Closing at the opens: companies are pining for the chance to bolster business at Pinehurst No. 2.

• Author: Pace, Lee
• Position: TOP 100 GOLF COURSES

While the best golfers in the world battle each other and a revamped course at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club in June, a different game will be played on site--albeit in air conditioning. Fluor Corp., an Irving, Texas-based construction and engineering company, will fly in a ringer. Charlotte Pipe and Foundry Co., a 113-year-old manufacturer of cast-iron and plastic pipe and fittings, will employ a little misdirection. And San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. will replace Wachovia Corp. in the lineup. They're all hoping to gain an advantage from the field of play.

For the first time, the United States Golf Association will hold the men's and women's U.S. Open Championships in consecutive weeks--June 9-22--on the same course, Pinehurst No. 2. Golf's governing body believes linking the tournaments will bolster the women's event. That's not the only difference from 2005, the last time Pinehurst hosted the Open. The course has undergone an extensive renovation, most noticeably sandier landscaping replacing Bermuda-grass rough. Even management of the event will be different--sort of. One thing, however, will stay the same: Companies are jumping at the chance to use the U.S. Open to boost business and are willing to pay a premium for the opportunity.

Pinehurst's first Open in 1999 flourished in a robust economy, generating an estimated economic impact of $160 million, according to the local convention and visitors bureau. When it returned six years later, it contributed $128 million (though that estimate came from a different model than the 1999 one). But the recent financial morass necessitated an altered strategy for 2014. "The corporate landscape in North Carolina has changed materially since 2005," says Jim Hyler, former chief operating officer of Raleigh-based First Citizens BancShares Inc. and USGA president in 2010-11. "The banks have changed. The power companies have changed. We've had to broaden our outreach to different categories of businesses." Finance companies, for example, made up 22% of corporate sales in 2005. This year, they dropped to 15%.

Mac Everett is a former Charlotte-based executive with Wachovia and Wells Fargo who has helped recruit corporate-hospitality customers to the Pinehurst Opens. "Some of the new names, frankly, I don't recognize. These have been transformative years, and we've been through a mighty economic downturn. But we're beyond the budget we've set for ourselves. I think it shows you how strong the appeal of an Open at Pinehurst is and how committed this state is to making sure each time an Open comes to Pinehurst it's a success on every level."

Pinehurst was awarded its first U.S. Open Championship in 1993, giving it six years to prepare for the biggest golf tournament on American soil. "We were wringing our hands at first," recalls Pat Corso, Pinehurst president and CEO from 1987 to 2004. "We had worked long and hard for six years trying to convince the powers that be in golf that we could do this and do it properly. Then all of a sudden it was like, 'OK, show us what you can do.'" The key decision was making it a North Carolina, not just a Sandhills, event. The resort recruited business leaders--Charlotte heavyweights Hugh McColl of Bank of America Corp., John Belk of Belk Inc. and Bill Lee of Duke Power Co. among them--to serve on its President's Council. Its primary goal was to impress upon businesses the importance of buying hospitality tents. "Our goal was to sell 20 tents. We would make budget and do well at 20," says Hyler, council chairman back then. "But the economy was doing well in '99, and we had the wind at our back. We sold out 20 tents--then 30, then 40, then 50. We could have probably sold 75." All told, Pinehurst sold 50 at $125,000 a pop--$6.3 million.

The 1999 Open was so successful from competitive (with the popular Payne Stewart beating the popular Phil Mickelson on the last shot), operational and financial standpoints that the USGA awarded the course another. By the time 2005 arrived, however, a third of the corporate sponsors in '99 were no longer around. They had been either bought or had gone bust. "We had to adjust to changing times and a different marketplace," says Reg Jones, championship director in 2005 and 2014. "For '05, we adjusted to offer a smaller size at a smaller price point. We also created a new product called The Trophy Club--a sports-bar theme with individual tables for each company." Pinehurst sold 65 smaller tents at reduced prices ranging from $40,000 to $175,000. The result: a corporate sales record--the USGA won't disclose how much--that still stands.

"There is an incredible amount of camaraderie, loyalty and state pride in North Carolina," says Mimi Griffin, whose Allentown, Pa.-based MSG Promotions Inc. has managed corporate-hospitality sales for the USGA since 1995. "I don't know if I've seen any other area or club or state that has embraced the championship the way that North Carolina and the Pinehurst community and the surrounding area have."

Nevertheless, organizers had to change their strategy again for this year's Opens. Raleigh-based Progress Energy Inc. and Charlotte-based Wachovia, big sponsors in 1999 and 2005, have been acquired by other companies. Management of the event also has changed hands, though a familiar face is still running things. The USGA normally handles ticket and corporate sales, tournament administration and course...