Ben Griffin is two years older, more than two inches taller and now a two-time state champion after posting two sub-70 rounds in his latest remarkable golfing foray around one of Pinehurst Resort’s courses.

Griffin, who caught everybody’s attention as a diminutive baby-faced 15-year-old freshmen when he won the 2011 4-A championship in a playoff on Pinehurst No. 6, lapped the field this time around in record-setting fashion on Course No. 8.

I guess it’s fitting that Griffin, now an experienced junior at East Chapel Hill High School, won his second state title on the resort’s Centennial Course on the 100th anniversary of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.

While the rest of the prep field was struggling to solve the wind and an assortment of Tom Fazio-designed undulating greens, Griffin was methodically stringing together rounds of 68 and 67 for a 4-A record score of 9-under 135. No other golfer in the field was able to break par, and there were only two other rounds in the 60s.

Griffin verbally committed to the University of North Carolina in the middle of his sophomore year, but looks like he could tee it up with the college guys right now … and compete.

“He works harder than most of the kids,” said veteran East Chapel Hill coach Bobby Neville. “We finished the regional tournament and the other guys were waiting around to see the scores and he was over there putting for an hour. That’s the difference. He works at it very hard.”

Griffin captured the Mideast Regional at Raleigh Country Club with a 69, then took his solid swing and deadly putting stroke an hour south to Pinehurst. He led by three shots after the first round, started the second round with a 2-under front nine, and then birdied five consecutive holes on the back nine to bury the rest of the field.

“My mental game is very strong. My swing is not the best, but I know my game pretty well,” Griffin said. “I’m not afraid to stick it close on a tough pin or anything like that. It’s not about getting overly aggressive, but you still need to give yourself a lot of chances.”

Griffin’s success is well earned. He gets out of school at 3:50 p.m., and then heads to Finley Golf Club to practice for two hours every day.

“I work on my feel. I like doing that,” Griffin said. “I like practicing a lot of creative shots, shots off of slopes and all types of things, to get a feel for different shots to the green. A lot of juniors are good but they like to spend their time on the range. The short game is where it is at.”

“His golf intelligence is way up there,” added Neville. “I watched him (in the second round of the state tournament) and he could have taken a chance. He had blocked himself out on a shot, and most kids would have tried to go through the trees, but he was going to make a bogey or a par and he did, he made a par. I look at other kids and they don’t do that, they would get double or triple bogey.”

After winning the 4-A title in 2011, Griffin carded an opening-round 77 last year and finished in a tie for 10th.

“When I lost last year it was motivation to win three state titles and tie the record,” he said. “I went out there this year and just tried to commit to golf shots and manage the course well and I was able to.

“This course can be tricky when the greens get quick. You can putt it off the green if you’re not careful with all the undulations. I’m really pleased that I hit the ball perfect. And I have a lot of experience and I’ve played well in the past here, so I looked at the state tournament as just another event.”

Griffin got his final round going with a 30-foot birdie putt on the fourth hole, and also made a 35-footer on the back nine to start his birdie binge.

“Being an individual in this tournament is almost like a little advantage, getting to tee off early when the wind isn’t up and the greens are perfect for your first nine holes,” he said.

Meanwhile, Trey Guy of Fayetteville Terry Sanford carded a final-round 68 to tie last year’s winner Stephen Saleeby at even-par 144, and then Guy birdied the first playoff hole to claim the second-place hardware.

Griffin is noticeably taller and stronger than his freshman season, but says he hasn’t hit the weight room yet, which could even make him a better player down the road.

“He’s growing so I’ve seen his ball height improve and he’s longer,” Neville said. “Ben would hit a green as a freshman and the ball would release forward. Now, I’m seeing those same shots and he’s pulling the ball back a little with two less club difference. And he has great vision, he just has that mind, that innate thing that most people don’t have on the golf course.”

Griffin admitted that practicing at Finley, in the shadow of the UNC campus, is a bit of a tease.

“Committing so early you just can’t wait to get there, so it’s a struggle seeing them play and competing in college tournaments and getting out of school at 12 o’clock every day,” Griffin said. “That’s going to be the fun part of things. I can’t wait, just one more year.”

And maybe one more state championship.

The Martins have been in the spotlight for more than a decade now, two brothers from the Pinehurst area who began dominating U.S. Kids Golf World Championships at a young age, then progressing into highly ranked junior players.

Back in the day, they went by Zachary and Joshua. Now, they have surged past 6 feet tall and Zach and Josh are star players for Southern Pines Pinecrest High School, which entered the 2013 state high school 4-A golf championship as one of the favorites.

While Josh, a sophomore, won four U.S. Kids titles, it was older brother Zach who emerged as the hero this time around, recording the only birdie in a dramatic team playoff with Charlotte Myers Park as the senior propelled Pinecrest to its second state crown in six seasons.

“It’s a heck of a way to go out,” Zach Martin said. “It sets a standard for all the young freshmen and hopefully we can continue that tradition for years to come. It’s great to have the home team back with the trophy.”

Pinecrest led by six shots after the first round, but Myers Park staged a comeback on the back nine on day two at Pinehurst No. 8 to force a sudden-death playoff in which four players from each team headed back to the par-5 17th hole to decide a winner.

University of North Carolina-bound Zach Martin, who finished sixth as an individual with a pair of 73s, was the first to tee off and proceeded to lace a drive down the middle of the fairway.

