I got to play 'Pinehurts' this weekend

 I played Pinehurts this weekend.
It’s where Payne Stewart won the U.S. Open in 1999 and did his famous Goofy “Perfect Cast” move on the 18th green after beating Phil Mickelson on the final hole. Then, before even hugging his wife, he celebrated with Phil, whose wife was in the hospital at the time getting ready to give birth to their first child.
“You’re gonna be a dad!” He said running up and hugging Mickelson.
Stewart died four months later. He’s memorialized in bronze behind that same 18th green on Course No. 2 in front of the grand Victorian architecture that’s the theme of  Pinehurts properties. There’s 10 golf courses there and an 11th on the way.
By now you’re probably thinking that it’s Pinehurst and not Pinehurts. Well, you didn’t just walk 14 miles in two days - the last 18 pushing a bag cart around the pines and sand in the 83-degree heat.
I haven’t walked 18 holes in 20 years, at a minimum.
We played No. 10, which is a 7.5 mile walk, and that’s if you can keep it around the fareway and out of the pine straw. I’m sure I walked like 10 miles that day. It was like 18,000 steps or something in one day. One Day!
I think the last time I walked that much on a golf course was my first year with the guys down in the Ozarks when it was cart path only. Well, not only am I not good enough to keep the ball close to the cart path, but I was regularly on the complete opposite side. When that happens, you have to take a couple clubs with you, or you have to run back and forth. Needless to say, I did a lot of running back and forth.
When it’s cart path only, you might as well just get a push cart and hoof it. Now I know what I’m up against.
We had a caddie on course 10 Friday and the kid was nice. He worked us pretty well, because these dudes live on tips and it cost me a Bennie to say thanks for helping me to a 127.
Now that may seem like a lot, but I mean, the grass was dormant and I was hoofing it on foot. And it was hot, and I hadn't played in a couple weeks. Blah..blah..blah.
Now, he was carrying our bags, so that was good. But I, not ever having played with a caddie before, had 32 golf balls, a 32 oz. bottle of water, a couple of snack bars, two pairs of shoes, and, I think, a shake weight in my bag.
After hole No. 2, he exchanged my bag without me even knowing. He just did it and all of a sudden I had 10 balls and 12 clubs…and nothing else. In the pines in North Carolina it’s not like the heavy maples, elms, and cedar trees of Iowa, and all the heavy bush and timber and the occasional black snake. You can actually play out of what are called “waste areas” or “junk” areas. It’s just soft pine needles and typically some soft dirt underneath.
I know this because I spent quite a bit of time walking between the pines. But I must say, for the most part, I got out okay.
My best moments were back-to-back pars on 15 and 16 on my way to a 47 on the back nine of Course No. 2 Saturday
We were playing with a father and son team and the father had a 30-yard bunker shot from the left side as we approached the green on 18. There were all kinds of people sitting on the southern porches outside of “The Deuce”, which is the watering hole after the round.
Everyone started clapping for him when he hit the sand shot about 12 feet past the hole.
I chipped up from about 30 yards and was about 15 feet away and thought to myself, “If I make this putt, all these people are going to start clapping for me. That would be awesome.” Stewart's putt was 15 feet for par to win the Open.
I took my time, lined it up, took a breath and left it .5 inch short. I heard a few Ohhhhs…then awwwws, and that was that.  I had finished Pinehurst No. 2. We stopped for a beer and a salad and I bought the Ozark boys some trinkets for our trip this spring.
My nephew, who got the trip from his wife for his birthday, graciously invited me to play the courses with him on Friday and Saturday. When he asked in November, I didn’t even look at my calendar, I just said yes and started planning. This wasn’t just golf, it was memories. We got a couple selfies and took a lot of photos. One of my favorite things was to ask the caddies about their craziest stories.
On Friday, the caddie for the mom-and-son duo we played with told us of a guy who he described as a terrible golfer who squibbed a drive down a fairway. The ball hit a sprinkler head and shot off to  the left where it bounded up on the green and dropped into the hole for a hole-in-one. He also told a story where he had to talk a kid into hitting his 140-yard club when the boy wanted to hit his 150 club. After conferring with his father, the boy slammed his 150 club back into the bag, grabbed the 140-club, hit the ball over the flag and backed it into the hole for his 1st hole in one.
The father cried.
On Saturday  the caddie with us said one group he remembered kept hitting back and forth across the green on No. 15 on course No. 2. They went back and forth over the green five or six times before giving up. Then  on the hole No. 16 tee box  the first guy hit the ball off the toe of his driver and dribbled it up onto the green…on hole 15.
The new friends made are a charming byproduct of the weekend, and the tales are stories to share later around a green or in a clubhouse. But the time spent with Branden playing this game we love, but suck at, and experiencing the rich heritage of Pinehurst, is what memories are made of, and you don’t have to look at your calendar to know that.
Speaking of memories, the drive into North Carolina was absolutely breathtaking. Interstates 64 and 74 East wind through the small mountains of  West Virginia and North Carolina. I had thought about flying out to Charlotte and then driving to Pinehurst. I’m so glad I didn’t. I  wouldn’t have missed that drive for the world – But that’s Beside the Point.
Chuck Vandenberg is editor and co-owner of Pen City Current and can be reached at Charles.V@PenCityCurrent.com.