PINEHURST, N. C. – This position would possibly fool you. It’s all so captivating and whimsical that Mayberry has a golf mecca in the dunes of North Carolina.
You walk along the brick paths that run through the village, passing two-story brick buildings filled with pretty department stores and old pubs. More than a million people visit Disney World each year for idyllic, golf-themed getaways.
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This would possibly make you think you’ve stumbled upon a golf oasis. It will make you think that this place is a heavyweight, a resort, a full-fledged corporation with luxury hotels and chalets and 10 courses designed by renowned golf architects. Yes, I would. They possibly started with the owner of a chain of pharmacies that gave tuberculosis patients the chance to recover in a shelter designed by the same guy who designed Central Park. But the reasons why a position is started are rarely the same as those that make a destination prosper.
Today, Pinehurst Resort is considered the birthplace of American golf. The USGA has announced it as the first of its new “anchor sites,” which will host the U. S. Open every 5 or 6 years for the next 30 years, starting this week. .
Pinehurst regained the World Golf Hall of Fame. Its relationship with the city is strong and it is a must-visit destination for generations of recreational golfers. It is, for the foreseeable future, a focal point that combines the worlds of casual and professional golf. .
But recently, this position was in the process of getting out of $70 million in debt, being at war with the other inhabitants of this city, and getting embroiled in countless lawsuits over issues ranging from predatory control methods to member scams.
And all too long ago, a personal investigator who called himself “the fat man” had a sign of the Pinehurst owner on a chair in front of his desk with an undeniable mission: “I just need this guy nailed to the wall. “
There’s a mantra that Robert H. Dedman Jr. repeats at will: “Always Pinehurst, but better. “
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But progress is not achieved in a direct line. What started as an advertising city became anything else when James W. Tufts hired Donald Ross as a professional golfer and coached Pinehurst No. 1 before completing his masterpiece, Pinehurst No. 2, in 1907. Ross finished his fourth Pinehurst course before 1920 and the hotel had become a premier golf destination with 3 inns. The city and station were so intertwined that station workers were paid during the Depression in certificates redeemable only at Tufts-owned companies. It began its entry into professional golf circles, hosting the 1936 PGA Championship and the 1951 Ryder Cup.
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But in 1971, the Tufts family sold Pinehurst to Diamondhead Corporation, a real estate concession owned by Malcolm McLean that had its roots in the culture and covered condominium categories and attempted to modernize the look of Ross’s design. Sacrilege. The station’s prestige declined, as did its quality, and it racked up $70 million in debt during the time Diamondhead had to sell Pinehurst to a consortium of eight banks in 1982.
Then came the savior, a nickname that for many is a source of discord.
Robert H. Dedguy Sr. was the founder of ClubCorp, a Dallas-based company that made a splash by buying distressed personal golf clubs and country clubs and rebuilding them. Over time, they owned over two hundred homes around the world and Dedguy Sr. was a billionaire. Referred to through Golf Digest as one of the most important people in golf. He was a charming, self-made guy from Arkansas who managed to present himself as anything between a capitalist and a rogue.
“The first time I stood in front of the clubhouse and looked at all the street tapes, I had tears in my eyes,” Dedman Sr. told Sports Illustrated in 1999. “I have respected Pinehurst for his position in the history of golf. And when I saw it all in spite of everything, I knew at once that we would take this fallen angel and make him worse than he was, but greater than he had ever been.
It’s still Pinehurst, but even bigger. But it is always higher to have a cost. Capitalism is a game of winners and losers, and progress sometimes leaves others behind.
Pinehurst is the crown jewel of the ClubCorp empire, and Dedman Sr. has made those dreams a reality by restoring culture and returning Pinehurst to its rightful position in the sport. In fact, he raised him.
Fifteen years and $100 million after its purchase, the 1999 US Open was held in Pinehurst. Dedman Sr. died in 2002, but Dedman Jr. (known as Bob) ran much of the company in the 1990s. The Dedmans sold ClubCorp in 2006, but kept Pinehurst as their base and, after a successful restoration, made history by hosting the men’s and women’s US Open for consecutive weeks in 2014. The men’s tournament lasted 10 years. However, with the designation of its new anchor site, Pinehurst has managed to cement its position at the forefront of American golf.
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This version, however, was rejected. From 1991 to 2000, as many as 55 percent (more than 3,000) of Pinehurst’s members contributed to the legal budget of a lawsuit alleging that the club had brought in too many foreigners, denied them agreed access to tee times, and had an unduly larger membership. . fresh.
In 1990, ClubCorp sold its interest in neighboring Pinewild Country Club to Japanese cookie maker Tohato Inc. with the agreement that Tohato would pay ClubCorp to manage it. In 1996, Tohato sued ClubCorp because it felt deceived, alleging that the latter treated Pinewild as a reasonable overflow course for visitors who pay to stay next door at the Pinehurst Resort. Tohato officials also claimed that ClubCorp intentionally mismanaged the assets to force Tohato to pull out and sell them back to Pinehurst for a fraction of the original cost.