“That drive was pure adrenalin, that’s the only way to put it,” said Zach Martin, whose drive measured more than 300 yards, leaving him with just a 9-iron to the green on the par-5 hole.

“Being the first one up, hitting a good drive, kind of set the standard for the rest of the guys to go. It was really key for our team. And hey, it was in the fairway – that was important, too.”

Martin’s approach shot fell victim to the green’s false front and rolled off, but he chipped to within 8 feet and sank the birdie putt. It ended up being the only birdie of the four players from each team entered into the playoff, giving the title to Pinecrest.

With no scoreboards in high school golf, it’s often difficult to access where individuals and teams stand until the scores are posted in ink, but the buzz around the course as the final groups approached the 18th green was that Myers Park had overtaken Pinecrest and would win, and Austin Morrison’s 3-foot birdie putt on the final hole was just icing on the cake for the Charlotte school.

“I was told after the round that we actually lost,” said Pinecrest freshman James Sugg, who tied for 12th individually with rounds of 73 and 76. “I was kind of bummed there for awhile so the turn of events was pretty crazy. That putt by Zach in the playoff was pretty crucial, pretty clutch.”

“It was crazy, it is really nerve-racking,” added Josh Martin. “I was more nervous on that tee than I was the first tee of the day. But after Zach’s first shot I kind of relaxed. I’m happy to see him get a state title under his belt.”

Pinecrest finished second in 2012, three shots behind Raleigh Broughton after making up 10 shots on the second day.

“Last year we had a great chance to win but we fell behind by 13 shots after the first round,” Josh Martin said. “We had a heck of a day the second day to give us a chance to win but it just didn’t happen. This means a lot to our program moving forward.”

Cornelius Hough finished third, six shots behind the leaders, while defending state champion Raleigh Broughton was one more stroke behind.

It was just the third time since 1998 that a team from outside Wake County won the 4-A team championship. Northwest Guilford captured the title in 2005 and Pinecrest in ’08.

Kyle Franz has worked as an understudy for some of the top architects in the business – Tom Doak, Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw and Gil Hanse – and on some of the best projects – the Pinehurst No. 2 restoration and currently the 2016 Olympic course in Rio de Janeiro – prior to getting his first real big break in the business this year at Mid Pines Inn and Golf Club.

The 31-year-old Franz is currently putting the final touches on a restoration of the 1921 Donald Ross classic in Southern Pines, which is his first solo project. Mid Pines was on a tight budget, so the young architect waived his design fee to help accentuate his work in the sandy soil.

“I felt like it was better to put the money into the golf course, trying to make it great,” Franz said. “Waiving my design fee gave me extra money to do what I wanted to on the course. It was more of a value to me on my resume at this point of my career than the money.”

From early indications, Franz made an intelligent business move. The play among members and resort guests had swung to about 70 percent in favor of Pine Needles over Mid Pines in recent years. The accomplishments of Franz could transpose those figures once the final green work is completed this summer.

Franz cut down 300-400 tall pines to open up the course’s corridors, started digging in the sand to make some dramatic flashes and massive waste areas that Ross once displayed at 6,528-yard Mid Pines and transplanted wire grass from on the property for that “old feel” look.

“There is a bunch of cool looking holes and some cool looking shots out there now,” said Kelly Miller, longtime president of Pine Needles and Mid Pines resorts. “You compare it to the old 1921 layout and what it is now, and it’s pretty close.”

Exactly zero dirt or sand was trucked onto the 250-acre property, and right before his eyes Miller was presented with virtually a new golf course for less than $1 million.

“That’s what makes a lot of this the fun,” Franz said. “A lot of it is already there and you sort of visualize putting the pieces back together again. I really like that about restorations and especially putting this style of bunkering back together again. There are some of them that have been changed along the way, like the left side of the 13th green that had been turned into a perfect circle. All I did was get back in there with the machine, threw around a bit of the dirt and played a shell game to get it back to where it was. It all balanced out perfectly. It’s kind of fun to play archeologist to a degree, kind of tinkering and throwing things back together again.”

Prior to his Mid Pines restoration, Franz was in charge of most of the bunker and wire grass work on the Pinehurst No. 2 project under the direction of Coore and Crenshaw in August 2010. That means Franz has been in the North Carolina Sandhills – more than 2,000 miles away from his home in Oregon – for a total of 16 months.

And word of the work by the up-and-coming architect spread quickly. Franz has begun tinkering with some bunker work at nearby Deercroft, and has had informal talks with several other courses in the Pinehurst area.

“I certainly hope Mid Pines is a big break for me in the business,” said Franz, who begged Doak for a job at Pacific Dunes as a 19-year-old. “We’re at least five years away from getting any more heavy golf course construction in the United States. We would be better off if a lot of the efforts of the most talented people in the business were put into making the golf courses we already have better before we put more capital on the line in an economy that’s not necessarily built for it.”

Franz fell in love with the work of Ross during the No. 2 project … and one thing led to another.

“Pinehurst No. 2 is very famous for its putting surfaces, which is very justified; the style Ross created out there, you see the same things at Mid Pines,” Franz said. “The slightly crowned greens make for such fascinating recovery play, there are so many dips and hollows and interesting shots around the edges. What is really fascinating about it is you have to learn when and when not to miss a hole on a certain location – and it can change on each hole day to day. I think they are the best greens in the world.

