On Pinehurst Part Duex

Boys,

This week, we got back from our first family trip to Pinehurst. We went down for a couple reasons, namely:

• 1. Because Pinehurst replaced Vegas as your mom and my favorite place on earth
• 2. Because your mom was playing great golf for a stretch and there was a big qualifying tournament down there (more on that to come)
• 3. Because it gave us a chance to see your Memaw and Papaw (not sure if those are spelled right or if I’ll ever spell those right)
• …and 4. Because of 1, the potential for more 2’s in the future, and it’s easier for 3 not having to come all the way to Ohio, we wanted to look at some areas where we might try to own a short-term rental in the future.

Let’s dive in…

Pinehurst: Better Than Vegas?

Some might consider this a hot take.

Instant side bar: we’re in the AI-age right now. By the time you’re reading this, people probably won’t be writing their own words anymore and books will be generated by a computer and songs will be generated by computers, but now as I write words like “might” and “probably,” I’m getting suggestions to correct for “unconfident words.” What is that? Sorry if the way I speak, which is the way I talk, is unconfident. But what am I supposed to say? We might consider buying in Pinehurst. We might not. Get out of here, AI.

Sorry. So ever since your Papaw’s 70th birthday in Vegas, that city has been your mom’s and my favorite place. I all but met your Papaw (3rd time saying “Papaw” (4th now) in a post — new record) after your mom, having dated me for all of 3 or 4 months, asked if I wanted to go with her to Las Vegas for her dad’s birthday. I, being all for an adventure, said yes. That trip is a whole other post. Ask me about it some day. Spoiler: I wore very blue shoes.

But we had a blast and each time either of us have gone back, either for a work trip or with family or with friends, we’ve had a blast. Love everything about the strip and love the energy. I love how money “isn’t real” in Vegas — or at least that is the mindset you have to adopt while you’re there. (PS – that money was, in fact, very real and you remember that each time you come back home).

But Pinehurst is known as “the cradle of American golf.” There are so many good golf courses with Pinehurst Resort being the mecca. This trip, we stayed at a green house (Koen loves green houses) that was right next to, and I mean RIGHT NEXT TO, train tracks (Reagan loves train tracks). Plus, we were .3 miles from Pinehurst Resort (Mom + Dad loves Pinehurst Resort). It was a win for everyone. Plus your grandparents met us there and stayed with us, which was great for all parties involved.

A Big Qualifying Tournament for your Mom

You both know your mom played golf in college and you both should know by now that your mom has won our club championship at least multiple times — I say that because as of now, she’s won it 3 times and whose to say she doesn’t go on a tear these next 10-15 years and is just holding it down like Tiger Woods in the early 00’s.

Well, she’s been playing good golf, and when we were in Palm Springs this spring, we met a girl who won a tournament called the US Women’s Mid-Am back in 2022 or 2023. So she convinced your mom that she could compete with how good she was, and your mom decided to try to qualify for that tournament. Luckily, there was a qualifying tournament near Pinehurst at a course called Pinewild.

So the plan is, she’s going to play a practice round a day early at Pinewild, then on the day of the qualifying round (which means there were 33 or so girls playing and the top 6-ish would get to play in the US Women’s Mid-Am tournament later that fall), I would be her caddy and you boys would hang with Memaw and Papaw.

Saturday rolls around and we drop her off at her practice round. We then go home, meander around the train tracks for a bit, wait for Memaw to get back home, and decided to go to an ostrich farm. That is a story unto itself so I’ll just write that and link to it here. We got back home and went to pick up your mom — Reagan you came. She played well enough, admitted that she treated it as a practice round and didn’t line things up as much as she would the next day, and was generally happy with her score.

We woke up early Sunday and headed out to the course to warm up and get ready to play. On the range, your mom was nervous and I’d never seen her like that on a golf course. As her caddy, it was my job to keep her confidence high, and I told her that once she hit her first tee shot, all the nerves would go away. Well, she hit her first tee shot OK, it was pulled a bit to the left and she had a funny lie next to a bunker. Par 5, so no real trouble there. Just needed to get something back into the fairway and give her a shot to the green for her third.

Well, that second shot did not get out into the fairway. Instead, it took a 45-degree turn left, went about as far up in the air as it did sideways, and actually ended up being out of bounds, which means she would have to hit another one, this time her 4th shot, from that same place. I can already hear your mom telling me not to continue, but lets just say we didn’t make par, and that we were playing catch up the rest of the round. It wasn’t our best day, despite good company and excellent caddy-work by yours truly. So we did not qualify for the US Women’s Mid-Am, which would have been a whole other thing to figure out had she qualified, but we learned a little bit and your mom got to play some truly competitive golf away from Kinsale.

Memaw + Papaw

I always have fun when I get to see your Memaw and Papaw, and I know it means a lot to your mom to see them since they live so far away. They came up Friday afternoon, and we met them at the house after we went to Pinehurst and played The Cradle. That was cool because there was a US Kids golf tournament that week, so there were thousands of kids playing the courses, putting on the green, and playing The Cradle. I was hoping you’d be inspired to want to get good enough to come back and be a part of that event some day.

So we met up with Memaw and Papaw and had some fun. The first morning with them, we went down to the Village of Pinehurst (VoP for those in the know), and did a little window shopping. Then we took Memaw to the ostrich farm, came back with some stories for Papaw and mom, and watched some olympics and golf with them before bed. They took you two to the park the next day when your mom and I were golfing her event, and we said our goodbyes to them that night since they left very early on Monday. Memaw gave me something that I’m excited to post about her growing up and watching your mom grow up, and I was very happy to read all about those two things — I hope you both will be too when you read it.

Pinehurst Property Hunt

So we’re not ready to buy something today, but a dream your mom and I have is to have a place near Pinehurst we could go when we’d want to visit, but also to rent out to people when we’re not there. I hope by the time you’re reading this we already have that property. We first when to Pinehurst (just your mom and I) last year, but we didn’t really explore anything outside of the VoP and the resort. This time, we checked out some other neighborhoods and towns nearby to get a sense of what we liked and what we didn’t.

It was rainy, but we managed to check out a cool coffee shop, explored two parks (despite getting rained on in both of them) and get a sense of what type of area we’d want to have a place to come. We decided we really liked Southern Pines. You both were losing some interest in searching the area, so we decided to go back to the house. But I loved driving around, just the four of us, and envisioning what life might be like when we have a place down there. You’ll both be older, but we’ll remember the first time we all went down and got a vibe for what all there is at Pinehurst outside of the VoP.

This was the second time I’ve been to Pinehurst. The first time, your mom and I played a lot of golf and stayed close to the resort and we fell in love. This time, I fell in love with the idea of all of us being there and what things might look like in the future if we had a place to vacation for a week here or there throughout the year. I learned there is plenty to do even without golf, and I think it could be a place you both would grow to love and a place you could have that is “yours” that you could tell your friends about as you grow up.

So I hope this was the first of many, many more family trips we take to Pinehurst. And I love that you both are getting to an age where we can do things like this. So your job is to keep being who you are and your mom and I will figure out how to give you the best possible childhood we can.

Love you both,

Dad