Reflections on Pinehurst, Payne, Peggy, & people who made golf magic
By Lee Pace
Thanksgiving No. 68 approaches.
As the revolutions around the sun notch upward and upward, it’s natural to pause, reflect and be grateful for what you’ve experienced
“A basic law: the more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for.”
– Norman Vincent Peale
One very satisfying and interesting compartment of my professional life has been chronicling golf in Pinehurst — beginning in 1987 when I quit my last real job to forage an existence amidst words, photos, paper and ink (later adding packets and protocols and something called HTTP).
So, I humbly offer thanks for having been able to write my Quick Nine stories of the Sandhills.
The 1980s/90s Resurrection of Pinehurst — First there was the 75-year era of the founding Tufts family in Pinehurst. Then the awkward and clumsy decade of Diamondhead. Then in marched Robert Dedman Sr. of Dallas. “Partner, I think this place is worth saving. This is one of those places you just can’t duplicate — it’s kind of like buying the St. Andrews of America,” Dedman said. It took time, money, astute leadership and vision. Gradually, Pinehurst once again became a player in American golf.
But Peggy and her husband Warren “Bullet” Bell learned the hospitality business as they went along, and Peggy turned an impromptu golf lesson to a lady guest in the 1950s into a thriving golf instruction business that in November 2025 saw Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club hosting its 59th Couples Golf Jamboree. Her spirit permeates the Sandhills today.
The Last Amateurs — My 1991 book Pinehurst Stories was built around interviews and chapters on 18 elite names in golf who had a good story to tell from their golf lives around Pinehurst. Hands down the highlight of that research was interviewing and getting to know Billy Joe Patton, Harvie Ward and Bill Campbell — three elite players from the mid-1900s who remained career amateurs. Patton cried. Ward’s eyes twinkled. And Campbell spoke with a notable degree of eloquence. All three loved Pinehurst.
The Changes in the Village (Not) — Pat Corso, the president and CEO of Pinehurst Resort from 1987-2003, looked at a vintage black-and-white aerial photo of the Village of Pinehurst one day in the early 1990s. The photo was taken probably in the 1950s. “Except for the cars, it looks exactly the same,” he said. It would today as well. Marty McKenzie, a lifelong Pinehurst resident and businessman, likes to call it “The Magic Bubble.” There is still nothing garish or gaudy inside that bubble.
That set the template for a crescendo of change over the next dozen years — The Cradle short course, the rebuild of No. 4, the transformation of an abandoned steam plant into the Pinehurst Brewery, the launch of the satellite golf destination south of town with No. 10 (open) and No. 11 (under construction), the USGA setting up shop with offices and the World Golf Hall of Fame.It’s been quite a run. I am thankful indeed for a front-row seat.
Lee Pace is a freelance golf writer who has written about Sandhills area golf for four decades and is the author of club histories about Pinehurst Resort & Country Club, Mid Pines, Pine Needles and Forest Creek.
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