“Ross was really intelligent and worked in the field very hard, creating a bunch of amazing shots that make you think about what the heck you’re doing when you’re playing into those greens. And when you combine it with such a pretty natural landscape with a mixture of sand and wire grass and pine straw, it makes for some really interesting recovery play. You get the complete gambit of lies.”

Mid Pines Resort is better known as the sister course – actually situated across the street –from the more famous Pine Needles Resort, which has hosted three U.S. Women’s Opens and is the home of famed teacher Peggy Kirk Bell.

Facing greens that were last redone in the 1960s and some brutal North Carolina summers, Miller knew he had to pull the trigger sooner than later on his struggling putting surfaces at Mid Pines. He met Franz at a cocktail party a few years ago while the young architect was working up the road at Pinehurst No. 2.

What Miller didn’t know was that Franz had been sifting through file-after-file in the Tufts Archives in his spare time, waiting for the right moment to re-approach Miller about his plan to not only work on the greens but to restore Mid Pines to its original Ross ideals.

“Kyle came in and quite honestly wowed me,” Miller said. “He spent a lot of time researching the course. I’ll give him a lot of credit, because it was a surprise. We literally started walking the course and he would say, ‘This is what Ross would have done.’ He’s a huge student of Ross. I kind of became enamored with his knowledge and what he wanted to do. So, I said ‘OK, let’s give him a shot.”’

After work on the perimeter of the course over the winter and spring months, adding back numerous expansive sandy areas with wire grass and native pine straw, Franz began the process on May 21 of restoring the original Ross greens that were altered due to the dreaded riding mower over a 50-year period.

“The 9^th green has been changed completely over the last 20 years, so we’re taking all of the grass off of it and putting it back the best we can,” he said. “The green on No. 8 also had some fairly substantial changes because we can see it in the photography. I’m trimming off a large section of the back of the green so we can get the same sort of feel and look as Ross had there. On the rest the greens have shrunk in a lot of places some 6-8 feet. In other words, we’re taking out some of the fat.”

Mid Pines is expected to be closed for a 10-week period, re-opening sometime in early August.

“I have learned so much more about this golf course from Kyle,” said Miller. “He’s got this book and would whip it out and say, ‘You can see where Ross had this or that and this is the way he wanted it.’ He was great about the history, but where I’ll give Kyle a lot of the credit is he’s out there and he’s looking and watching golfers and he’s seeing where the college kids are hitting it. On No. 18, we added a bunker and he was asking the kids if we did this what would you do off the tee. You want to restore it to what Ross’ intensions were, but you know if Ross was alive today he would tinkering with it. Kyle watches, observes and listens.”

For all of Augusta National Golf Club’s abounding azaleas, magnolias and acres of immaculate grass, one of this year’s more popular spots among the patrons was a wooded area of pine straw needles roughly 35 yards right of the par-4 10th hole’s fairway landing area. It’s where a year earlier, left-hander Bubba Watson incredibly snap hooked a 52-degree gap wedge shot from 165 yards to within 15 feet on the first hole of the 2012 Masters playoff, which Watson won.

Patrons – including myself during Tuesday’s practice round – stood in that vicinity, pretending to hit a similar shot (a slice for a right-hander like myself) and envisioning how it curved sharply up the hill to the green.

“How many times have you been watching the pros on television and wondered if you could hit the same shot as they hit?” asks Tom DiGregorio rhetorically.

The answer is often, though perception and reality usually take divergent paths.

In August, Knight’s Play Golf Center in Apex will host the GlobalGolf.com Skills Challenge, an amateur version of the popular ADT Skills Challenge that tests the golfing acumen of PGA, Champions and LPGA tour players.

The event is scheduled for Aug. 23-25 – noon to 6 p.m. on Friday; 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the weekend – and is open to golfers of any age and playing ability. Entry fee is $30 and a portion benefits the nonprofit Wake Futbol Club, an area youth soccer program.

“It gives the amateur golfer an opportunity to participate in an event that is very much like the professional event,” said DiGregorio, owner of Corporate Golf Services, which manages the event. “It takes about two hours to complete and you can do it with six of your friends or with your kids. It’s just a fun and unique opportunity.”

Golfer’s are challenged in seven skill areas – putting, greenside bunker, short-iron shot, mid-iron shot, hybrid / long-iron shot, chip shot and trouble shot. DiGregorio said the long drive skill was replaced by the hybrid / long-iron shot to make the challenge more equitable.

“Long drive has the tendency to only allow a certain amount of people to really compete. So we thought the hybrid / long iron rewards distance, but it also rewards accuracy,” DiGregorio said.

A golfer gets three shots per skill, and can purchase up to two mulligans to be used on any of the skills. The best of the three shots is awarded between one (best) to six (worst) points based on where the shot comes to rest in one of six target areas. Seven is a perfect score for the entire challenge – a minimum of one point per skill. Overall ties will be decided in a scorecard playoff.

Each day, a winner will be determined in each of four divisions — Men’s Open, Senior Men (50 years and older), Junior (17 years and younger) and Women. On Sunday, all 12 division winners are invited back for a chance to win a car in a hole-in-one contest. That is on top of what each received for winning their division, which is a gift certificate from title sponsor GlobalGolf.com, a three-day / two-night Caribbean Cruise and an eight-day / seven-night vacation to one of 30 destinations.

