From an architectural standpoint, No 2 is one of the top-five courses in the world. The use of the land as it equates to the golf holes is absolutely superb. The terrain and contours are perfectly moulded with the topography.”Nicklaus is among the winners at Pinehurst, being the 1959 North & South Amateur champion, while Ben Hogan won his first professional tournament, after seven years of trying, in the 1940 North & South Open. The World Open was staged regularly in the 1970s, but by then the resort had been taken over and No 2 was modernised, destroying the Ross look. Gibby Gilbert and Tom Watson posted the course record of 62 in 1973 in the soft autumnal conditions.But in 1984, billionaire Robert Denman’s Club Corporation of America bought the resort, modestly called “the golfing capital of the world”, and the restoration work began.

The US Tour Championship was played twice there earlier this decade, to rave reviews from the players, with Craig Stadler and Paul Azinger the winners.But why has it taken so long for the US Golf Association to bring the National Open to Pinehurst? One reason was the ownership. Prior to the disastrous management of the ’70s, it was under the direction of Richard Tufts, grandson of the founder and a USGA committeeman and eventually president. Rather than use his influence, he kept Pinehurst out of the running.Another reason is location. Pinehurst can be found somewhere south-west of Raleigh and east of Charlotte.

The US Open did not go to a venue away from a large metropolitan area until 1972 at Pebble Beach. But David Fay, executive director of the USGA, said: “The Open has reached the point where it transcends geography.”Climate, though, is another matter. With the US Open played in June, few southern venues could survive staging such a championship in the hot summer. Technology has come to their assistance with the development this decade of a bentgrass hybrid called Penn G-2, developed to withstand heat, humidity and drought.Finally, there is the design itself. The USGA usually likes its venues to have narrow fairways with five-inch rough, especially in the collars around the greens. This does not always lead to thrilling golf and the natural characters of courses such as Pebble Beach and Shinnecock Hills have not always been allowed to shine through.

Last year, the Olympic Club was emasculated, as were the players, and the week turned into a highly tedious bogeyathon.But with the shaved areas remaining around the greens at No 2, shotmaking in the approach shots and chipping around the greens should be more intriguing than at most US Opens. “Pinehurst No 2 is one of the greatest recovery golf courses in America,” said the architect Rees Jones. “Because the greens are convex, you are always chipping uphill. It gives golfers a lot of choices.”That means more interesting golf for all the tourists going to Pinehurst to watch, as well as the players to play.. Duel for the Crown

By Neil Harman Andre Deutsch pounds 14.99 hardback
THE CROWN in question is the Wimbledon men’s singles title, and the duellists are Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski. If their timing is half as good as the author’s, we can look forward to the coronation of Britain’s first male champion since Fred Perry in 1936.Neil Harman has spent the past year or so following the two heroes on the world tour. The result is a commendable chronicle of the story so far: Tim and Greg, born a year and an ocean apart, raise the flag on the centre courts of international locations where Britain was previously only represented by referees, umpires, line judges and sports journalists.The narrative points up the contrasting personalities of Henman, a young man of classical style, as befits the son of a tennis-oriented Home Counties family, as English as rain at the All England Club, and the left-handed Rusedski, Canadian in all but passport, yet driven with a desire to win glory for himself and his adoptive country with the fastest serve ever recorded (149 mph).Far from being an authorised biography, affording the writer access to the protagonists from breakfast to bedtime, the book is held together by initiative: astute observation, research, and interviews with the two players, their coaches, their peers and those close to them.While Henman has been coached by David Felgate ever since his talent began to grow with his body, Rusedski has had numerous mentors.