WE ARE OPEN & WE ARE OPEN TOO! Mistwood Golf Club in Romeoville (L) or in Bolingbrook in the Mistwood Golf Dome on Rt. 53. Catch the Madness-The Sauce Madness, and brings the clubs and the appetite. Mistwoodgolfdome.com or the golf course at MistwoodGC.com. Lessons, Club-fittings, Toptracer Golf and more hoops.
THE TENTH ON #10. The Gog Blog by RORY SPEARS, Director of Content and Creation for Golfers on Golf. Follow Rory on X-Twitter @GogBlogGuy or connect on LinkedIn-Facebook or Instagram.
THE SPRING GOLF TRIP HAS BEGUN.
I HAVE run out of the last blast of winter in the Chicago area. So it’s back to Pinehurst for the third time this year.
So there is much to see, and much to do, from the unfinished business list of January and February.
Pinehurst has started setting up for the U.S. Open, now that it’s less than 100 days out. The new hotel renovations at the Carolina, the new Course #10 is just 10 days from opening. Renovations at the Carolina Hotel are about finished after three years of work. YES as the saying goes, it’s a beautiful day in Pinehurst. So I’m glad to be back at the Home of American Golf.
TEN #10 and PINEHURST 10 it’s opening early next month. So I think golfers will enjoy the course from what I have seen in my recent visits. Because other than the local Pinehurst newspaper reporter from “The Pilot”, I was the first media to go exploring on the new #10 course property.
But what was an adventure, was my first trip to the “Pit Golf Course” property, when it was nothing but an abandoned golf course. The story I wrote after that visit, earned comments for many months. But it proved to me, when Pinehurst got around to a full reimagining of the property, there would be plenty of interest from golfers everywhere.
Pinehurst Director of Grounds Bob Farren was kind of enough to drive me around in his truck in January of 2023. Tree’s were still being cut down, and fires were lit to burn up piles of debris and smaller trees.
The routing of Pinehurst 10 being cleared in Jan. of 2023.
Tom Doak’s lead associate Angela Moser was on-site, and Doak was expected back on property in three weeks.
Moser was kind enough to do her first interview about the Course #10 project with me, sitting in the front seat of my Jeep, as the temperatures were only in the upper 30’s.
What became clear is that someday, Moser will be one of the leading design architects in the world, not just one of the best women architects, one of the best design architects overall.
EARLIER THIS YEAR my visit back to the quickly maturing property on a 14 degree morning, showed me that Doak and Moser had done the property a real service. What I have called a “dazzling display of design”, is the capturing of Pinehurst flavored golf at the new #10. But by the time Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw wrap up #11 on the same site, the old Pit area, might not be referred to as a Pit anymore.
MY THIRD VISIT to the old Pit Course land is this week, this time with clubs in hand. I’m ready to see what Doak and Moser have dialed up. My #10 preview will run here later this week.
U.S. Open preparations are underway on course #2. Bleachers and more are going up. The new USGA building and World Golf Hall of Fame facility in the parking lot of the Pinehurst Clubhouse, are quickly taking shape.
So I am really looking forward to a third Pinehurst trip in 2024. If you have never been to Pinehurst, it’s time to go, or time to return if it’s been a few years.
IT IS A SPECIAL YEAR in the Cradle or the Home of American Golf. RS