Kevin Jones, general manager and PGA head golf professional at Knight’s Play, is pleased to see the amateur iteration of the challenge resurrected in the area. He believes it is a creative opportunity for golfer’s to identify the strengths – and weaknesses – of their short games.

“Golfers don’t realize how many strokes they throw away from 150 yards in,” he said, “so this is a good chance for them to see that in a fun and competitive situation.”

Back in the days when Jones was an assistant professional at Carolina Country Club in Raleigh he routinely marveled at one particular junior golfer who opted to practice chipping and putting instead of honing his long drives.

“It was incredible the amount of time he worked on his short game,” Jones said, “you just knew he was going to be something special.”

That kid grew to be Webb Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open champion who played locally at Broughton High and was a three-time All-American at Wake Forest University.

“Everyone likes to try and hit that 300-yard drive, but the reality is a lot more people would score better if they improved their short games. That’s why I think this will be so much fun,” Jones said. “It’s a way to compete, but also practice and see where you need to get better.”

The professional version of the challenge has been a staple of professional golf’s off-season since 1992, but the GolbalGolf.com Skills Challenge marks a return to the area after a nearly decade-long absence. DiGregorio said one of the major stumbling blocks in the past was finding a venue willing to commit nine holes for three days. While not an easy financial sacrifice for most 18-hole courses to make on a weekend, Jones said the challenge is ideal for Knight’s Play, a par-3 facility that totals 27 holes.

“This is a no-brainer for us,” Jones said. “At first I wondered if we could pull it off, being that we’re only a par-3 facility, but the more the concept was explained, the more I realized we were ideal for the event.”

DiGregorio, who would like to create a series of these events within North Carolina and throughout the Southeast, said the challenge could be completed in about two hours.

“Part of the beauty is that it’s not an all-day event, you’re not spending six hours to play a full round,” he said. “You can come out and participate in the same exact thing that the pros do and it doesn’t matter your skill or age level. With all of the talk of growing the game, this is a good opportunity to get people out.”

To register for the event, visit CorporateGolfSVS.com and click on the skills challenge page.

The Campbell women’s golf team does a lot of things well.

The Camels rank in the top 10 nationally in par-3 scoring. They’re No. 3 in eagles. Birdies? They have more than any school in the country.

But what they do best lately is win.

In March, Campbell’s team total of 870 strokes at the James Madison University Eagle Landing Invitational was the third lowest in school history. A week earlier, the Camels placed three individuals in the top 15 to earn a victory at the 32-team Kiawah Island Classic – one of five tournament wins so far in 2013.

Of course the key to all that success is simple: great golfers.

“I’m fortunate at Campbell that the five young ladies who represent the team would be playing No. 1 on most of the other teams,” said coach John Crooks, who has 69 tournament wins at the school. ”If you look at our record at JMU, we had the low round every day and won by 21.”

Success is nothing new for the women’s team. Crooks has led the team for 22 seasons, putting together the fourth-most victories in NCAA women’s golf history. His teams have earned regional berths 12 of the past 15 years. While Campbell may not be the first school that comes to mind when you think of major college athletic programs, women golfers do.

“We have a winning tradition at Campbell,” Crooks says. “We also have a great golf course and a great facility. When people come to visit, an even greater asset is the young ladies on the team.”

These days, Crooks relies on senior captain Teresa Urquizu to make the right impression.

“When they come and meet Teresa,” he says, “they find out she’s a really nice person, so they enjoy being around each other.”

In fact, the interaction between players and recruits is what brought Urquizu to Buies Creek. As a 16-year-old high school player in Spain, she met Campbell golfer Maite Ortiz at a tournament. Ortiz encouraged Urquizu to follow in her footsteps. Now Urquizu is the one reaching out to recruits.

“I want the best for this team,” says Urquizu, who led all Division I players with four eagles in the fall season. “Even when I’m not here, I want good people to come after me.”

That doesn’t seem to be a problem. Lisbeth Brooks recently won Big South Conference women’s golfer of the week honors for her top-10 individual finishes in Campbell’s two recent tournament wins. She is the fifth Campbell players to earn the award this year, along with Urquizu, Brooke Bellomy, Kaylin Yost and Maria Jose Benavides.

“We have excellent senior leadership and some disciplined athletes. They aren’t so concerned with winning, but they are concerned with improving each day,” Crooks says.

Finding the right talent to keep Campbell on top is one of Crooks’ primary responsibilities.

“I don’t think it’s easy, and every year it gets harder,” he says. “There’s more programs and information available on the internet. There’s social media. All of those things kind of level the playing field.”

Now more than ever, Crooks must cast a wide net.

“If you’re going to compete nationally, you have to recruit internationally,” he says. “The programs at major universities are sprinkled with international players. Having had some success, I’ve met people in a lot of places. That has helped us stay competitive.”

That’s why the Campbell roster includes players from Mexico, Austria, the Virgin Islands and Australia. Somehow, all those backgrounds mesh well when they share the bond of golf.

“This team is very close to each other,” Urquizu says. “We have dinners and go to the library together. I live with two of my teammates as well. We can really talk about anything.”

Talking golf is a good place to start. After all, the 36th-ranked team in the country has some pretty lofty goals.

