Coore, Crenshaw hired for restoration

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Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have been hired for a restoration project at Pinehurst No. 2 that has nothing to do with the U.S. Open returning in 2014. The course will not be significantly lengthened, only one tee box will be changed, the course will have minimal mowed rough and the fairways will be widened.

Coore and Crenshaw will return natural and strategic character to the course, with work set to begin in the fall. The changes include a return to sandy waste areas, native wiregrass and natural bunker edges on the Donald Ross design.

"It is not our intent to radically change this golf course," Coore said. "We're trying to uncover it, not recover it. We're trying to take what Ross left and perhaps bring it back to the character and definition of what was once here. In short, we'll bring the strategy back and reinstate its character."

The course closes from Nov. 15 until March 2, and the majority of the work is expected to be done by then.

"We're not doing this for purely environmental reasons, nor are we doing this project as preparation for the 2014 U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open championships," said Pinehurst president Don Padgett II. "We're doing it because it's the right thing to do, as stewards of this historic course."

Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press

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