Wishing winter away while watching the PGA opener

By Shane Sharp,
Contributor

PINEHURST, N.C. -- The PGA Tour launched its 2003 campaign earlier this month in Maui at the Kapalua Resort. Palm trees were swaying in the wind, the waves from the nearby Pacific were crashing on the shore, and the flatbelly circuit's recording-setting chest of prize money cracked open just long enough for Ernie Els to grab a winner's check of $1 million.

Just curious, but how did that make you feel? Not the money, which admittedly seems like a lot for anyone who has followed the PGA Tour in the past 10 years. But the fact that it is warm enough somewhere out there in the world to play golf in shirt sleeves for four straight days.

While Els and the boys teed it up at balmy courses with names that roll off the tongue like frozen drinks after, well, a few frozen drinks, the Eastern U.S. was hit with a wave of weather so cold that even Hillary Clinton appeared warm by comparison. It was an irony so cruel that even O. Henry couldn't have wrought it.

But wasn't doesn't kill us, makes us stronger, right? R-i-g-h-t.

The whole thing got me thinking that there's a lot to look forward to in my little slice of the golf Kingdom come spring. Even when my clubs are in the corner of the room without a spec of dirt on them and my soft spikes are in the stairwell gathering dust, it's easy to envision the headlines for 2003 in and around the Carolinas golf scene:

PGA Tour makes triumphant return to Charlotte as Tiger Woods wins inaugural Wachovia Championship: Still smarting after finishing second to Ernie Els at the Masters in April, Woods captures the inaugural Wachovia Championship title by five strokes over Jim Furyk. He does so amid the record galleries and a gorgeous southern style weekend that left PGA Tour officials wondering why the Kemper Open ever picked up and left for the D.C. area twenty-some years ago. To a man, the players rave about the layout at the Quail Hollow Country Club, which was overhauled by the irrepressible Tom Fazio just in time for the first practice round.

"I just made some putts and gave myself a chance," Woods will say, because that is what he always says.

The revamped Jones Course at Palmetto Dunes tops Hilton Head's list of must plays: The late Robert Trent Jones Sr.'s right-hand man, Roger Rulewich, scored a big hit with his remodeling of the Jones Course at Palmetto Dunes in October 2002. With new greens, new fairway contours and a totally new feel, the Jones Course reasserts itself as one of Hilton Head's must play tracks for 2003.

The Jones Course is one of only two courses on the island with views of the Atlantic Ocean. Its $3 million renovation included the rebuilding all 18 push-up greens to USGA standards, replacing the old putting surfaces with Champion Bermuda grass and enlarging them from an average of 5,000 square feet to 7,000 square feet. The Jones Course opened in 1969, and the island's oldest track.

"It is a nice track, but have you played Harbour Town lately," says Pete Dye, when asked to comment on the very course that inspired him to buck every design rule of thumb at Sea Pines Resort 33 years ago. "If you want playable, go to the practice range. I hear the fairways are generous there."

Remodeled Pinehurst No. 7 making sweet music alongside No.'s 4 and 8 as vaunted Resort's best second fiddles: Rees Jones recently returned to Pinehurst Resort to rekindle the magic of the No. 7 course he designed back in 1985. The course opened to rave reviews the next year and went on to land a spot in Golf Magazine's "Top 100 You Can Play" rankings. Due to the influx of new courses on the list (24 in all), the resurgence of the No. 4 course following a Tom Fazio revamping three years ago, and the popularity of Fazio's design at No. 8, No. 7 did not make the cut in 2002.

But don't be surprised if the 2004 edition of the working man's guide to golf courses includes this retooled layout. Jones and his crew rebuilt all 18 greens, added Donald Ross style chipping areas around the green complexes, squared the tee boxes in the classic look, and brought a number of the original back tees back into play. They also re-graded a number of fairways, lowered a few greens, and pushed the eighth green back closer to the creek.

"You want a piece of me Fazio, then bring it!" says Jones at No.7's official grand re-opening. "They want me on this course; they need me on this course!"

The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island takes its place as one of the greatest links courses in the U.S.: The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Resort - home to the famous "War by the Shore" playing of the Ryder Cup in 1991 - reopened in 2002 after a $2.5 million makeover by original architect Pete Dye. The facelift included major changes to seven holes, and more subtle shifts such as larger teeing areas and new walking paths.

The new hoofer-friendly layout now offer players the option of taking walking caddies, and forecaddies are still available for cart golfers. With its Scottish design nuances, walkability and 10 holes that play along the Atlantic Ocean, the Ocean Course is the closest thing East Coasters have to a true links style course. In 2003, the course not only cements its place in the cannon of American golf architecture, it also reinforces the notion that Charleston is a golf destination with teeth.

"Hey, if I had that chunk of land, I could build a nationally ranked golf course too," says Rees Jones live via cell phone from Pinehurst.

January 18, 2003

Shane Sharp is vice president of Buffalo Communications, a golf and lifestyle media agency. He was a writer, senior writer and managing editor of TravelGolf.com from 1997 to 2003.