“I think we can go to nationals,” Urquizu says. “I don’t have any doubt of that because of the level of the team. We have to stay patient and give it our best – but I think they can.”

It will be the last chance for the senior captain, who hopes to pursue an MBA upon graduation.

“We are all very motivated and we know what we want,” she says. “As a senior, I’m very lucky for the freshmen who have come in because they’re ready. They don’t need a few years to get used to anything. They’re ready to be on top. That really makes a difference.”

And while Crooks does all the necessary work to keep the program moving forward, he has the satisfaction of knowing that the women make his job a little easier.

“They’re dedicated,” he says simply. “They realize they are part of something special and they appreciate it. They want to ride it as far as they can.”

Miller met young architect Kyle Franz a few years ago while he was working for Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw on the Pinehurst No. 2 restoration project. What Miller didn’t know was Franz had been sifting through files in the Tufts Archives in his spare time, waiting for the right moment to approach Miller about his plan to not only work on the greens but to restore Mid Pines to its original Ross ideals.

“Kyle came in and quite honestly wowed me,” Miller said. “I’ll give him a lot of credit, because it was a surprise. He’s a huge student of Ross. I kind of became enamored with his knowledge and what he wanted to do. So, I said ‘OK, let’s give him a shot.”’

The 32-year-old Franz, who began his first solo project Nov. 26, is restoring about 25 percent of the original Ross greens that were lost to the riding mower over a 50-year period and has cut down 300-400 tall pines to open up the course’s corridors. He’s also adding dramatic flashes and massive waste areas that Ross once displayed at Mid Pines and transplanted wire grass from on the property for that “old feel” look.

“There is a bunch of cool looking holes and some cool looking shots out there now,” Miller said. “You compare it to the old 1921 layout and what it is now, and it is pretty close.”

Exactly zero dirt or sand was trucked onto the 250-acre property, and right before his eyes Miller has been presented with virtually a new golf course for less than $1 million.

Miller says Franz will return in late May to complete the project and the course will be closed for a period of time, reopening in August. – by David Droschak

Jamie Green couldn’t even text his family or friends to relay the news that his Duke Blue Devils won the 2013 Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Golf Championship in dramatic fashion. Torrential rain over the final nine holes fried the coach’s cell phone.

But there were plenty of high-fives and hugs to go around in person at Old North State Club as the battle-tested Blue Devils captured their first ACC title since 2005, fighting the elements and three other teams down to the wire to set a school record for wins in a season at five – all coming in the Carolinas.

“I heard all the other coaches telling their players, ‘This is what you practice for,”’ Green said as the race for the team title got intense under soaking, windy and darkening conditions. “If you kept watching the leaderboard it kept bouncing around, but when you got to that last hour it was just a survival test. There were times when you wondered if a certain putt was even playable. Some guys were rolling putts through lakes.

“I saw the hats turned backwards and we had their blinders on and we finished well. It was a lot of fun.”

Duke came into the final round trailing Florida State by four shots and just one ahead of four-time defending champion Georgia Tech. Virginia Tech jumped into the race quickly on the last day too to make things even more interesting as all four teams made the turn within a few strokes of each other.

Then came the heavy rain, adding to the pressure down the stretch. In the end, it came down to the final risk-reward par-5 18th along Badin Lake, a peninsula-designed Tom Fazio hole that can produce eagles for successful gambles or high numbers for those not so lucky.

Florida State’s Doug Letson was the first Florida State player to hit the final hole and his unfortunate 10 set the tone for what was to follow for the Seminoles, as the next three Florida State golfers all carded bogeys while Duke made a few clutch par putts and the title belonged to the Blue Devils, who finished at 25-under to edge the Seminoles and Hokies by three shots.

“The conditions were unbelievable,” said Duke senior Brinson Paolini. “Your hands were like prunes, you couldn’t even feel club and no sense of where the club head was – just no feel at all. We all were just trying to keep our head down and make good decisions.”

In uncharacteristic fashion, the Yellow Jackets faded over the back nine and ended up 12 shots off the pace.

However, it was another big tournament for the smallest player in the field, 5-foot-9, 147-pound Anders Albertson, who finished fourth last year as a freshman. Albertson finished with rounds of 66, 67 and 68 for a 15-under total 201, breaking the individual ACC record set by reigning U.S. Open Champion Webb Simpson when he played for Wake Forest in 2008.

Albertson, who mastered the front nine at Old North State with a combined 11-under par for three rounds, joins other Yellow Jacket greats such as David Duval and Bryce Molder who have captured ACC individual titles.

“It’s funny because I spoke with Webb the night before the tournament started,” said Albertson, who became friends with Simpson after the two met at a Christian college golf fellowship retreat. “He mentioned something about his record but I didn’t know what it was.”

“I saw at the turn we were two back of Florida State so I was trying to do everything I could to get our team a win,” Albertson said. “Unfortunately I didn’t make any birdies on the back.”

Duke had three players finish in the top seven – Adam Sumrall (5th), Paolini (T7th) and Julian Suri (T7th) – while the other two team members finished tied for 17th.

The late Rod Myers won Duke’s last ACC team crown eight years ago, and Green is in his fifth season in Durham.

“For Jamie, it means the world to him just like it does to us,” Sumrall said. “It’s something we talk about every year when we set our goals, to unseat Georgia Tech and whoever else. They’ve had a stranglehold on this for the last few years so to get it this year with four seniors, to pull it out under conditions like that, is unreal.”

