Home Again By Ron Sirak

HOME AGAIN

T he h istor y of women’s golf is embe dde d in t he Sa nd h i l ls

PHOTOGRAPHS CLOCKWISE FROM LFT BOTTOM: USGA/ROBERT WALKER; JOHN GESSNER; COURTESY OF THE BELL FAMILY; JOHN GESSNER By Ron SiR a k

From its earliest days, the road for women’s professional golf has wound its way across the Sandhills of Nor th Carolina, not as a reg ular stop but rather as a special place where special people commanded center stage. T his year, for the four th time, the Pine Needles L odge and Golf Club in Souther n Pines will be the site of the U.S. Women’s Open. A nd if the past is tr uly prelude, the Donald Ross master piece will have something special in store for 2022. T he first three times the women’s championship of the USGA was at Pine Needles the winners were A nnik a Sorenstam, K ar r ie Webb and Cr istie Ker r, a tr io of LPGA royalt y.

Sorenstam, with 72 wins, including 10 majors and three U.S. Women’s Open titles, and Webb, with 42 victor ies, seven majors including the U.S Women’s Open t wice, are both in the World Golf Hall of Fame. T hey are also the last t wo who successf ully defended the U.S. Women’s Open title, both sealing the double at Pine Needles. Ker r, with 20 victor ies and t wo majors, likely will join them in the Hall of Fame when she becomes age elig ible.

W ho will be par t of that r ich tradition this year? Nelly Korda or Jin Young Ko, whose battle for the 2021 LPGA Player of the Year went dow n to the last tour nament? Lydia Ko, who won 14 times before her 20th bir thday and af ter a lull of several years seems to have rediscovered that for m at the age of 25? A mer icans Danielle K ang or L exi T hompson? Seven-time major winner Inbee Park f rom South Korea? Or Nasa Hataok a of Japan, who might be the best in the women’s game without a major? Will Yuk a Saso of the Philippines join Sorenstam and Webb and successf ully defend the title she won last year at T he Olympic Club?

W hile the special place the Sandhills holds in the game of golf was dug out in large par t by the shovel of the architect ural genius Donald Ross, the bold vision and sheer deter mination of the Bell family contr ibuted g reatly in solidif ying that legacy. A lso enshr ined in the World Golf Hall of Fame is Pegg y K irk Bell, regarded by many as the 14th founder of the LPGA Tour.

Peggy Kirk Bell and Warren “Bullet” Bell

Peggy Kirk Bell, 2011

Sandra Palmer, flanked by Peggy and Warren Bell

Apioneer as a player, an instr uctor and a businesswoman, Pegg y and her husband, War ren “Bullet” Bell, purchased Pine Needles in 1954 and restored it to its for mer glor y. She is as much a par t of the histor y of Pine Needles as Ross and those who have won championships there.

Bell, who died in Souther n Pines in 2016 at the age of 95, was not one of the 13 women to sig n the or ig inal LPGA char ter, but she was there f rom the beg inning, finishing r unner-up in the eighth LPGA Tour event ever played, losing in the finals of the 1950 Women’s Wester n Open 5 and 3 to Babe Zahar ias at Cher r y Hills Countr y Club in Colorado.

Bor n in Findlay, Ohio, Bell star ted play ing golf at age 17 and quick ly won a number of titles. She played college golf at Rollins College and won the Ohio Women’s A mateur three times, and in 1949 took the Titleholders Championship and the Nor th and South Women’s A mateur. She was a lso a member of the 1950 U.S. Cur tis Cup team.

W hen the U.S. Senior Women’s Open was played at Pine Needles in 2019, one of those in the field was Sally Austin, a for mer women’s golf coach at the Universit y of Nor th Carolina and an instr uctor at Pine Needles who was uniquely positioned to assess the impact of Bell on the women’s game. “It is so special and I’ll get emotional thinking about this and how much she would ’ve loved being here for this and seeing her f r iends playing and some of her st udents, of which I was one,” Austin said. “W hen they brought the first Open here, she was super excited. I k now she’s look ing dow n and smiling, so glad that it’s here. T his is her legacy, and this golf course and all that her family has done to keep this alive.” Bell ’s early presence in the women’s professional game previewed the role Souther n Pines was to play in women’s golf. T he first time the LPGA Tour visited here was the 1951 Sandhills Women’s Open at Souther n Pines Countr y Club. Patt y Berg won and Zahar ias was second. In 1959, Joyce Ziske won the Howard Johnson Invitational at Mid Pines Golf Club. T he first women’s major in Souther n Pines was at Pine Needles in 1972, when Sandra Palmer won the last Titleholders Championship by 10 strokes over Mickey Wr ight and Judy R ank in. Palmer, who’s now 79, won 19 times on the LPGA, adding the 1975 U.S. Women’s Open to the Titleholders as her major championships. “Pine Needles will cer tainly go dow n as one of my finest feats,” says Palmer, whose oneunder-par 283 was the only score in red numbers that week. “No one really k nows what remark able golf I played that week except the Bells. Bullet had the course set up f rom the back tees. It was hard.”

