Bill Coore, ASGCA and Ben Crenshaw have been working on the iconic Donald Ross design of Pinehurst No. 2, widening fairway corridors and reducing turf coverage and corresponding maintenance.
Pinehurst No. 2 has played host to many major golf tournaments, including the 1999 and 2005 U.S. Opens, and is slated to host both the Men’s and Women’s U.S. Opens in 2014.
Work includes returning sandy waste areas, native wiregrass, and natural bunker edges. Fairways will be widened to play as they did from 1935 – 1960 and the amount of manicured rough will be reduced by 30 to 40 percent.
“It is not our intent to radically change this golf course,” Coore said. “We’re trying to uncover it, not recover it. We’re trying to take what Ross left and perhaps bring it back to the character and definition of what was once here. In short, we’ll bring the strategy back, and reinstate its character.”
The team has begun work and plans to continue through 2010 without any closure to the course or individual holes until mid-November.
For more information, visit Coore’s website here.
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