Rees Jones Brings Pinehurst No. 7 Up to Date

 By HOWARD WARD

 PINEHURST — Rees Jones didn’t earn his reputation as “The Open Doctor” by being a golf course architect who is afraid of change.

One of the most successful and popular course designers in the nation, Jones has become a favorite of the USGA to renovate and remodel courses prior to the hosting of U.S. Open Championships. Son of the late, great Robert Trent Jones, he has built courses all over the world and has even done restoration and remodeling work on some of his father’s designs.

Jones is very aware that the changing face of the game, especially in the technology field and the new strains of grass being used, requires updating. He has just completed a major renovation of Pinehurst Resort’s No. 7 Course and it was no shock to his ego that changes were needed on a course that he built in 1986.

“It’s 17 years later and I’m a lot more knowledgeable,” Jones said during a recent phone interview from his New Jersey offices. “It was time to make some changes on No. 7.”

Those changes are extensive, forcing the closing of the course in June. The renovations were completed in September and No. 7 will reopen for play in December.

“We knew we had to do something with No. 7,” said Pinehurst President Patrick Corso. “It had become kind of a stepchild, and was being diminished by what we were doing with other courses such as No. 8 and No. 4. Our other courses were using G-2 bentgrass and No. 7 was still using Penncross on the greens.

“But we couldn’t just go out and plant new grass. We needed to rebuild the greens and tees and make some fairway modifications. But it’s not like No. 4, which is a new course, and we had Rees come back and do it.”

Jones was available because of the hold placed on construction of Pinehurst No. 9, a course planned for a future complex located on Highway 5 in Aberdeen.

“Renovating No. 7 gives us a credible substitute for No. 9,” Corso said. “Let’s face it, people aren’t coming from New York to play courses 1, 3, 5 and 6. Everybody wants to play No. 2 and we can’t put them all on it. Now, with 4, 7, and 8, we can diversify and not be as dependent on No. 2. We have to limit play on No. 2 to 36,000-38,000 rounds a year.”

Jones made the most of the opportunity to redesign some holes on No. 7. The course has always been rated high, but it differed from the other resort courses.

 “There was a desire to have the modern grasses on No. 7,” Jones said, “because they’re more heat tolerant and disease resistant. But for the most part, we’ve been able to establish even more of a Pinehurst flavor to the course.

“We’ve taken out some of the mounds around the greens and created chipping areas, and we’ve rebunkered the entire course. We’ve rebuilt square tees, making them more traditional, and we redid all the greens. We redesigned several greens, but we left 11 and 16 alone. We brought No. 8 back closer to the creek and pushed No. 1 to the right.

“When we designed No. 7 in 1986, there was a tendency towards framing. Now we’re back more to the classic look. Donald Ross used mounds a lot, though, and we’ve left some in some cases.

“We’ve added bunkers — structured and pot — and if you hit the greens, you’re going to be OK. But there’s a penalty when you miss. This makes it fit into the Pinehurst tradition of being more classic and less modern.

“We’ve added some length where we could and it plays to more than 7,200 yards from the back tees now. It was 7,125 in the old yardage books.”

Jones has never downplayed his love for the Pinehurst area and it’s golf tradition. He is well-represented with No. 7 and Talamore Golf Club, as well as the renovations on No. 2 prior to the 1999 U.S. Open.

“I enjoy my continuing relationship with Pinehurst,” he said. “My wife grew up in Red Springs and I have a lot of ties here. It means a lot to me.

“I think everyone is happy with what we’ve done with No. 7, including Brad Kocher, Pat Corso and the members. In fact, I think the members are particularly happy. They’re impressed with how thorough we were and that we’ve made a good golf course even greater.”