Pinehurst No. 2 is often regarded as the quintessential
expression of Donald Ross’ architecture. After all, Ross spent nearly his entire
career at Pinehurst, living in a house on the third hole and tinkering almost
endlessly with his layout.
Yet the brilliant the two-time U.S. Open site is not quite an
unblemished Ross. The same applies for other premium Ross designs: Seminole,
Oakland Hills, Aronimink, Inverness and others have been taken apart and put back
together by committees and other architects.
In fact, few original Ross courses have survived unscathed.
One that has is Holston Hills Country Club in Knoxville, Tennessee. A 1937 aerial photograph hanging in
the clubhouse shows a course fanning in two collapsed but distinct loops across
a wide plateau between the Holston River and the ridge on which the clubhouse
sits. Every tee and green is located just as they are now, and virtually every
present-day bunker is accounted for in the image. Only the trees have
matured.
Chris Dibble, director of operations at Holston Hills since
1992, says preservation of the course has become a unifying cause among the
membership. “I think they get an understanding of what Ross has put here,”
Dibble says, “and they seem to evolve into the same mindset, that we need to
preserve what we have and not let anybody screw it up.”
Certainly, it would be unfortunate to mar Holston Hills’
unique, subtle character in an effort to modernize it. At 7,030 yards, it still
has enough bite, evidenced by four Southern Amateurs, eight Tennessee Amateurs,
two NCAA Championships, the 2004 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur and a Knoxville Open
won by Byron Nelson during his record 18-victory season of 1945.
