The Country Club of North Carolina at Pinehurst lies nestled in the Sandhills, formed when the sea had finished with this land millions of years ago and had left the wind to sift the sand for untold millennia.  It is now a unique world of gleaming sand, gently rolling hills and clear water.  Five hundred feet above sea level, it has a temperate climate, being protected by the Appalachians on one side and the Atlantic on the other.  

The Club lies on some 2000 acres of land which include three lakes (the largest, Lake Watson, has sixty acres) and two eighteen hole golf courses of world class caliber.  The lordly longleaf pine dominates its deciduous sisters on the landscape.  Indeed one of the two remaining virgin stands of longleafs lies a few miles from the Club.  These trees-over 100 feet high-harbor the endangered Red Cockaded Woodpecker.  These birds refuse to nest in any other tree and experts speculate that this colony's ancestry dates to the maturity of these trees some 250 years ago

Two miles away, the Village of Pinehurst was laid out by James W. Tufts in 1895.  Tufts, a highly successful Boston businessman had retired, was in frail health and thought the salubrious climate of the Sandhills would benefit him and others wishing to escape New England winter.  He bought 5000 acres of land for $1.00 an acre; a member of the selling Page family (Walter Hines Page was Ambassador to the Court of St. James during World War 1) commented that, "...as much as I dislike Yankees it is inexcusable to have gouged them this way."

Tufts constructed a nine hole golf course in 1989.  Then, in 1900 he hired a native of Dornoch, Scotland, Donald Ross, who had just completed his apprenticeship at St. Andrews, to come to Pinehurst.  Bringing young Ross to America would profoundly affect American golf.  Ross designed over 600 golf courses across the country (eight in the Sandhills including Number 2 at Pinehurst)  and died in Pinehurst in 1948.

Pinehurst attracted a visitor from Pennsylvania in 1910.  John Watson was a man of many talents and the modern history of the Country Club of North Carolina begins with him.  He was an engineer and a highly successful one-he invented the shock absorber.  Watson pursued two intertwined avocations: golf and nature study.  He came to Pinehurst to play golf and look for raw land.  Not just any raw land, but land which had a watershed on it and the potential for making a golf course.  He found three watersheds in the County (the Village of Whispering Pines would be built on forty years later) but gave his heart and effort to the present site of the Club.

Watson planned to build a hotel precisely where the Club House now stands and to lay out a golf course.  He proceeded to dam three streams in the 1920's and created the sixty acre "Watson Lake."  A full generation of local people enjoyed picnics and outings on this lake.  Next he built a boathouse and house for himself on the lake.  John Watson loved trees with an eccentric passion.  He recognized that some trees had to be removed in order to build his lake but he begrudged every one-to our great fortune.  When the local fire department called on him to plead for the cutting of a fire lane to his house, Watson's answer was simple: "no, I'll manage."

Watson's 900 acres-known as "Sunny Sands" - were wild and heavily forested.  So wild, legend has it, that Mrs. Watson refused to stay overnight on the property but retired to the Carolina Hotel in Pinehurst every evening.

Watson's dreams never came to fruition and he died in 1961.  His will directed that the property be sold and early in 1962 it came to the attention of Richard A. Urquhart, Jr. of Raleigh, North Carolina.  Urquhart, a senior partner in a national accounting firm, and his friends had been looking for land which might be developed into a particular kind of Club about which they had distinct ideas.  The land had the essential factors they were looking for.  The terrain was eminently suitable.  The location was excellent for the state wide club they hoped to establish - some 4/5 of the state's population is no more than 100 miles from Pinehurst - and it was cheek by jowl with the established resort of Pinehurst.

An investor group was formed, consisting of four to six individuals from every major North Carolina city.  This group, working closely with the noted land planner William Byrd, of Atlanta, agreed on a master plan.  This plan entailed acquisition of land from 13 different owners.  Difficult problems ensued but these were resolved and an initial 1200 acres were acquired.  In January, 1963 the Club was formed; Dick Urquhart was elected President, and was succeeded in 1993 by John M. May.  We are proud that the founders of our firm, Lula Gouger, and Wallace O'Neal, played prominent roles in the development of the Club.

The master plan limited the membership to 500 members and, in order to make it truly statewide, restricted the number of members from each locality.  The Club rapidly acquired members from all over North Carolina and today has members from 26 states, the District of Columbia, Japan, Venezuela, Guatemala and England.  The Club has hosted major golf events including the USGA Amateur Championship in 1980.  

John Watson's dream has been realized - and more.  The Club has a swimming pool adjacent to Watson's Lake, 8 Har Tru tennis courts and an active tennis program, nature trails, coveys of quail, a resident flock of Mallards and a pair of visiting Canada geese.  Over 100 families live all or most of the year in privately owned homes.  These are on a minimum of one acre and, in fact, average 1.25 acres; all construction must be approved by the Club Architectural Committee.  The Club will manage property in the owner's absence, including rental if desired, and provide maid service.  There are now five acre lots available, which means that horse lovers-and this is horse country-can have horses and stables on their property.

Yes, the Club is an enchanting place.  A visitor summed it up.  Tired after a hard day of playing, he sat on the Club house verandah watching the 4th of July annual fireworks display, the sky rockets flaring over moonlit Watson's Lake: "If Heaven's any better than this, I don't think I can stand it."