Springtime, with its dogwood blossoms and soft sunshine, fits Pinehurst where winter’s dormancy fades with each passing day. At a place where golf never sleeps, this time of year can feel heaven-sent.
It’s that way again, but with the COVID-19 menace restructuring life as everyone knows it, Pinehurst Resort – like so many other golf destinations – has absorbed a body blow. Spring and fall normally are high seasons, and while North Carolina’s shelter-in-place regulations still allow for golf to be played, it has left the resort’s hotels and restaurants closed for the foreseeable future.
Thousands of room nights have been lost. At a place built as much on its hospitality as its history, it still may be a beautiful day at Pinehurst as the resort operator says but this happy place has gone quiet, almost dark.
What better way to help the people who make Pinehurst what it is than by offering Pinehurst itself in an online auction.
For hundreds of employees, primed for a busy run, there is no work to be done.
Enter the Pinehurst Employee Relief Fund.
What better way to help the people who make Pinehurst what it is than by offering Pinehurst itself in an online auction.
It was a simple idea – auction off unique Pinehurst-exclusive opportunities – and donate the proceeds to the employees.
“Over the past two weeks, we’ve made significant reductions to our workforce,” said Tom Pashley, president of Pinehurst Resort & Country Club. “That made this crisis very personal. We quickly needed to find ways to help as many employees as possible.
“Lots of great people offered to help. Our challenge was taking the time, amid the tears and chaos, to organize our efforts. After several early ideas, we began to write down a list of ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ Pinehurst experiences. The ideas came to us effortlessly and we knew we had an idea that just might work.”
In a span of six days – from when the initial idea was floated in the administrative offices at the resort – until it concluded with a live finale Monday evening hosted by Barstool Golf’s Sam Riggs Bozoian, the concept was an enormous success, raising approximately $250,000.
Like virtually everywhere else, Pinehurst screeched to a halt because of the pandemic. It has been an exceptionally good run for the resort in recent years, from the opening of the short course (the Cradle), which has become immensely popular, to the re-opening of Pinehurst No. 4 (redesigned by Gil Hanse), along with the creation of the Pinehurst Brewing Company and the Deuce restaurant overlooking the 18th green at No. 2.
At a place where much of its charm is built on its history, Pinehurst Resort has done a masterful job of blending the old with the new, giving today’s golf travelers what they want (there’s music playing at the Cradle and craft beers at the brewery) without sacrificing the essence of the place.
When the idea for the auction came together, Pinehurst looked inward rather than outward, and it was a resounding compliment that so many responded so quickly and so generously.
As auction items go, Pinehurst created a dream list. Among the items were:
- two nights for a foursome in Dornoch Cottage, Donald Ross’s Pinehurst home, with three rounds of golf including Nos. 2 and 4;
- a round of golf on all 10 Pinehurst courses including the Cradle;
- a walking tour of Pinehurst No. 2 with Bill Coore, who, along with Ben Crenshaw, handled its restoration;
- a round of golf with designer Hanse on No. 4, which along with No. 2, hosted the U.S. Amateur last summer;
- a team in the Barstool Classic at Pinehurst in November;
- creating, brewing and naming your own beer at the Brewing Company;
- a walking tour with Coore of what will be Pinehurst No. 10, a layout already routed with his partner Crenshaw;
- playing No. 2 with Payne Stewart’s caddie, Mike Hicks, telling the story of how the 1999 U.S. Open unfolded.
The auction went live last Saturday noon and a few minutes before midnight, it already had passed the $100,000 mark. It kept going from there, culminating Monday night when much of the resort was closed but somehow felt as alive as ever.