New Investment Wave Reshapes Golf and Tourism

By Lee Pace

Wherever Kelly Miller and Haresh Tharani look across the Sandhills’ business and golf landscapes, they see growth and opportunity.

The U.S. Open at Pinehurst in 2024 drew more than 225,000 people coming to town and, according to a USGA study, generated a $200 million economic impact.

The USGA is now one year into operating its Golf House Pinehurst headquarters along with a new World Golf Hall of Fame on a site near the Pinehurst resort and members clubhouses.

Pinehurst Resort opened its new No. 10 course designed by Tom Doak in May 2024 and has announced a companion No. 11 course to be designed by Coore & Crenshaw.

Moore County has the 10th highest tourism economy in the state of North Carolina and in fiscal year 2023-24, hotels in the Sandhills reported a 21.7 increase over the previous year in room collections.

And on the economic development front, Amazon announced in January plans to build a 65,000-square-foot distribution facility in Southern Pines, and the First Tee of the Sandhills followed in March with news of Community Hub on 35 acres in Cameron.

“The Sandhills area is growing, North Carolina is growing, and Raleigh, Sanford and Fort Bragg seem to be getting closer and closer to us,” says Miller, a four-decade Southern Pines resident and managing partner of the ownership group for the golf and lodging properties at Pine Needles, Mid Pines and Southern Pines Golf Club.

Tharani lives in New York, runs multiple businesses and has been a partner with Miller and his family since 2017 in their local golf enterprises.

“I have people frequently complaining about New York,” Tharani says. “I tell them to look at North Carolina. We have four seasons, low taxes and a healthy business climate. We’re close to the mountains and the coast. And in the middle is the Sandhills, one of the great golf destinations in the country.”

That outlook has given Miller, Tharani and their circle emanating from the family of LPGA founding member Peggy Kirk Bell and husband Warren the confidence to make a significant investment in the Sandhills’ golf future. They announced July 10 they had acquired two 36-hole golf operations in Moore County — Whispering Pines Country Club and Foxfire Country Club.

“We see great opportunities in both properties,” Miller says. “Our goal is to make significant improvements on all four courses and get them on an upward trajectory.

“There has been very little new golf built in Moore County in the last 20 years. This is a chance to some polish some classic golf courses from outstanding designers and make them available to the public at a reasonable price.”

The village of Whispering Pines is located about five miles north of Pinehurst and Southern Pines, equidistant between Hwy 15-501 to the west and Hwy. 1 to the east. The facility opened in 1959 and has two courses designed by Ellis Maples, the son of Frank Maples, the longtime construction chief and course superintendent under Donald Ross at Pinehurst Country Club.

Foxfire, located about six miles southwest of the village of Pinehurst, opened in 1968 and has two courses designed by Gene Hamm, a prolific golf architect of the mid-1900s who is a member of the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame.

Both complexes have been acquired by Rolling Pines LLC, a newly formed management concern with the parent company of Mid Pines Development Group.

“We have a deep commitment to the community and to the state,” Tharani says. “We believe in buying properties that have a great legacy and tradition, and both of these clubs fit that.”

Miller and Pat McGowan are both sons-in-law of the late Peggy Kirk Bell, who with her husband operated and later owned Pine Needles beginning in 1953. Miller moved to Southern Pines in the early 1980s after he married Peggy Ann Bell and began working for the Pine Needles management staff, working his way up to president and CEO and being hands-on in the company’s 1994 acquisition of Mid Pines Inn & Golf Club and the 2020 purchase of Southern Pines Golf Club.

“Mr. Bell had a regular group that included Andy Page, the head pro at Southern Pines, and Harvie Ward, who was at Foxfire at the time,” Miller says. “They had 12 to 16 guys who played at Pine Needles, Southern Pines, Foxfire and Whispering Pines every week. We had a great time. Over the years, Foxfire and Whispering Pines have had their challenges.

“I have fond memories playing there and have had my eye on them for some time.”

The original Foxfire layout was the venue for the ACC Men’s Golf Championship in 1970, 1973 and 1975. Nine holes were added in 1972, and the facility became a 36-hole operation in 1981. Today they are known as the Red Fox and Gray Fox courses.

“The original Foxfire course was an outstanding course,” Miller says. “I’ve talked to golfers with fond memories of playing the ACC there in the ‘70s. The courses today take some holes from that original course. There’s some really good golf there.”

“The original 18 holes here were considered one of the better courses in the Sandhills,” says Harvie Ward, professional at Foxfire from 1975-83. “Foxfire was very popular. I can’t put it in the category of No. 2 or the Dogwood at CCNC, but as it once was, it could stand up to most anything else in the area.”

Whispering Pines was conceived in the 1950s by developer A.B. Hardee, who believed an inviting body of water called Thagards Lake (which measures 6 miles in circumference), could be the anchor to a residential community that combined water sports, golf and country club life.

The courses exist today as the River Course and the Pines Course.

“Whispering Pines has great corridors,” Miller says. “They have some great golf there. The routing is really good. I have always been intrigued in the lineage to Pine Needles and Mid Pines because Ellis as a young man worked on the construction of both those courses.”

The news of the Whispering Pines and Foxfire acquisitions comes on the heels of Miller and his team announcing a significant new alliance with Marine & Lawn Hotels & Resorts.

Marine & Lawn operates six premier hotel properties adjacent to “trophy courses” in the British Isles — from St. Andrews to Dornoch to Newcastle — and renovating Mid Pines (opened 1921) and Pines Needles (1928) will be its first domestic golf project. The total investment in the two properties is estimated at $47 million over the next 12 to 16 months.

“The two deals were not connected, it’s just coincidence they have come to fruition at basically the same time,” Miller says. “But both are very important to us. First, we’re taking care of hotel properties that have been part of the Sandhills for many years and been in our family for many years. And second, we’re taking on four new courses with great lineage and great bones.

“The Sandhills and the state of North Carolina have a great future. These initiatives are our way of being an important part of what’s to come.”

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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.