USGA's Mike Davis sounds off on Pinehurst No. 2 restoration progress in new video

Pinehurst No. 2 is currently closed to complete restoration and enhancement work led by architects Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw. USGA Senior Director Mike Davis, one of the proponents of the restoration project, visited the Donald Ross classic and USGA favorite site recently and shared his thoughts on the progress in a new video on Pinehurst’s YouTube Channel.

In the three-minute interview, there are some accompanying shots of the new rough areas, and they are quite a departure from the greener look No. 2 has had for many years. It will certainly add a more penal element off the tee - and a little bit of chance, too, as the waste areas won’t be groomed like regular, raked sand bunkers. As the new look takes shape leading up to the 2014 back-to-back U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open, Pinehurst will certainly bring “sand” back to the “sandhills.”

“While the green complexes are really not going to be different,” said Davis. “Aesthetically its going to be dramatically different off the fairway.”

By having so much more waste than rough, it should also take out of the equation how the rough is treated for the men versus women the following week in many areas. USGA President Jim Hyler also shared his thoughts on the renovation, click here to watch.

“Now that the grass is gone,” said Hyler. “You see the humps and bumps Ross put in, I think the grass used to mask those things.”

Having played No. 2 last February, I’ll be especially curious to see how certain famous holes, like the par-4 5th and long 18th, have changed. But so far, it appears Coore-Crenshaw haven’t been shy about altering, or their words “revealing,” a Ross classic. Pinehurst’s YouTube channel also has video comments on No. 2 from Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw, Graeme McDowell and others.

Currently closed to finish up the job, No. 2 will reopen in March, 2011. Meanwhile, click here for more on golf vacations in North Carolina.