By Alex Podlogar
After catching a break just to be hired by Pinehurst Resort, I caught another break in my first few days here.
My first day working was as a social media manager for Pinehurst on June 20, 2012 – at the time there was no Instagram or TikTok, and the Twitter account had 2,600 followers. This, friends, was the Dark Ages still, so, you know, perfect for me. I like to mention that I started almost two years to the day before the back-to-back U.S. Opens. And with Pinehurst No. 2 still maturing about a year after the momentous Coore & Crenshaw restoration, there was a lot for a former newspaper sportswriter to feature and report on, and ultimately, to share online.
But I got a second break, too. A week or so after I started, the North & South Amateur was to be played.
At that time, the men’s and women’s weeks were played over two separate weeks and not concurrently as they are now. But, like now, the field was mostly made up of college players and recruits.
And as someone who had just spent a 2-year stint down the road as a sports information director at Fayetteville State University – that job was essentially doing communications for the athletics department, among many, many other things, including game operations and media relations – the North & South was right up my alley. First, it was golf, which I knew. And it was college athletes, which I knew.
And so, I covered it. And wrote. And wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote.
I still do 14 years later. But because of when I started – just days before North & South season got under way – the 126th Men’s North & South and the 124th Women’s North & South this summer count as my 15th time covering these wonderful championships. Together, that makes 30 of these events.
And so, I have a lot to look back on.
So much has changed in the last 14 years that it’s hard to describe. A decade-and-a-half ago, it was pulling teeth to try to get someone interested in what was happening every summer at the North & South. As we began to shine something of a light on it, we started to pick up readers and social engagement. The number of readers and page views of these stories has faded over time, but the visibility of the championship has skyrocketed, which is to the credit of Pinehurst’s content team led by Matt Gibson. At this moment, there have already been more than 1.2 million content views online. It’s wonderful, brilliant, professional work and deserves a lot of credit and praise. That works better than this.
I do hope some of the written stories still hold some significance or are fun to read. Writing about Pinky last year was a highlight of the year for me, and finally sharing the Bryson DeChambeau story this year felt very similar. Unearthing a diamond in the rough or relaying a behind-the-scenes tale is rewarding for me, and this championship has always been a tremendous source for that.
But so have the moments, big and small. Jackson Van Paris holing a 120-foot chip from right of the 2nd green during a match play playoff will always be among the most memorable – and easily the loudest – moments.
But so will the very small moment in 2014 when, in the No. 8 clubhouse during stroke play, a 24-year-old college graduate originally from Argentina – and done playing for the day – ordered a beer from the bar and stood with it anxiously alone as the TV showed a close World Cup match where Messi and Argentina were trying desperately to hold on. They did that day, and the player very much enjoyed his beer. Golf seemed very far away for him then.
It’s talking with Anna Morgan’s father as tears form in his eyes because all he can see of the new North & South Champion is suddenly no longer 22 and a college graduate in his mind, but is an 8-year-old girl who didn’t understand why she wasn’t allowed to play Little League baseball with the boys.
It was watching Lori Beth Adams use the grit and sole, unflinching belief in herself to almost take down the supremely talented Alison Lee in the championship final. Even in heartbreak, she’d return again and again to try to pick up the elusive Putter Boy trophy. It never happened, but her effort and desire never wavered.
It was watching as the Strafaci’s, father as caddie and son as champion, walk up 18 arm-in-arm in the setting sun after Ty won on the 17th green, becoming the first grandfather and grandson to win this event.
It was seeing future PGA Tour winners like Ben Griffin, Cameron Champ and DeChambeau come into Pinehurst and leave without a win. Corey Conners so dominated the North & South one year that he never reached the 16th green in match play. He didn’t in the final, either, when Georgia’s Michael Cromie holed out from the fairway twice to stun Conners 4&3. Cromie is the only player to win both the North & South Junior and the Men’s North & South. When his mother was told whose name isn’t on the Pinehurst clubhouse hall – Arnold Palmer’s – but her son’s was twice, she wept with joy.
Kelly Mitchum has worked as a golf instructor at Pinehurst for almost 30 years. There are still times he makes a point to walk by the wall to see his name as the 1993 champion. Paul Simson, who has won more Putter Boys than anyone ever with his terrific senior career, said before he finally won the Men’s North & South as a mid-amateur in 1995, he didn’t look at the wall. Not once.
Then he won it again in 1996. He’s the last player to win back-to-back North & Souths.
One year, two-time U.S. Open Champion Curtis Strange was the keynote speaker at the Players Dinner. He opened with an incredible line.
“I have two trophies on display in my home. One is the Ryder Cup trophy. The other is the Putter Boy.”
As New Zealander James Anstiss made a run to the championship match, he would walk through the clubhouse each day and stand in front of the photo of 2005 U.S. Open Champion Michael Campbell. Some believe Cambo to be a fluke. To Anstiss, he is a national hero. New Zealand’s Parliament stopped proceedings that day to watch Campbell win in Pinehurst.
Though Anstiss faltered in the final match, waiting for him behind the 18th green of No. 2 was a phone. On the other end was Michael Campbell congratulating his countryman for a brilliant week, even though it came up a bit short. “Us Kiwis are pretty good in Pinehurst,” Campbell said. Anstiss wiped tears from his eyes and tried to form words.
As the delightful Isabella Fierro blitzed over No. 2 in her title run, she could be heard on Ross’s famed turtleback greens yelling at her ball to, “Vamos!” She was the first Mexican player to win the North & South. A week later, Sports Illustrated featured her in its “Faces in the Crowd” section. Hall-of-Famer Lorena Ochoa went to meet her.
I could go on, and, well, as I pretty much always do, I have. If you’ve made it this far, thank you. Hell, even if you just started this, thank you.
Today, there will be four players remaining in each championship. Final matches in both will be played on No. 2 on Saturday to determine our next champions. I’ll try my best to cover it in my antiquated way.
One thing I’ve learned over these 15 seasons of championships is that the margin for error at this level of golf is so ridiculously small. Everyone is good. Everyone can play that devilish skip-skip-stop chip shot into these greens to save a miraculous par. And while that will always mean that some champions may never go on to achieve great heights in the game, for at least one week they beat everyone and won at a special place like Pinehurst. Those triumphs are always deserved.
And that never, ever goes away.
Alex Podlogar is the Senior Media Relations Manager for Pinehurst Resort.
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