Pinehurst No. 2 is considered the best of all the Donald Ross courses.

For the first time, the U.S. Open will be played at Ross' legendary Pinehurst No. 2 course in the Sandhills of North Carolina.

Ross became the golf professional around the turn of the century at Pinehurst, a sleepy little resort town that is now one of the most popular golf destinations in the world.

It is also where Ross began a career in golf course design that many agree was years ahead of its time.

Today, there are 400 golf courses across the United States with Ross' signature. The United States Golf Association has contested some 60 championships at his courses, and this will be the 18th U.S. Open.

Golf purists, historians and architects marvel at how his courses have withstood the years. An organization was even formed to honor his work and push for restoration of Ross courses that he might no longer recognize. Ross died at age 75 in 1948.

"We look on him as our patron saint," said Geoffrey Cornish, a golf course architect, historian, and a member of the Society of Golf Course Architects, an organization which Ross founded.

"I think the reason he continues to occupy a place of importance in golf architecture is primarily due to the fact that his golf courses are playable for people of all abilities, more so than other courses," said Barry Palm, a founder and president of the Donald Ross Society. "Irrespective of your handicap, you can enjoy a Donald Ross golf course.

"Then there is the naturalness, the way the course fits in with the existing landscape and topography is aesthetically very pleasing. I don't think there is a person alive who can't appreciate that."

Although Pinehurst No. 2 does not possess the beauty of an Augusta National or Pebble Beach, it is held in the same esteem.

"Pinehurst is my favorite golf course from a design standpoint," said four-time U.S. Open champion Jack Nicklaus, himself a golf course designer. "It always has been. It's a totally tree-lined golf course, and there's not a tree in play strategically. No water. It's a wonderful golf course."

Pinehurst is considered Ross' crown jewel, a masterpiece he tinkered with for nearly half a century. It is ranked in Golf Digest's latest list of America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses, which lists 11 of his courses.

Almost from the time he came to the United States from Scotland until his death, Ross lived part of the year at Pinehurst, living along the third fairway at No. 2. He designed more than 40 courses in North Carolina, including five at Pinehurst.

Ross studied golf under Old Tom Morris at St. Andrews and by age 20 became a professional and greenskeeper. He came to the United States in 1899 and found his first job at Oakley Country Club in Watertown, Mass. A year later, Ross met James W. Tufts, who was looking for a professional for his new course in Pinehurst.

Upon his arrival, Ross renovated the resort's No. 1 course, then built No. 2, using horse-drawn implements and often his own hands to shape the contour of the greens. The first nine was completed in 1901, the second in 1907.

"When Donald Ross laid out Pinehurst No. 2, it really created an impression, especially compared with the more modest layout that was there," Cornish said. "People would come to Pinehurst and ask him to lay out their courses."

A budding business was born.

Ross was a pioneer, designing his courses to fit the natural setting at any site. His philosophy was that golf should be for pleasure, and that the tee shot, being the longest, must be allowed the most room for error. So his fairways gave the appearance of being wide. But he compensated by requiring a very accurate approach to the green. This is especially true at Pinehurst No. 2.

"It seems like a wide open course to drive the ball, but on almost every fairway there is a position to attack the green," said Ron Whitten, the architecture editor at Golf Digest. "It's often close to a fairway bunker. If you play away from the bunker, you have to come in (to the green) over a bunker.

"The greens look big, but actually, because of their contour, are very small targets. If a ball misses the green, it trickles down and you have a very difficult little pitch and run shot that you have to play back to the target. If you hit it a little hard, you roll off the other side. It looks rather benign, but it can be a brute."

Ross was a fine player, too. He won the North and South Open in 1903, 1905 and 1906, the Massachusetts Open in 1905 and 1911. He played in seven U.S. Opens, finishing fifth in 1903. He tied for eighth at the 1910 British Open.

But soon after, he focused his attention on designing courses. He did not openly seek work, although there were two notable exceptions. One came in the 1920s when he heard of a course in the planning stages in Palm Beach. Seminole Golf Club was the only course Ross designed where he made a bid and signed a contract. It remains one of Florida's gems, a favorite of the late Ben Hogan.

Another course Ross dearly wanted to design was Augusta National Golf Club. He even met with course founder Bobby Jones, who ultimately picked Alister MacKenzie. Jones had fallen in love with MacKenzie's Cypress Point in California and decided that was his man.

Ross was miffed, so he went to work on making Pinehurst No. 2 the best course in the South, if not the nation. It didn't keep him from designing courses across the country, although it would have been impossible for him to visit all of them.

"He sold a lot of plans, but he gave some pretty detailed plains in terms of hole-by-hole diagrams and what he expected," Whitten said. "Most of the plans that he sold, he had a representative supervising the construction. I'm convinced, especially back when he worked and there wasn't air travel, that he didn't see a lot of these courses, he didn't supervise construction. But someone who worked for him did and knew what was going on."

Pinehurst No. 2 has been site of one Ryder Cup in 1951 one U.S. Amateur in 1962. It was a regular PGA Tour stop from 1973 to 1982 for a late-season event. It had the Tour Championship in 1991 and 1992 and the 1994 U.S. Senior Open.

But because of the Bermuda grass planted on Ross' steep and undulating greens, the course was never deemed appropriate for a U.S. Open, played in the middle of summer when the heat is most oppressive in North Carolina. In fact, the resort used to shut down in the summer months. That changed when the resort agreed to plant a new bentgrass strain called Penn G-2, which can better handle the stress of summers.

The surface, however, is quick, which should yield to plenty of three-putts, and perhaps some squawking from the players in the U.S. Open.

Ross would have understood. As he once said, "It has been my good fortune to bring happiness to many men and great trouble to many men."

Taking a peek
Roger Maltbie won't be playing in the U.S. Open this week, but the commentator wanted to bring some first-hand experience to his analysis on ESPN and NBC this week. So he played Pinehurst No. 2, and liked what he saw.

"The rough by U.S. Open standards is not that long," said Maltbie, a five-time PGA Tour winner. "For me -- and I'm old and I don't play that much any more -- there were times where I could get in there and hit a 6-iron out of it and advance it down the fairway. Usually, you'd be grabbing your wedge and just trying to pitch it out.

"It is just fabulous. I don't think the greens are quite at speed or firmness yet, but they're getting there. The idea is to take it to tournament conditions for Thursday."

Scott Hoch also got in some earlier practice and figures the course will get tougher as the week progresses.

"Right now, it is not playing difficult at all," he said. "I had heard that it was going to be really tough, but that's not the case now. The USGA can change that, I know. They have a lot of ways to toughen it up."

Bob Harig, who covers golf for the St. Petersburg Times, writes a column every Tuesday for ESPN Golf Online.