N.C. State’s Albin Choi, the highest ranked player in the field at seventh in the nation and one of the favorites coming in, never could get it going with rounds of 72, 73 and 72 to finish well off the pace of the leaders at 1-over.

Choi registered nine birdies and 10 bogeys over three rounds.

“I couldn’t string anything together,” Choi said. “I had some moments of excellence where I made some birdies but just made four birdies total the last two rounds and that’s just not going to cut it around here. It just wasn’t my week. I’ll deal with it and move on.”

The Wolfpack was ninth out of 11 teams and hasn’t finished higher than fifth since 2006.

“It seems like every year we’re confident but it is kind of the same results we’ve gotten the last three years I’ve been here, which is very unfortunate,” Choi said. “I can’t explain it. If we knew we wouldn’t be doing it, right?”

Meanwhile, North Carolina was tied with N.C. State heading into the final round but finished 12 shots better after getting final rounds of 70 from Brandon Dalinka and 71 from Michael McGowan of Southern Pines.

McGowan finished at 4 under, a second career top 10 at the ACC Championship and a score that would have been much better had he not carded an 8 on the final hole in the first round. The senior dumped his 210-yard approach shot into Badin Lake and then left his drop in a bunker, where he experienced additional trouble getting to the green.

“I made a 45-footer for an 8 so that was probably the most excited I was all day,” he said. “I know as a team I wanted to be a part of an ACC Championship but it just wasn’t meant to be. We can only look ahead to NCAA Regionals now.”

BY JOHN DELL

When North Carolina State golfer Albin Choi tells somebody where he’s from he usually waits for the next question.

“Immediately they will say, ‘Do you like hockey?’” Choi said. “And my response is, ‘of course I like hockey.”’
Choi, a junior who has lived in Toronto most of his life, loves sticks and pucks but his passion is golf. He’s one of the top players in the Atlantic Coast Conference and among a group of candidates to capture the individual title at the Old North State Club at the 60th ACC Men’s Golf Championships in April.

Choi grew up playing all sports but admits he never caught the hockey bug, which is his country’s most popular sport.

“It’s funny but I played basketball, soccer and everything else but really for me at a certain point it was all about golf,” said Choi, who headed into the spring leading the ACC in stroke average at 70.60.

Choi says he will turn pro this summer so this will be his last crack at trying to win an ACC individual title. He realizes some of the past champions of the ACC tournament are like a Who’s Who on the PGA Tour.

“I love the course but I really haven’t fared too well there my first two years,” said Choi, who along with Julian Suri of Duke, Denny McCarthy of Virginia, Ollie Schniederians of Georgia Tech and Even Beck of Wake Forest will likely contend for the title.

Also in the field will be defending champion Ben Rusch of Virginia.

Choi, who has won six tournaments and is the most decorated N.C. State golfer since another fellow Canadian, Matt Hill, says turning pro after his junior season is the right move.

“It’s bittersweet because I’ve loved my time here but I also feel like it’s the right time to turn professional after this semester,” Choi said. “I have no regrets and everybody has been great from my coaches and teammates to everybody at the school.”

Choi, who qualified and made the cut in last year’s PGA Tour’s Canadian Open, caught fire last spring and won a regional title. His 71.46 career scoring average at NC State and six tournament titles are second only to Hill, who will be playing on the Web.com Tour this season.

As for the team title, Georgia Tech has owned Old North State Club along the banks of Badin Lake in New London, N.C., winning the last four titles.

“Georgia Tech always tears that course up,” Choi said. “They play beautiful there but I think we have the talent to do some damage.”

The Yellow Jackets have won or shared the title six of the last seven years, and have captured 14 team titles.  Georgia Tech trails only Wake Forest, which has 18 ACC titles, but hasn’t won since 1989.

In the 14 years the tournament has been held at Old North State Club Georgia Tech has won or shared the title eight times.

Wolfpack coach Richard Sykes, who is in his 42nd season, says that Choi has all the tools.

“Albin doesn’t lack anything in his game,” Sykes said. “He’s got the whole package and he’s going to be a good one.”

Sykes has seen a lot of great golfers come through his program that went on to play at a high level, such as Tim Clark, Carl Pettersson and Marc Turnesa.

Also expecting to help the Wolfpack will be Mitchell Sutton, and South Carolina transfer Logan Harrell, who is eligible to play this spring. Also William Herring, Hunter Howell and Carter Page along with freshman Chad Cox, who is from Charlotte, could also make an impact this spring.

“Logan is a key addition because he’s won every qualifier we’ve had since he got here,” Sykes said about Harrell, who is from Huntersville and played two seasons for the Gamecocks.”

Andrew Sapp, who is in his second season at North Carolina as a head coach, was an assistant in the mid-1990s when the Tar Heels were annual contenders for the conference tournament.

He would like to get the program back to that level.

“We’ll have a mix of veterans and young players,” Sapp said. “We started eight different players in the fall but we’ve got an interesting mix of players.”

Seniors Michael McGowen and Patrick Barrett are Sapp’s most experienced players and Brandon Dalinka, a sophomore, had a solid fall. Others who expect to fight for spots in the starting lineup include Andy Knox, a junior who is an Apex graduate, senior Clark Palmer, Bailey Patrick and Andy Sajevic. Also, freshman Keagan Cummings, who is from Dublin, Ireland, could break into the lineup.