D ick Taylor, w r it ing in Golf Worl d maga zine, g ushe d ab out b ot h Pa lmer a nd Pine Ne e d les, c a l l ing Pa lmer’s p er for ma nc e “one of t he g re atest show ings se en on a genu ine test of golf under va l id c ond it ions.” He l i kene d t he cha l lenge of t he Pine Ne e d les set-up t hat we ek to t hat f ac e d in a U.S. O p en.

“If it is to be a major championship, a title bestowed by the thinking players and fans alike, then the course must be as dominant in the proceedings as the players,” Taylor wrote. “T he 6,50 0 -yard (and up) Donald Ross- desig ned Pine Needles L odge and Golf Club in Souther n Pines, N.C., superbly fit the bill to such a point you would have thought by the complaints it was the men’s U.S. Open.”

T he LPGA ret ur ned to the Sandhills in 1995 when Rosie Jones edged Dottie Pepper in a playof f to win the Pinewild Women’s Championship at Pinewild Countr y Club of Pinehurst. Since then, major championship women’s professional golf has visited the area five times — and it has never disappointed.

In 1996, Sorenstam backed up her breakthrough tr iumph a year earlier at the Broadmoor Golf Club by successf ully defending her

U.S. Women’s Open title with a mag nificent display of shotmak ing, hitting 51 of 56 fair ways at Pine Needles as she topped K r is Tschetter by si x strokes. Sorenstam was on a mission that week to prove she was not a one-hit wonder.

“Majors are always f ull of pressure,” says Sorenstam, look ing back more than a quar ter- cent ur y. “Being the defending champion adds to the pressure. I wanted to make sure that winning at the Broadmoor was not a fluke and that I belonged in the major champion circle.”

Sorenstam not only proved she belonged, she established the foundation for her Hall of Fame career, attack ing Pine Needles with the relentless consistency that became the Swede’s trademark. Her worst ef for t that week was an opening evenpar 70, which she followed with rounds of 67, 69 and 66 to finish at eight-under-par 272.

“I was totally in the zone that week,” she says. “I was on autopilot. I had prepared ver y well, and I loved the course. A lso, being a f r iend of Pegg y K irk Bell made it even more special. She has done so much for the game, especially for women. Pegg y shouted ‘Heineken’ af ter my last putt dropped. T hat was her nick name for me since my amateur days.”

The next time the U.S. Women’s Open came to Pine Needles is the last time anyone has taken home the trophy in back-to -back years as Webb romped to an eight-stroke victor y over another f ut ure Hall of Famer — Se R i Pak. T hat 20 01 U.S. Women’s Open was contested in the midst of an incredible r un of dominance in the four major championships by four f ut ure Hall of Fame players.

From 1998 through 20 03, 18 of the 24 majors were won by Sorenstam, Pak and Juli Ink ster, who capt ured four majors each dur ing that stretch, and Webb, who took a half- dozen of the g rand slam titles in that si x-year per iod.

In 20 01 Sorenstam, Pak and Webb — who also won the LPGA Championship (now the K PMG Women’s PGA) — swept the four majors and the next year, those three plus Ink ster each took home a major trophy. Webb, however, was simply over whelming at Pine Needles in 20 01, car ving out rounds of 70, 65, 69 and 69 to finish at seven-under-par 273, eight strokes ahead of Pak.

“My first U.S. Women’s Open had been in ’96 at Pine Needles,” Webb says. “I loved the course then and knew coming into ’01 that it fit my game. That was possibly the only time in my major career that I came in playing well, and I went to the first tee on Thursday knowing and expecting to be there on Sunday with a chance to win. I’m not sure I’ve played a major from start to finish as well.”

Karrie Webb during the

2001 U.S. Women’s Open

at Pine Needles

Webb, who is among the most g if ted ballstr ikers in the histor y of the women’s game, loved the challenge presented by the course, which demands not only precise physical execution but also a disciplined and well thought out mental approach.

“Pine Needles is ver y much a second shot golf course,” Webb says. “It’s a tr ue Donald Ross test in that way. Understanding where to hit in on the g reens and where the slopes are that could feed the ball away f rom the hole or of f the g reen completely is a big key. Being able to hit irons with the precision and distance control to cer tain spots on the g reens is the key to playing well around there.”

