The Pinehurst team shares what to expect at the 2024 U.S. Open

It was a decade ago that Pinehurst Resort’s Course No. 2 hosted back-to-back U.S. Opens — first the men, then the women. Martin Kaymer ran away with an 8-stroke victory while Michelle Wie won her sole major by two strokes.

In the decade since, a lot has happened at Pinehurst Resort. Last month the resort celebrated the grand opening of Course No. 10, designed by Tom Doak. This month the Village of Pinehurst celebrates the opening of the United States Golf Association Golf House Pinehurst, a par five distance from Pinehurst Resort and Country Club’s clubhouse.

A lot has also happened agronomically. In 2014 Kevin Robinson, CGCS, was the superintendent of Course No. 2. He has moved into a larger role as the golf course maintenance manager for Pinehurst’s 10 courses. John Jeffreys, who has worked at Pinehurst since 2000, has taken the role of superintendent — a position he earned shortly after the completion of the back-to-back U.S. Opens.

Bob Farren, CGCS, director of golf course maintenance, remains a fixture at Pinehurst, having worked there since 1983. The only thing new with Farren is the hardware in his office — the USGA named him a winner of the Association’s Green Section Award for his work as a leader in the industry in sustainable golf course maintenance practices.

And most exciting to the maintenance team at Pinehurst — this will be the first U.S. Open championship played on Champion ultradwarf bermudagrass greens. The conversion took place in 2014 and will help Pinehurst have peak conditions in their busiest months.

“If you look at when we have our most play and the days are longer, we get really busy from May through September and even into October,” Jeffreys says. “Add in that it’s championship season, it matches the growth habit better of the greens, so we can provide conditioning levels that match what our guests expect.”

In addition to the 2024 U.S. Open, Pinehurst will host the tournament again in 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047. The resort will welcome back the U.S. Women’s Open in 2029 — hosting the tournament for the second time. (Photo: USGA)

Make them better vs. keep them alive

Don’t call the ultradwarf bermudagrass greens easier to maintain, though. There are still plenty of challenges, like frequent topdressing, vertical mowing and more frequent mowing. But with the conversion, the attitude of the agronomy team changed.

“It was our motto that with bentgrass (greens), we worked our butts off to keep it alive in the summer,” Jeffreys says. “Now (with ultradwarf bermudagrass greens) we work our butts off to make them better.”

“It’s a lifestyle change for the manager, without any doubt,” adds Farren. “The mental view is a lot less stress because we’re focused on making conditions better as opposed to just keeping something alive.”

Jeffreys says he consults the agronomy team’s notes on the 2014 calendar daily to compare where the course was then, to where the course is today. The Pinehurst team is also armed with another advantage in the local support from the USGA and their new technologies, like Deacon and the GS3 golf ball. Pinehurst was one of the first places to have access to the system that measures firmness, green speed, trueness and smoothness via a Bluetooth-enabled golf ball, a Stimpmeter and the smartphone app.

“I don’t know the exact date it was released to the public, but we worked with it a good 18 months to two years before that,” Jeffreys says. “We worked hand-in-hand with the USGA in developing it. We can go back as far as 2016 and 2017, with data collection on greens and how they performed during different weather events. We can use that information to help us make decisions to prepare for the upcoming U.S. Open championship.”

Jeffreys says it’s always been a strong relationship between the USGA and Pinehurst, and it keeps getting stronger.

“They’re the largest funder of turfgrass research in the world, and they’re all of 500 yards from where I’m sitting right now,” Jeffreys says. “They’re not just advisors and colleagues, but they’re dear friends. It’s been such a good relationship.”

A Wendell, N.C., native and a graduate of NC State University, John Jeffreys, superintendent at course No. 2 at Pinehurst, is a North Carolina lifer. (Photo: USGA)

A greener Pinehurst?

As the start of the 2024 U.S. Open nears, the crew at Pinehurst is anxiously looking forward to a reduction in play so they can focus on the fine details of hosting the U.S. Open. Play reduces on the week of May 20, and then closes on May 28.

Pinehurst is an anchor site for USGA championships, and with that came the benefit of investments into infrastructure and permanent power over generator power — which means less disruption to the courses.

The weather has been kind to Pinehurst so far, knock on wood. Over the winter they only covered greens once, for three days. Overnight frosts ended early, and it hasn’t been nearly as dry as it was in 2014 — which will make for a big difference for TV viewers, Farren says.

“You’ll see a greener course than what we had in 2014,” Farren says. “We were in a six-week period of time without any rain (in 2014.) There were a lot of edges of the fairways that were essentially dormant. You won’t notice that this time.”