Sapp says keeping up with the Yellow Jackets won’t be easy.

“Georgia Tech has definitely owned that place,” Sapp said.

Sapp expects that the individual title will be hotly contested because there is so much talent in the ACC.

“It’s always fun to watch the individual tournament and see who is fighting it out to win because you look at the past winners and there are some big names who have gone on to have good pro careers,” Sapp said. “I think that’s one of the recruiting advantages we have in the ACC because when you can tell a kid you have a chance to win the ACC individual title and we can show those recruits the list of names of past winners.”

If there’s a team that could challenge Georgia Tech’s supremacy it just might be Duke, who won twice in the fall and are led by Suri, one of the top amateurs in the country.

Coach Jamie Green’s Blue Devils played in four tournaments in the fall and won two of them, while also finishing tied for fourth and sixth.

Suri and fellow senior Brinson Paolini are Green’s top players, and freshman Mads Soegarrd, who is from Denmark, along with another senior, Adam Sumrall, give Green plenty of depth in his lineup.

Austin Cody, a junior, freshman Motin Yeung, who is from China, and senior Tim Gornik, who is from Slovenia, will also compete for playing time this spring.

BY JOHN DELL

After owning the ACC Women’s Golf Championships for more than a decade, the Duke Blue Devils had a three-year lull.

That all changed last spring when the Blue Devils won their 17th ACC title and 16th under coach Dan Brooks at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro.

Brooks wouldn’t say that it was a relief, but the Blue Devils did re-establish their dominance with a 10-shot victory.

Don’t be surprised if Duke does it again this April.

“Absolutely it was a big win there at Sedgefield,” Brooks said. “I love Sedgefield. You know that if you play well there you can play well anywhere because it’s such a difficult course.”

Brooks, who is in his 29th season, has won five NCAA championships and 113 team titles, the most by any women’s coach in NCAA history.

Leading Duke’s bid to repeat at the ACC Championships April 19-21 in Greensboro will be senior Lindy Duncan, who will try to defend her individual title as well.

Duncan, who shot 70-69-71 last year, says the memory of winning both the team and individual titles is still vivid.

“Sedgefield is a great course and you have to stay patient and your game has to be on to do well there,” Duncan said.

Duncan said that since her freshman season the Blue Devils struggled at key times, but last spring everything clicked.

“We won two tournaments last year and it was great to win the ACC again. That should be a huge confidence boost for us,” Duncan said. “It was important for us to get over that hump and win the ACC again.”

Duncan, who was also the ACC women’s golf scholar athlete of the year, said her four years has gone by very fast.

“I’m looking forward to this final spring of competing,” she said. “I think we can repeat in the ACC because we have a lot of talent on our team.”

Brooks has one of his deepest teams in years. What has helped has been the impact of freshmen Celine Boutier, who is from France, and walk-on Yi Xiao of China. Brooks said both had excellent starts to their college careers this past fall.

Brooks will also count on junior Laetitia Beck and expects Duncan to play very well.

“Lindy’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever had,” Brooks said.

Coach Jan Mann of the North Carolina Tar Heels, who is in her fourth season, has two seniors and three juniors on her roster which includes Katherine Perry, a junior from Cary and a graduate of Athens Drive.

The Tar Heels won two tournaments in the fall (The Liz Murphey Fall Preview and the Tar Heel Invitational) and hope to carry over that momentum to the spring.

Also expected to be among the starters for the Tar Heels are juniors Casey Grice and Jackie Chang, along with freshman Elizabeth Mallett and sophomore Maia Schechter.

At N.C. State, Page Marsh is in her 13th season and her team will be led Amanda Baker, the lone senior on the roster. Also, sophomore Augusta James, who was the ACC Freshman of the year last season, should be one of the league’s top players.

Wake Forest lost four-year starter Cheyenne Woods, who was the ACC individual champion two years ago at Sedgefield. Coach Dianne Dailey will count on junior Olafia Kristinsottir as well as sophomores Marissa Dodd, Emily Wright and Allison Emrey, along with freshman Mariana Sims.

During the fall, five of the nine ACC schools – Duke, North Carolina, Virginia, N.C. State and Wake Forest – were ranked in the top 50 in Golfweek’s rankings.

“Carolina has been playing very well and Florida State is coming on and you have to throw Virginia in there as well,” Brooks said. “You have to be on your game in our conference if you want to win it, especially at a course like Sedgefield.”

Dailey says the ACC has much more parity than in past years.

“I think the top three are definitely Duke, Carolina and Virginia and all three will be right up there,” Dailey said. “The ACC is just looking stronger and stronger … and that’s what makes it exciting.”

In Steve Johnson’s 30-plus years of working in the golf industry, only once in his travels has he found a place as unique a golf destination as Pinehurst.

“The first time I went to St. Andrews I was struck by how alike the two places are,” said Johnson, regional general manager for Brown Golf Management, which purchased Foxfire Golf and Country Club and the Country Club of Whispering Pines in November 2012.

“They each have fabled courses (the Old Course at St. Andrews and Pinehurst No. 2) and both villages have a certain ambiance and quaintness about them. Life seems slower and more relaxed. And what’s really unique is how when you walk into a pub or restaurant they don’t ask how you’re doing, but ‘How did you play today?’ Golf is a way of life.”

