards from a well-bunkered green. I had done some surgery on my new seven-wood just before the trip (added two swingweight points), and this was as good a time as any to see if it worked. Hit it pure, over the front bunker and it stayed on the back of the green. Two-putted to save the bogey. - On the par-4 twelfth, I was almost hole high in two, but 30-40 yards to the right on the edge of the pine woods. The pin was tucked in the back corner, so I had to hit over a trap then stop the ball within 20 feet to keep it on the green (and out of the swale in back). Lofted a wedge off the pine needles that just cleared the bunker, rolled past the pin, and left me a three-foot comeback putt for par. (Yes, I made it.) I know I said something about no unplayable lies in the pine woods, but I had THE most unplayable lie I've ever experienced on seventeen. I hooked my ball into the woods, and it came to rest in a ball-sized hole in the bark of a pine tree, right at ground level. Only half the ball was even visible, and I'd have had to swing lefty to touch that. Thank goodness for Rule 28-b. Saturday Morning before the first round was chaos. We had four tee times starting at 9:12 AM. The seven of us who were staying at the hotel were pre-paid, and the rest of the greens fees were being handled by John Luce. But John had made a wrong turn somewhere, and didn't arrive until 9:11. In the excitement, we just teed off as we were ready, with no thought to pairings. I wound up playing with probably the three lowest-handicap golfers there: Mark Merritt, Wayne Rhodes, and Jim Preston. I thoroughly enjoyed watching those guys attack the course, but for most of my round the course was attacking me. (Well, not exactly. But the part of the course I spent the most time attacking was the woods.) Mark is a big hitter, and Wayne is a tough competitor. I was impressed with Jim when I saw his swing at RSG-NC Greensboro two years ago, but this was the first time I've had a chance to play with him. All in all, the round was great fun. By "the turn" (in this case, the 18th hole), the two first groups had put some distance between themselves and the last two groups. Since members of the last two had been talking about not playing beyond 18 holes, the first two re-paired and teed off again. I was a bit tired, so I rode the round with Joe Dean. Fred walked, and Matt walked along with us but didn't play. He carried Fred's ball retriever, and walked the woods and ponds. In that afternoon, he probably found more balls than the RSG-Pinehurst group lost all weekend. Sunday we assembled on time; so of course there was a frost delay until 10:30. This gave us a chance to finally get acquainted with everyone, and to use Pine Needles' wonderful practice facility. Huge range. Huge green. Comfortable stations (though I'm not sure enough of them). I golfed with John and Jo Luce, and Bob Preston with whom I mostly shared a cart. I say "mostly" because nothing was going right for me, so I got out and walked a bunch of holes. More exercise, but my golf didn't get noticeably better. I enjoyed seeing John and Jo again. We had a lot of laughs and -- with the possible exception of John -- a lot of strokes. I won't say more, because Jo said, "You remember EVERYTHING!" sort of as a warning about this article... Bob gave me an interesting lessons in recovery tactics. He was in the woods (a place both of us spent too much time). He aimed for the lone tree right in the middle of the clearing he wanted to hit. "There's no way I'll be accurate enough to actually hit the tree." His ball ran out onto the fairway, and nearly to the green. So I tried it next time I was in the woods. Hit the target tree dead center, and wound up much deeper in the woods. :-( At the end of eighteen holes, John, Jo, and Bob packed it in. I took my bag off the cart, and hiked forward to the next hole, where I hoped Fred and Matt would be waiting. They were. A couple of holes later, we joined up with Joe and Thor, and played as a five until about 3:30. (Nobody behind and a slow group ahead, so no problem.) First time I've seen Matt play, though I heard he was hitting big drives Saturday morning. He has a long, smooth swing and hits the ball a mile when he connects. Interesting summary of how I played... I parred four of the first six holes of the weekend. I parred three of the last four holes of the weekend. In between, I tended toward double bogey. But at least I started and finished strong. And -- oh yeah -- had a wonderful time the whole way. THE FACILITIES: Thanks, John, for setting up the "Golf Lovers Weekend" package at the Mid Pines Inn. Beautiful old traditional hotel. Comfortable beds. Good food. Good, friendly service. And the rooms were ... well, "traditional". (Take that any way you like. You'll be right.) They had an excellent breakfast buffet, and we all did justice to it. The sit-down-and-be-served dinner (jackets required) was a novel change from the usual RSG evening plans. The service varied significantly with the person waiting on you. (Hey, y'all know the bunch of rowdies we are; Elaina, the cocktail waitress from New York, was really the only one on the staff that could handle us. :-) After dinner both nights, we repaired to the inn's game room. TV, table tennis, and bumper pool, but we occupied the card table and the pool table. Mark Merritt is a shark at both pool and hearts. One nice touch about the Mid Pines Inn is a novel service. Each evening we just dropped our bags off at the pro shop instead of taking them to the room or the car. In the morning, they were strapped to a cart (clubs cleaned) at the course where our tee time was for the day. Nice touch! MEMORABLE MOMENTS: When we arrived, Mark Merritt was complaining about hitting nothing but hooks with his driver all morning. Then he noticed that the logo on his shaft had rotated considerably from where it belonged. It was no longer solidly glued to the head. Now most of us would just revert to the three-wood for the rest of the weekend. Not Mark. He started mumbling about going to WalMart for a tube of epoxy, a pot, and an immersion heater. We laughed, but by the time he showed up at the dinner table, the field repair was done. (Never needed the immersion heater; the room had a coffee pot.) And I can assure you he hit the driver straight all Saturday morning. I learned a lot from Ash Harrison in Friday's round. But the most important lesson was: Never say "Whoops!" until you watch the ball go for at least two seconds. (He thinned one, and immediately "Whoops"ed loudly and clearly. The ball, out of earshot, settled down in the middle of the fairway about 250 yards from the tee.) Wayne Rhodes showed up at breakfast Saturday in a sweater of many colors (pink and green were among the more prominent). I complimented his taste, which surprised him considerably. Later, on the tee, he looked at the color-clash sweater I was wearing, and made a comment about my earlier remark. I allowed that, when I had made it, I was well aware what my wife had insisted I pack. Several times during the Saturday morning round, Mark and Wayne reminded me that they could always tell when I'd hit a good drive. They could hear my bones creak at my transition to the downswing. Now if only I can turn that into a useful swing thought... I met Chuck Bennett for the first time on Saturday morning. But in comparing notes, it turned out we worked for the same company, in the same building, for several years in the late '60s. Several of us tried to get Chuck to join our pool game, but he said that he hadn't played in 30 years and was too rusty. Finally acceding, he said he'd be right back and went to his room. He returned in minutes with a small bag, from which he took a cue which he screwed together -- then joined us. (I never got to play golf with him, so I don't know if he's a hustler there too.) Sunday morning, in the Pine Needles clubhouse, a reporter from the Raleigh paper was interviewing anyone who would stand still. He was looking for a heard-on-the-street story about the Casey Martin suit (just settled the day before). But he quickly discovered that the REAL story was that all the people he was interviewing were friends from the Internet, who only occasionally get together in person -- to play golf. I played terribly on Sunday. Most of my tee shots were hooks. About halfway through the round, I noticed that the shaft on my driver had rotated considerably from where it belonged..... Hey, John, ya done good !!!! Thanks for your efforts; it was great.