Village People
Noted golf writer, author and blogger Geoff Shackelford had not been to Pinehurst in the decade since the 2014 U.S. Open was held on No. 2.
The Shot
Final groups of the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, a quarter-century apart.
Payne Stewart in 1999 needs a par to hold off playing partner Phil Mickelson, but his tee shot on the uphill, par-4 finishing hole misses the fairway to the right. He’s in five inches of suffocating rough, the grass wet on a cool, misty day. He punches out, has 78 yards to the hole, hits a three-quarter sand wedge to 18 feet short of the back-right hole location.