Famed architect Donald Ross, who was the genius behind the iconic Pinehurst No. 2 design and other revered U.S. courses, will forever link the two towns. The Scottish-born Ross served as an apprentice to Old Tom Morris, an outstanding golfer and noted architect in his own right, who revitalized the Old Course in the late 1800s.

The comparisons between Pinehurst and St. Andrews end about there, though. While St. Andrews boasts numerous quality courses within a short distance of each other, it pales to what thrives in the Sandhills.

“The further away you get from North Carolina, the less people know about the area,” said Caleb Miles, president and CEO of the Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Some people are under the impression there is just Pinehurst Resort, but our role is to educate people that while Pinehurst Resort and its great courses is prominent, we are the ‘Home of American Golf’ for a reason.”

Actually there are 43 reasons — the number of courses within the Moore County borders. “You can’t find a better place where four guys want to get together and play golf,” Johnson said.

To help spread the gospel is the Sandhills Golf Association, which was incorporated in 1992 with the mission of attracting more golfers and enlightening the unaware. Today, the SGA numbers 19 courses totaling 23 18-hole layouts throughout Moore and neighboring counties.

The SGA is comprised of Anderson Creek Club, Bayonet at Puppy Creek, Beacon Ridge Golf and Country Club, Carolina Trace Country Club, Country Club of Whispering Pines, Foxfire Golf and Country Club, Hyland Golf Club, Legacy Golf Links, Little River Golf Resort, Longleaf Golf and Country Club, Mid South Club, Seven Lakes Country Club, Southern Pines Golf Club, Talamore Golf Club, The National Golf Club, Tot Hill Farm Golf Club and Woodlake Country Club.

The lineup of courses is formidable if only by the architects who designed them. Ross designed Southern Pines, which opened in 1906. Since then Ellis Maples, Arnold Palmer and Gene Hamm each designed 54 holes, while Robert Trent Jones, Dan Maples and Mike Strantz designed 36 each. Peter Tufts (great-grandson of James Walker Tufts, founder of Pinehurst and the godson of Ross), William Byrd, Tom Jackson, Jack Nicklaus and Jack Nicklaus II, Rees Jones and Davis Love III also lent their craftsmanship.

Yet for all of the Sandhills’ golfing heritage and popularity, there is an economic reality, says Joe Gay, director of golf at Tobacco Road Golf Club and Tobacco Road Travel.

“We are a golf destination and we’re trying to position ourselves against other golfing destinations such as Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head,” said Gay, speaking for the SGA consortium. “Even more challenging today is any place with four or five courses within 10 or 15 miles is calling itself a golf destination.”

The 1990s was a boon as course openings flourished in the Sandhills. In recent years, Miles said courses have had to take a hard look at the business model.

“No longer can courses just put up a sign and expect people to show up,” Miles said, noting that even despite a down economy the past five years the region has suffered just one course closing – The Pit – which closed in February 2011. Pinehurst Resort has since purchased that property and has talked about adding a ninth course to its portfolio in the future.

In the years 2008 to 2011, total rounds played decreased by 18 percent, including a 7.5 percent decrease in 2010. In 2012, there was a decrease of .5 percent and January 2013 showed a 2.5 percent increase.

No longer is golf the only sales pitch. Value is being offered by bundling golf with accommodations and other amenities.

Gay estimates roughly 35 percent of the stay-and-play packages booked are in-state guests, while another 20 percent represents Virginia and South Carolina. Another 32 percent account for travelers from Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland.

“We’re a drive market, so our focus is on those golfers in the Northeast who are about an eight-hour drive away,” Gay said.

As of early February, the convention bureau’s website (www.homeofamericangolf.com) listed 18 late winter and spring stay-and-play packages, but Gay says the combinations are unlimited.

Miles, who has been with the convention bureau for 24 years, remembers that was not always the case.

“The first 10 years I would go into a restaurant and there was a good chance I would know a number of people,” he joked. “Today, I can go into a restaurant and not see anyone I know.”

Part of the reason is the very golfers who flock to the Sandhills. Miles said in the 1990s the convention bureau was getting a strong indication from golfers that they were not satisfied with the restaurant options.

“I remember you could go to the Outback Steakhouse on Highway 15-501 and there would be a wait of an hour and 45 minutes,” Johnson said.

Things began to change around the time Payne Stewart won the 1999 U.S. Open at No. 2. The region started to make its niche with independent restaurateurs, especially those who chose to use food grown and bred within North Carolina.

Each year, the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services conducts a Best Dish in N.C. competition, which recognizes the state’s top restaurants that use North Carolina products. The past three years, the Eastern Piedmont/Coastal Region’s Fine Dining category winner has come from the Sandhills — Southern Pines-based Ashten’s and Rhett’s Restaurant, Personal Chef & Catering in 2010 and 2012, respectively, and Elliott’s on Linden in Pinehurst in 2011.

What the Sandhills lacks in the bustle of a Myrtle Beach or the seaside lure of a Hilton Head, it offsets with cultural charm.

In addition to the Village of Pinehurst, Southern Pines also has a small-town feel with shops and restaurants lining the main streets. The Pinehurst Resort features a world-class spa that is open to the public. Just north of Pinehurst, Carthage is an antique enthusiast heaven and local pottery shops abound.

“There really is no place like this area,” Johnson said. “It’s just special.”