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Showtime folks, we’re rolling up the origins of this North Carolina golfing paradise. As all you investors know, the success was not always straight up and to the right:
An Entrepreneur, Tuberculosis, and a New Concept: James Walker Tufts, inventor of the Arctic Soda Fountain, laid the foundation for Pinehurst back in the late 1800s. Tufts envisioned creating a health resort for Northerners seeking clean air and pleasant weather for those recuperating from tuberculosis, which at the time was spreading rampantly throughout the U.S. In 1895, Tufts purchased 5,800 acres of land for $7,250 in the Sandhills region of North Carolina to build his ’medical village town’. Adjusted for inflation, this would be about $270,621 today. You could buy almost 100 sq/ft in Manhattan with that!
If at First You Don't Succeed, Keep Trying: Just as the town was being built in 1895, doctors figured out tuberculosis was communicable, not hereditary, turning Tufts’ wellness retreat concept into a leper colony concept. So, Tufts pivoted and tried turning the North Carolina property into a peach farm. Unfortunately he didn’t realize he was in the wrong Carolina state for peaches and the entire crop was wiped out by insects. Tough break, kid.
Testing the Market: Shortly after the peach farm concept failed, Tufts received a furious complaint from a local farmer. Turns out, folks were playing some bizarre game in a cow pasture, hitting balls around and disturbing the cattle. Intrigued and willing to try anything, Tufts asked his friend, Dr. Leroy Culver, to design a nine-hole golf course. It was such a hit that by year’s end, they needed another nine holes to avoid three-hour rounds. Enter Scottish golf pro Donald Ross, who designed the second nine of Pinehurst No. 1 and quickly followed with Pinehurst No. 2. Tufts had found his calling: turning cow pastures into golf courses.
The Secret Was in the Dirt (or sand): Pinehurst’s golf success is partly due to good ol’ luck. Nestled in the North Carolina Sandhills, the sandy soil means the courses use less water, drain like a dream, and save big on fertilizer – cutting maintenance costs by an estimated 10% to 30%. Multiply that by ten courses, and those are some big time savings! But it wasn’t always smooth greens. Leonard Tufts, son of founder, James Tufts, recalled, “Our soil - wretchedly poor sand-hill land - was not made for growing turfgrasses. Our early experiments with Bermudagrass were so disastrous that some well-known golfers thought we should just smooth the sand and skip the grass.” Yep, many fairways and greens were glorified sandboxes in the early days. Thanks to agronomists, Pinehurst is now a golf mecca on what was once considered useless grass growing soil! As the story of Pinehurst and its visionary, James Tufts, shows – sometimes, it's better to be lucky than good.
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