part of. And I want to stress ‘been a part of’
because if Mike Davis and the U.S. Golf
Association hadn’t bought into the idea,
if Bob Dedman hadn’t had the faith in
the team to do it, if Bill [Coore] and Ben
[Crenshaw] hadn’t done such an incredible
job, none of this would have been as well
received as it has been. I’ve just been a part
of it. If we didn’t have No. 2, the rest of it
would mean very little. It would be like St.
Andrews not having the Old Course.
if a high single digit (under par) score would
win and the golf course played the way
Ross intended, that would be fine with the
USGA. I think that comment allowed Bill
to think, ‘OK we can do this project. We
can put Ross’s intent out there and make
this work.’ But if Mike had said the target
score is even-par 280, I don’t know if Bill
and Ben would have gone for it. That was a
critical juncture, and the moment when we
all knew we could go forward.
VG: Did you ever consider any
VG: Bill grew up in North Carolina,
architect other than the team of
Coore and Crenshaw?
DP: The only way to answer that question
is say that we met at Bethpage in 2009
with David Fay and Mike Davis (both of
the USGA), Bob Dedman and a few
others. We were over in a corner of
the hospitality tent, and we must have
talked for two or three hours about
this one topic. When we decided we
were going to do this, Bob’s comment
was, ‘This is going to be either the
smartest thing or the dumbest thing
we’ve ever done.’
I asked the group, ‘If this is the plan,
who do you think we should work
with?’ The names that came up were
Bill, Ben and T Doak. Of course, I
om
had known Ben from playing junior
and college golf and a little bit on
the tour. I didn’t know Bill at all, but
they were doing Dormie Club at the
time (a course not far from Pinehurst).
Bob and I both gravitated toward Bill
and Ben because they had done a golf
course for ClubCorp at Barton Creek
(in Austin, T
exas). We started talking
with them and we never got any further.
RAUL R. RUBIERA/THE FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER
VG: How hard was it to restore
the course in a way that would
work for the resort golfer and still
provide a challenge for the players
in the Open?
DP: I think that question is really critical
to the whole project. For myself, Bob
Dedman, Bill and Ben, our big concern
was: ‘How do you host the U.S. Open on
No. 2 and have it be difficult enough so
that a score of 280, or even par, wins the
championship?’ The USGA has always had
that as their gold standard. Mike Davis told
Bill on the first tee, as they were starting to
walk the course, that wasn’t something that
absolutely had to happen. [Davis] said that
w w w. v s g a . o r g
Master_VSGA_MayJune14.indd 29
you Bill Coore?’ And he said, ‘Well, yes sir,
I am.’ And the man said, ‘I want to tell you
something: You better not f--- this up. As that
golf course goes, this whole area goes. It’s just
that important. Don’ Ё