"We wanted to restore the uncertainty."

More high profile coverage of Pinehurst #2's revival, this time from John Paul Newport Jeff Neuman in the WSJ. Funny, but with the Players Championship looming I wish we could plug the TPC Sawgrass into the parts discussing the removal of turf in favor of sand, wiregrass and pine needles.

"The reputation of Pinehurst was established in its natural state," said Coore. "Once you got off the fairways, it was wiregrass and hardpack sand. You might roll up against the wiregrass, or you might reach the pine needles, or you might have a clear, firm lie. We wanted to restore the uncertainty."

Coore and Crenshaw studied old photographs and aerials of the course taken in the 1940s. They removed untold acres of Bermuda sod and replaced it with…nothing.

"When you remove the grass, areas expose themselves as sandy wasteland, firmer, and evolution takes over," Crenshaw told me.

Some soft white sand and pine straw were scattered over the waste areas, awaiting the winds that will put them where they will. Eighty thousand wiregrass plants, whose wispy tufts are more an impediment than an obstruction, were planted by hand in a largely random pattern, though concentrated more heavily alongside the landing areas for the professionals' drives.