Pine Needles Ready for the Return of the U.S. Women’s Open in 2001

By Howard Ward

SOUTHERN PINES — Dave Fruchte has been at Pine Needles Resort and Golf Club for 10 years, and he’s spent most of that 10 years grooming the Donald Ross-designed course for U.S. Women’s Opens.

The first big test for Fruchte, an Indiana native with a knack for growing great grass, was preparing Pine Needles for the 1996 Open. He did that so well that the USGA could hardly wait for champion Annika Sorenstam to sink her final putt before announcing that it would be returning for an encore in 2001.

So Fruchte, whose title is director of golf course and grounds maintenance, and his staff went back to work. But this time it was with confidence instead of concern.

The 1996 Women’s Open set records for attendance and corporate tents, and with Reg Jones masterminding the operation for 2001, predictions are that it will exceed that success. More corporate bigwigs are already on board and demand has surpassed supply.

The course is ready, too. There were few changes that Fruchte had to be concerned with, so most of the time has been spent tweaking. A new irrigation system has been installed and this guarantees a more uniform rough as the watering has been extended down both sides of the fairways.

The course has already been over-seeded with the rye grass that will have the fairways a lush green for the week of May 28-June 3. Annika, Karrie, Dottie, Juli and the other stars of the LPGA can expect a course that is in perfect condition, according to Fruchte.

But it may play just a tad more difficult. Although only Sorenstam and runner-up Kris Tschetter finished the 72 holes under par, the USGA isn’t fond of red numbers. Sorenstam shot 272, eight under, while Tschetter was minus two at 278.

"The course will be set up pretty much as it was in 1996," Fruchte said. "We are moving the tee on the par-3 5th hole to make it play a little shorter, but we’re moving the tee back on the 13th to offset that."

The main reason for the tee change on No. 5 is the logjam that was often created there in 1996.

"The third hole is a short par-3 and the fourth is a short par-4," Fruchte explained. "Then you come to No. 5, which is a long, tough par-3 with a lot of the women missing the green, and it caused play to back up. It’s a tough green to hit and a difficult green to putt, so we’re going to have it playing about 170-175 yards instead of 195. There will still be some slowdown there, but it shouldn’t be as bad."

The change will toughen up No. 13, which will play to 195 yards. "We’re just kind of flip-flopping the difficulty of the holes," Fruchte said.

Some other changes will be a slight narrowing of the fairways, "by a couple of yards," and the relocation of some fairway bunkers.

"We’ve added a fairway bunker on the left side of No. 10 (a dogleg left par-5) and moved the old one about 30 yards farther from the tee to bring it back into play," Fruchte said. "When Donald Ross built the course in 1927, the bunkers were in play, but now everyone is hitting over them.

"We also recreated the bunkers on No. 14 to what we think they originally looked like."

The golfers will also find the approach shots can be played differently than in 1996.

"We’ve worked on getting the approaches firmed up," Fruchte said, "so that they can hit in front of the greens and bounce on. You definitely want to be below the hole on these greens. The players will have to adapt their games to that, the way they do on Pinehurst No. 2.

"This has been a good year for the grass and we fell pretty good about where the course is right now."