PINEHURST, N.C. — This place might trick you. It’s all so charming and whimsical that Mayberry becomes a golf mecca in the North Carolina sand dunes.
You stroll through the village along brick walkways, passing two-storey brick buildings filled with cute shops and quaint pubs. More than one million people travel to Disney World each year for an idyllic golf-themed vacation.
It might fool you into thinking you’ve stumbled upon a golf oasis. Make you forget that this place is huge, a resort, a complex with luxury hotels and villas and 10 courses designed by famous golf architects. Yes, it probably started when a pharmacy chain owner offered tuberculosis patients the chance to recover in a shelter designed by the architect of Central Park. But the reasons a place begins are rarely the same reasons a destination continues to thrive.
Today, Pinewood Resort calls itself the cradle of American golf. The United States Golf Association (USGA) announced it is its first new “anchor venue,” which will host the U.S. Open every 5-6 years for the next 30 years starting this week.
Pinehurst brings home World Golf Hall of Fame. It has close ties to the town and has been a bucket list destination for generations of recreational golfers. For the foreseeable future, it is the central focus for the combined worlds of leisure and professional golf.
But it wasn’t long ago that the place emerged from $70 million in debt, was at war with the town’s people, and was embroiled in countless lawsuits that focused on everything from predatory management tactics to members feeling cheated And other issues.
Not long ago, a private investigator who calls himself “Fat Guy” taped a poster of a Pinehurst owner to the chair in front of his desk. His mission was simple: “I just want this guy nailed to the wall.”
Robert H. Dedman Jr. repeated a mantra casually: “Always the pines, but always better.”
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But progress doesn’t always come in a straight line. When James W. Tufts hired Donald Ross as a professional golfer and organized Pinehurst No. 1, he completed his masterpiece in 1907 – The original company town became something else when the ballpark of Pinehurst No. 2 was built. Three hotels. The town and resort were so closely connected that during the Great Depression, resort employees’ salaries could only be paid in convertible notes at Tufts-owned businesses. It began to enter the professional golf circle, hosting the 1936 PGA Championship and the 1951 Ryder Cup.
But in 1971, the Tufts family sold Pinewood to the Diamondhead Corporation, a real estate project owned by Malcom McLean that was rooted in tradition, and the ballpark Apartments were built inside and an attempt was made to modernize the look of Ross’ design. Blasphemy. The resort’s prestige declined, as did its quality, and by the time Diamondhead had to turn Pinehurst over to a consortium of eight banks in 1982, the resort was $70 million in debt.
Spectators are flocking to Pinehurst in droves this week to watch Tiger Woods and other events at the U.S. Open. (Andrew Reddington/Getty Images)
The savior came, and the nickname became a point of contention for many.
Robert H. Dedman Sr. is the founder of ClubCorp, a Dallas-based company that has made money buying and rebuilding troubled private golf and country clubs. The bowl is full. They eventually owned more than 200 properties around the world, and the elder Deadman was a billionaire frequently cited by Golf Digest as one of the most important people in golf. He was a charming, self-made man from Arkansas who had managed to establish himself as somewhere between a capitalist and a romantic.
“When I first stood in front of the clubhouse and looked out at the fairways, I had tears in my eyes,” Deadman Sr. told Sports Illustrated in 1999. “I’ve always admired Pinehurst’s history. status.
Always Pinehurst, but always better. But being better often comes at a cost. Capitalism is a game with winners and losers, and progress often leaves others behind.
Pinehurst was the crown jewel of the ClubCorp empire, and the elder Deadman fulfilled those dreams by restoring tradition and restoring Pinehurst to its rightful place in the sport. In fact, he elevated it.
Fifteen years and $100 million later, the 1999 U.S. Open came to Pinehurst. Dedman Sr. died in 2002, but by the 1990s, Dedman Jr., also known as Bob, was running much of the company. The U.S. Open was held again in 2005. The game made history.
However, this construction brought resistance. Beginning in 1991 and continuing through 2000, as many as 55 percent of Pinehurst’s membership (more than 3,000 members) provided legal funding for a lawsuit alleging that the club brought in too many outsiders, denied them consent to attend tee times, and Improperly raising membership fees.
In 1990, ClubCorp sold its stake in nearby Pinewild Country Club to Japanese cookie maker Tohato Inc. and entered into an agreement whereby Tohato would pay ClubCorp a management fee. By 1996, Tohato sued ClubCorp because it felt it had been hoodwinked, claiming it was using Pinewild as a cheap overflow course for guests who paid to stay at the Pinehurst Resort next door. Tohato officials also claim ClubCorp attempted to intentionally mismanage the property, forcing Tohato to want out and sell it back to Pinehurst for a fraction of the original cost.
Things get dramatic when Tohato hires celebrity private investigator William Graham to help solve the case. Graham is an eccentric who has appeared on “Late Night with David Letterman” and “20/20” and is in talks with studios to make a movie about his life. Graham pursued ClubCorp so hard, they ended up suing him for defamation. Meanwhile, Graham also caused ongoing headaches for the Dedman family.