Things got dramatic when Tohato hired prominent personal investigator William Graham to help him with the case. Graham, an eccentric who appeared in “Late Night with David Letterman” and “20/20” and in talks with studios to produce a movie about his life. Graham sued ClubCorp so harshly that he was eventually sued for defamation. And all the while, Graham was causing the Dedmans constant headaches.
In 1997, Graham sent faxes across the country detailing 33 allegations of “civil and criminal violations” against ClubCorp. He quoted South Carolina’s The State newspaper as calling Dedman Sr. and his company “backstabbing, corkscrewing, double dealing, lying, cheating, and stealing (SOB). “
ClubCorp, of course, used all of this in its defamation case, which was incorporated into a seven-figure settlement paid through Tohato to ClubCorp. But those faxes led major media outlets like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times to investigate and publish gigantic articles. portraying ClubCorp in an unflattering light. 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 against ClubCorp filed through the member-owners or a co-owner, according to the New York Times. (ClubCorp eventually withdrew from its control agreement on Pinewild, telling members in a letter that it had “been placed in a position that allows you to bring our work to light. “)
So when Pinehurst hosted the 1999 US Open, which was intended to be Dedman Sr. ‘s crowning glory, he sat down with Sports Illustrated for a profile of how such a beloved figure suddenly hated so many people at the club.
“Just because we have a wonderful reputation, other people think that if they make some grandiose statements, we’re going to give in and pay for their blackmail,” Dedman Sr. told SI. “We can’t do that. ” There have been egregious efforts by others to try to reach an agreement. We have 0 tolerance for this behavior. Our philosophy, to quote one of our former presidents, is millions for defense but not a penny for the triyete. “
But Pinehurst’s PR upheavals actually took over when battles with locals began. In 1995, a Pinehurst resident, Edmund Dietrich, wrote a letter to The Pilot, Southern Pines’ local newspaper, claiming that tips given to hotel workers were not disclosed. Dietrich was sued for defamation, ClubCorp later fired him. ClubCorp then allegedly threatened local businesses for employing Pinehurst on their calls, mentioning trademark infringement. He claimed that Pinehurst was just the call of the station and facilities, and that the town was the “village of Pinehurst”.
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ClubCorp attorney Stephen Trattner said, “I don’t know Pinehurst, North Carolina. You can call it that and the mail may arrive that way, (but) you don’t live in Pinehurst. You live in the village of Pinehurst.
Dedman Sr. had created an environment where members and visitors were treated like royalty, with staff reminiscing about their favorite cocktails and making sure to use their calls at least four times during the trip, but the other people in the city, a city founded to help other people be healthy, made me feel alienated. The Pinehurst Business Guild has become the Village of Pinehurst Business Guild. Companies like Pinehurst Interiors had to replace their call to Village Design Group, which still exists today.
If Dedman Sr. is the captivating personality who can brighten up a room, Bob Jr. is the uncompromising, forward-thinking CEO who, by his father’s admission, is a tidier executive. But while at the time Dedman Jr. described him as a pro-growth leader, he also oversaw his public rehabilitation.
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Another curious aspect of progress is that good fortune tends to repair as many wounds as possible. Pinehurst is growing stronger in the world of golf, generating millions and millions of dollars for tourism in the domain every year. Dedman Jr. founded a local store.
“Bob Dedman Jr. is doing everything smart he can,” is the headline of an article that appeared in The Pilot last week. Similar articles have been written through Global Golf Post and PineStraw Magazine. This would possibly have come in part from the sale of ClubCorp: it’s much less difficult to be magnanimous owners when you’re running an iconic club and not a conglomerate fighting for each and every small margin.
What is clear is that Pinehurst is now thriving. More than 12 million Americans have traveled to play golf in the past two years, an increase of about 20 percent over the previous average, according to the National Golf Foundation. Pinehurst attracts a giant component of it.
Each hotel is looking to catch up, a position that can boast an incredible history with everyone from Bobthrough Jones to Tiger Woods having played here, combined with constant innovation and new courses. The recovery of No. 2 through the team of architects formed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw propelled the already known field to new heights, cutting through difficult spaces and leaving difficult, sandy spaces off the fairways. Gil Hanse’s redesign of factor four gave it greater importance. All of the most important designers of and today have contributed to one course or another.
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And the hotel continues to veer off course, turning an abandoned steam factory into a brewery and renovating the clubhouse with lush new facilities for members. They expanded the Deuce Grill, restored one inn and renovated another. All this in addition to the USGA’s new Pinehurst Golf House and the World Golf Hall of Fame, which returns from St. John’s. John’s. Augustine, Florida.
The Dedmans tried to make sure he was still Pinehurst, but improving him, and they kept pushing and pushing until a point where he became unstoppable going forward. And now, the verbal exchange of the week is all about the course and pleasure. to see it. Not the disorders of the past.
They couldn’t nail the Dedmans to the wall.
(Top photo: Tracy Wilcox/PGA Tour Getty Images)