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Soon after acquiring Pine Needles
(above), the Bell family repositioned several tee
boxes to make the classic Ross course more receptive to
the shots many women golfers hit.
By
Bill F. Hensley
Pine
Needles, the classic Donald Ross course in
Southern Pines that will host its second U.S.
Women's Open championship next year, was named
the state's Best Course for Women in balloting by
the women members of the North Carolina Magazine
Golf Panel. Pine Needles was a runaway favorite
of the 14 course raters, who include many of the
best women golfers in the state. See the
chart below.
Pine Needles is owned by
LPGA pioneer Peggy Kirk Bell and her family.
After acquiring the resort more than 40 years
ago, she repositioned several tee boxes and make
other subtle changes to the old Ross course to
make it more receptive to the type of game played
by women, said general manager Kelly Miller.
“We're awfully
thrilled and honored to have been chosen the No.
1 course for women, which I think is a great
tribute to both Donald Ross and to Mrs.
Bell,” Miller said. “Pine Needles was
one of the earlier courses in the country to
understand that women approach a golf course
differently than men. It's still one of the most
challenging courses around but it's enjoyable for
woman players, as some of the world's best told
us after the 1996 Open. And I think this is one
of the reasons why the Open is coming back here
next year.”
The U.S. Women's Open
Championship will return to Pine Needles May 28
through June 3, 2001. A sell-out gallery of
25,000 to 30,000 is predicted. Tickets will go on
sale this May 28.
The event is being
staged by Pinehurst Championship Management,
which managed the 1996 Women's Open at Pine
Needles and the 1999 U.S. Men's Open at Pinehurst
No. 2.
To order tickets for the
2001 U.S. Women's Open, call Pinehurst
Championship Management at 1-800-295-2094. For
corporate sales, including corporate tents, call
910-215-8220.Visit the resort on the Web
at http://www.golfnc.com/PineNeedles/.
Tied for second place
was the Country Club of North Carolina's Dogwood
course, the state's best Ellis Maples layout, and
Mid Pines, another Ross classic that's adjacent
to and owned by Pine Needles. Fourth was
Pinehurst No. 2, giving the Pinehurst/Southern
Pines area a clean sweep of the top four spots.
The rankings are based
on questionnaires completed by all 14 women
members of the Golf Panel. The survey, while
perhaps not large enough to be statistically
valid, still is persuasive because the
respondents include many great players.
The survey asked the
women panelists what changes in golf architecture
they would recommend to accommodate the different
skills and abilities of women players. Generally,
they said courses aren't necessarily doing women
any favors just by placing the red tees 30 to 50
yards forward. Particularly on dogleg par fours,
this can actually penalize a women golfer by
forcing her to lay up to avoid hitting through
the fairway at the dogleg
“Don't put the (red
tees) directly in front of a dogleg,”
advised Ballentyne Resort pro Dana Rader of
Charlotte. “This gives the golfer no options
except to play the hole with a short iron (off
the tee) and makes the hole play longer than it
should.”
“The placement of
the tees should fit the design of the hole,”
said Page Marsh Lea, of Southern Pines, a former
All-American golfer at UNC-Chapel Hill.
“I don't like to
have to lay up and then have a long club into a
green that will not receive that shot,” said
Sally Austin, the women's golf coach at
Carolina..
Playing the men's tees
isn't a desirable option, said Nancy Meyer of
Asheville. “I'm running into so many courses
with the forward tees at 5,000 (yards) or less,
and then they jump to 5,700 and longer (which)
becomes overly long.”
Courses also make the
mistake of placing the red tees adjacent to the
cart path, apparently to save women players some
steps. This is a courtesy many women players
could do without, said panelist Peggy Kirk Bell.
Having to tee off from the far side of a fairway
means the woman player “can't take advantage
of the hole's intended design,” she wrote.
Best
Courses for Women Golfers
Pine
Needles, Southern Pines
CCNC
(Dogwood), Pinehurst
Mid
Pines, Southern Pines
Pinehurst
No. 2, Pinehurst
Old
North State, New London
Sedgefield
CC, Greensboro
Hound
Ears, Blowing Rock
Linville
GC, Linville
The
Challenge, Graham
Landfall
(Dye), Wilmington
Pinehurst
No. 1, Pinehurst
Bryan
Park, Greensboro
Charlotte
CC, Charlotte
Ballantyne
Resort, Charlotte
Colonial,
Thomasville
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