Cr istie Ker r tied for four th place in that 20 01 U.S. Women’s Open, and when she ret ur ned to Pine Needles in 20 07 it was with the burden of being k now n as the best player on the LPGA Tour without a major championship title. She had nine career victor ies and had won eight of them over the three previous seasons, emerg ing as a contender to challenge L orena Ochoa to succeed Sorenstam as the best player in the women’s game.

Ker r began slowly, opening with rounds of 71 and 72 on a layout that now played to a par-71. T hen she put the hammer dow n in the third round, tak ing the lead with a 66 that began on Sat urday and ended Sunday mor ning because of a rain delay. She took the lead for good with a birdie on No. 14 in the final round, then closed with four consecutive pars to better Ochoa and A ngela Park by t wo strokes.

“I had won a bunch of tour naments but I had never won a major championship,” Ker r says about her mindset coming into Pine Needles in 20 07. “My intention was to play myself into contention, and that’s exactly what I did. I got a lot of chances (in the third round) and my putter was hot. I was a f reight train and nothing was going to stop me that week. I made a lot of 30 -foot par saves.”

Histor y was made in the Sandhills in 2014 when, for the first time, the U.S. Women’s Open and U.S. Open were held at the same venue in back-to -back week s as Michelle Wie edged Stacy L ewis by t wo strokes at Pinehurst No. 2 for her only major championship a week af ter Mar tin K aymer mastered No. 2 for an eight-stroke victor y.

“One week changed my life,” Wie says. “T hat’s what the U.S. Women’s Open does. It creates oppor t unities for us to create lifechang ing moments. It’s not just one tour nament. It’s a major that we look for ward to, watching it when we were k ids and playing on venues like we do. It means so much to me. T hat elevated visibilit y for our tour so much, and us being able to play on these top venues.” In 2029, the USGA will repr ise the men’s and women’s back-to -back championships in Pinehurst. A nd in 2019, the second- ever U.S. Senior Women’s Open was played at Pine Needles, following the event’s debut a year earlier at histor ic Chicago Golf Club, one of the five founding clubs of the USGA in 1894. Helen A lf redsson, who had her hear t broken in the U.S. Women’s Open several times, won the U.S. Senior Women’s by t wo strokes over Ink ster — yet another Hall of Fame member — and Tr ish Johnson. “I get goosebumps,” A lf redsson says about look ing back on that v ictor y. “T he USGA events (are) the toughest events. It took ever y thing and then some to w in it. You had to have ever y thing, a ll the duck s in a row, and you have to have putting, play ing, ba llstr ik ing, and menta lly because you k now you’re going to make bogeys or even double bogeys, but you just have to keep going. I was ver y thr illed to a lso get it on a golf course like Pine Needles, which I thought was an ama z ing test.” Just as the legacy of Donald Ross is burnished by the brilliance of Pine Needles, the enormous contributions of Pegg y K irk Bell and the Bell family to the game of golf are remembered each time a major championship returns to one of their proper ties. During the more than 60 years Pegg y was the owner and head instr uctor at Pine Needles, she pioneered methods of teaching —

Cristie Kerr (right) with Peggy Kirk Bell at the 2007

U. S. Women’s Open

Michelle Wie 2014 U.S. Women’s Open champion on Pinehurst's No. 2 course especially to women — and inf used students with her passion for the game.

Today, Pine Needles remains in the Bell family. Her daughters, Pegg y Bell Miller and Bonnie Bell McGowan, are instr uctors, and her t wo sons-in-law, Kelly Miller and Pat McGowan, ser ve as Pine Needles’ president and director of instr uction, respectively. Pegg y has passed the torch to them.

W hen the 77th U.S. Women’s Open tees of f on June 2, the quest will commence to see who takes the torch passed f rom Sorenstam to Webb to Ker r. T he Sandhills of Nor th Carolina ser ve as a cradle for golf in the United States. It is a place where the courses, as Dick Taylor said, are “as dominant as the players in the proceedings.”

Time and again, Pine Needles has show n that dominance. Now we find out which player is up to the cha llenge. Now we find out who w ill live up to the legac y of Ross and Bell as well as the standard of excellence established by Sorenstam, Webb and Ker r. Now it’s time to w r ite the next page in the stor ied histor y of Sandhills golf. PS

Ron Sirak w ork e d for T he A sso ciate d Press for 18 y e ars, foll o w e d b y 18 y e ars w ith Golf World an d Golf D igest m agazin e s. He is pa st pre si d ent of th e Golf Wr it ers A sso ci a t ion of Am er i c a an d recipi ent of th e P GA of Am er i c a Lifet im e Achi evem ent in Jour n alism Award; th e LP GA Me di a E xcel l en ce Award; an d th e Metrop olit an Golf Wr it ers A sso ci at ion Lin coln Werd en Award.

Helen Alfredsson wins the 2019 U.S. Senior

Women’s Open at Pine Needles