In 1997, Graham sent faxes across the country detailing 33 “civil and criminal violations” against ClubCorp. South Carolina’s The State newspaper quoted him as saying that the elder Deadman and his company were “a bunch of backbiters, loopholes, double-dealers, liers, cheaters, and thieves.”
Of course, all of this was used by ClubCorp in the defamation case, with Donhatto paying ClubCorp a seven-figure settlement. But the faxes led to major media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times investigating and publishing large articles that made unflattering comments about ClubCorp. According to the New York Times, in the two years leading up to the U.S. Open, at least seven of the company’s 70 country clubs were involved in lawsuits filed against ClubCorp by member-owners or co-owners. (ClubCorp eventually exited Pinewild’s management arrangement, telling members in a letter that it was “left in a position that made it impossible for us to do our job.”)
So when Pinehurst hosted the 1999 U.S. Open – what would have been the elder Deadman’s crowning achievement – he sat down with Sports Illustrated to profile such a beloved player. How the character is suddenly disliked by so many people around the club.
“Just because we have a great reputation, people think that if they make some grand statement, we’re going to give in and pay their blackmail,” Deadman Sr. told SI. “We cannot afford to do this. We have had people go to great lengths to try to reach reconciliation. We have zero tolerance for this kind of behavior. In the words of one of our former presidents, our philosophy is to invest millions of dollars in defense , but not a penny invested in tribute.
When Pinehurst hosted the 1994 U.S. Senior Open, the No. 2 course bore little resemblance to Donald Ross’s original design. It has now been restored. (Gary Newkirk/Allsport via Getty Images)
But Pinehurst’s public relations problems really began to arise when the battle with the townspeople began. In 1995, a Pinehurst resident named Edmund Dietrich wrote to The Pilot, a local Southern Pines newspaper, saying the resort Employee tips are withheld. Dietrich was sued for defamation, but ClubCorp later dropped the suit. ClubCorp then reportedly threatened local businesses using Pinehurst in their names, citing trademark infringement. It claims that Pinehurst is simply the name of the resort and facilities and that the town is the “Village of Pinehurst.”
ClubCorp attorney Stephen Trattner once famously said, “I don’t believe there’s a Pinehurst in North Carolina, you might call it, and the mail might get there that way, But you don’t live in Pinehurst. You live in Pinehurst Village.
The old Deadman created an environment where members and guests were treated like royalty, with staff remembering their favorite cocktails and making sure their names were used at least four times on every tour, but the people who live in this town — a town founded to help people become healthy — felt alienated. Pinehurst Merchants Guild becomes Pinehurst Merchants Guild Village. Companies such as Pinehurst Interiors had to change their name to Village Design Group, which they still do today.
If Deadman Sr. was a charming figure who could light up a room, Bob Jr. was a dogged, visionary CEO who, his father admitted, was a more organized executive . But if the younger Deadman was labeled at the time as a bottom-line executive driving growth, he was also the one overseeing public revitalization.
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Another interesting thing about progress is that success tends to heal most wounds. Pinehurst has become an increasingly important force in the golf world, bringing millions of dollars in tourism revenue to the area each year. Dedman Jr. founded the local Boys & Girls Club chapter in Pinehurst in 1999 and is currently receiving the local hospitality award. In 1999, the mayor called his father an arrogant, bully, but former Pine Grove Mayor Nancy Roy Fiorillo (2011-2019) did not do all the good things the younger Dedman did and Pinewood Resort were full of praise for the town’s contribution.
“Bob Deadman Jr. is doing his best,” was the headline of a report in The Pilot magazine last week. Global Golf Post and PineStraw Magazine have written similar articles. Perhaps some of that comes from the sale of ClubCorp – it’s much easier to be a magnanimous owner when you’re running an iconic club rather than a conglomerate fighting for every bit of profit.
What’s clear is that Pinehurst is thriving right now. According to the National Golf Foundation, more than 12 million Americans have played golf in each of the past two years, an increase of about 20% from the historical average. Pinehurst attracts a lot of that.
Every resort is trying to catch up, and this place has incredible history, with everyone from Bobby Jones to Tiger Woods playing here, and constant innovation and new courses. The architect team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw restored No. 2, removing the rough and leaving firm sand outside the fairways. This already famous course is taken to new heights. Gil Hanse’s redesign of the No. 4 elevated its importance. All top designers past and present have contributed to one course or another.
The resort continues to push the envelope, converting an abandoned steam factory into a brewery and renovating the clubhouse to provide members with luxurious new accommodations. They expanded the Deuce Grill, restored one hotel and renovated another. All of this builds on the USGA’s new Pinehurst Golf Club and the World Golf Hall of Fame returning from St. Augustine, Florida.
The Deadmans tried to make sure everything was centered around Pinehurst but always made it better, and they kept pushing, pushing to the point where it seemed unstoppable. Now, this week is all about the course and how exciting it is to watch. Not a problem of the past.
They couldn’t pin the Demans to the wall.
(Above: Tracy Wilcox/PGA Tour via Getty Images)
