Dateline August 25, 2020, Pinehurst and the North-South Senior
On to Pinehurst. We left Raleigh bright and early and drove down to play Mid Pines Golf Club, a beautiful pine-lined course in the Pinehurst area. We had a great morning, paired with a gentleman from Nyack, New York, who was playing while his son was at a golf camp down the way. The next morning we played Southern Pines Golf Club. Mid Pines is owned by the group that also owns Pine Needles, and we were pleased to learn after our round that those same owners had just bought Southern Pines that summer. It needed a little work, but it was a wonderful experience, and all three are Donald Ross courses, great ones to play if ever you find yourself in the area.
John's parents lived in Southern Pines for a few years, and he has warm memories of playing golf with them there. They left and moved to California to live with John's brother Will back in the 1990s.
The North-South Senior. Pinehurst has hosted the North-South Amateur since 1901. The Senior Men's was first played in 1951 and the Senior Women's in 1957, and we had both been accepted to play in the 2020 North-South Senior Championship, which was an absolute thrill.
The Symphony house. Lin Culver had rented an Airbnb for eight of us to share, and what a riot it was, a 1934 mansion recently done over inside by a descendant of the original owner. With nine bedrooms and nine bathrooms there was plenty of room to honor the COVID distancing. The nearly eight thousand square feet held a butler's kitchen alongside a huge regular one, a music room, a library, a laundry, and a dining room that could seat at least twenty. It sat five minutes from the main Pinehurst courses and ten from No. 8.
As everyone arrived we all had our own plans for practice rounds, but by evening we would gather for cocktails and dinner, and the house became the hub for other friends in town for the tournament who were staying in smaller places.
Sunday practice and dinner. Sunday was practice-round day, so we headed off for an early-afternoon round at Pinehurst No. 8. We played with a delightful gentleman from Baltimore and Pinehurst, David Ogden, who hosts golfers for what he calls the "Ultimate Golfing Experience," his DogDenGolf; you stay at his home, and a private chef cooks your meals while you play your pick of the Pinehurst Resort courses. A fun afternoon. Sunday night is traditionally a dinner at the resort for all the participants, but because of COVID it was take-out that year, and we picked up our boxed prime rib at a drive-through outside the resort. Janice took the lead and fetched the dinners back to the house, and we all ate together in the big dining room.
The championship. Monday morning the tournament began, in the Super Senior Division. John was set to play the legendary No. 2, Donald Ross's masterpiece. "On the first tee, from Flagler Beach, Florida, John Wilson." It was his first time being announced on a first tee. Choke time? John took a caddie, Joe, who was perfect for John's brand of "military golf," John marching down the center of the fairway while Joe found the ball off in the rough. He had a challenging round of trying too hard, and we think he very nearly choked the club to death; he posted the highest score in his flight, but it was a great experience all the same.
Janice played No. 8 that day and was the first off the tee. It was a spectacular morning, the fog lifting and the sun coming through the pines, a wonderful round on a fantastic course. We met back at the house that evening, both glad of the people we had played with.
The second day Janice played No. 2, and she too took a caddie, since her Achilles could not manage the long walks and the caddie was allowed to drive the cart out into the fairways; John played No. 5.
On the final day John played No. 8 and Janice played No. 5. When it was all said and done, Janice finished eleventh and John finished DFL, but he had a wonderful time of it. What an opportunity it was, and we look forward to playing in the North-South again.
It had been a long, strange, masked summer, a country's worth of road and a great deal of golf, but a joy from the first tee to the last. We pointed the car south, glad as always to be heading home.
