The Great Light

Dedman Family Hall of Fame

By Lee Pace

When Jim Hyler, former president of the United States Golf Association, takes the dais on February 14 to introduce Robert Dedman Sr. and his son, Robert Dedman Jr. as new members of the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame, he’ll draw on the metaphor he heard often from Dedman Sr. through the 1990s.

“Robert always talked of his role being that of stewardship, of providing a soul and a light to this great place,” says Hyler, a retired banker and long-time administrator in the game of golf. “When Robert bought Pinehurst in 1984, the great light that used to shine for Pinehurst was just a smoldering coal, and he blew some air on it. Now it’s grown and evolved into this great light that shines in North Carolina and the game of golf.

“In recent years, Bob talks about wanting to be the soul of American golf. The Dedmans have been caretakers of an unbelievable asset. I am glad they’re being properly recognized for many years of stability and leadership.”

Caption: Carolinas Golf Association Hall of Fame

Pat Corso was brought to Pinehurst by Dedman Sr. in 1987 to run the club and resort as CEO. He held that job through 2004 and has remained in Pinehurst most all of the years since and has been collegial with his predecessors, Don Padgett II (2004-2014) and Tom Pashley (2014-present).

“It’s a remarkable story,” he says. “Where else can you find one family running a property as significant as Pinehurst? To me, it’s all about the continuity—of ownership, of investment and of leadership.”

Corso cites the Ingalls family that owned The Homestead for generations and the Mussers who owned the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan for nearly a century.

“The Dedmans’ continuity is unique in today’s world,” he says. “You can run down the list of families across the country who owned these premier properties who are no longer involved, including the Tufts at Pinehurst. The Dedmans have defied the odds.”

It’s significant too that Dedman Sr. allowed Corso and his lieutenants to keep the money they made and funnel it back into the operation.

“Robert’s rule of thumb for many years was, ‘If you earn it, you can keep it,’” Corso says. “The cash flow from the business could be reinvested in the business. That is unusual. Think of Diamondhead and what killed their opportunity. They were bleeding off money from Pinehurst to subsidize other properties in their portfolio. That was not Robert’s philosophy.”

Caption: Pinehurst No. 2

The 42-year-run by one ownership family is rare. And having only three CEOs in nearly four decades is equally as rare in an industry that churns hotel and club CEOs and general managers at a rapid rate.

“The Dedmans established the culture and the policy,” Corso says. “To have had the consistency of just three CEOs to implement that culture has been important. It’s hard to make progress if the top of pyramid changes every four or five years.”

Golf architect Tom Fazio has the perspective of having designed courses for clients across the country. Now at age 80, many of Fazio’s clients are gone. But the Dedman family connection has been important to his career and he talks warmly of getting two new-business calls from Pinehurst officials.

One came in 1976 when Diamondhead wanted him and his uncle George to design Pinehurst No. 6, the first Pinehurst course located outside the central core of the village.

“Interest rates were high and there was nothing new being built in golf,” Fazio says. “I joke with my wife that I had time to get married in 1975 because there was hardly any work out there. Interest rates stayed high into the ‘80s, and it was hard to get new projects off the ground. Getting the call to design No. 6 was huge for our company.”

The second one came in 1994, when Dedman Sr. pitched Fazio on designing a new course to celebrate the resort’s centennial — the course that would become Pinehurst No. 8.

Fazio accepted the job, went to work immediately and opened the course in the spring of 1996. “When CCA and Bob Dedman bought Pinehurst, it was still considered to be a small, sleepy town in the south that was hard to get to,” he says. “That was a big deal. What would Dedman do with it? There were a lot of questions, some fear and negativity. But what happened? The Dedmans show up, fix it up and raise it to levels never seen before. By the time Bob called in the mid-1990s, Pinehurst was a name and destination at the top of any golfer’s list.

“Senior was a golf enthusiast; he loved the game. He had great vision to know they had a jewel. Some people have a jewel and don’t treat it very well.”

Caption: Pinehurst No. 8

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.