Village Stores Hope for Open Bonanza

BY SARA LINDAU: Staff Writer, The Pilot

The U.S. Open is almost here, and that means an estimated 45,000 people will come every day — most with plenty of spending money.

Many business owners in the downtown village of Pinehurst, who were left disappointed after the 1999 Open, hope to get a bigger share of the bonanza this time around.

Village Business Guild leaders have been working for months on a marketing plan to let spectators and other visitors know about the charming historic downtown. Open week begins Monday, June 13, with three days of practice rounds. The four days of championship rounds start Thursday, culminating with the final round Sunday, June 19.

“We are open for the Open,” said Sherry Mortenson, president of the business guild.

Not only did most merchants not see the amount of business they were expecting from the 1999 Open, many local residents stayed away, fearing snarled roads and a lack of parking.

Parking will be available for employees and people shopping the downtown, Village Business Guild leaders stress. People attending the golf championship will be prohibited from parking in the downtown and other areas in the core village. The village’s residential streets will be roped off during the Open to prevent people from parking there.

“The core village is only closed during the day if you are parking there to go to the Open,” Mortenson said.

Business owners had high expectations in 1999, the first time the Open was played in Pinehurst, that the championship would bring hundreds of people to the downtown and keep cash registers ringing. They learned the hard way that being within walking distance of the championship wouldn’t automatically mean more customers for them.

Many of the spectators will park in satellite lots outside the village and will be bused in and out of the Open. They will stay in hotels in Raleigh, Greensboro and Fayetteville. The same shuttle bus system was used in 1999, and it worked flawlessly. The transportation plan kept traffic congestion in the village and around the Traffic Circle to a minimum.

But there still will be many people staying in and around the village during the week at the hotels and inns, condominiums and rented homes. Business owners hope to get more of them to the downtown to shop and eat.

One significant event that should help bring more people to the downtown will be a free outdoor concert by the North Carolina Symphony on Wednesday, June 15, at 8 p.m. on the eve of the championship rounds. Business Guild board members have no predictions on how many people the concert might draw to the downtown.

The 90-minute concert will feature a 30-minute selection from “Sketches From Pinehurst,” a piece commissioned in honor of Pinehurst’s hosting the Open for the second time.

The concert will take place in front of the Casino building. Streets will be blocked to traffic for the concert.

Mortenson and other board members, including Janeen Driscoll, who is president-elect of the organization and also communications manager for Pinehurst Resort, are urging businesses to remain open until about 10 p.m. the night of the concert.

“The Symphony is our way of trying to drive publicity to the village,” Driscoll told Guild members at a recent meeting at the Pinehurst Member’s Club. “The symphony has also subcontracted with a public relations firm working with them, using the Golf Channel and NBC and others.”

Mortenson predicted that at least 80 percent of the village businesses will stay open later this time.

One of the complaints in 1999 was that some businesses did not stay open late enough. On the Thursday and Friday of championship, golf play doesn’t finish until almost dark, meaning spectators, corporate officials and other visitors won’t wander into the village until 7 or 8 o’clock, or even later.

The shops normally close at 5. If the shops are going to get more business from the estimated 350,000 people expected for the week, they will have to be open after the golf ends, not just during the day, they said.

Aside from the concert, board members told the Guild about the marketing plan that includes articles in major magazines and television features about the charm and history of Pinehurst. The marketing efforts include billboards, signs, maps, flyers, newspaper inserts in The Pilot during the week of the Open and a kiosk in the downtown with a directory and map of all the businesses, according to Driscoll.

Business leaders hope that the additional marketing and promotional efforts will bring more people to the downtown during the week of the Open. They plan to put their best foot forward that week.

Driscoll spearheaded efforts to bring the symphony to the village during the week of the Open. The symphony performs an annual holiday concert in Grand Ballroom at the Carolina Hotel around Thanksgiving.

Local residents are encouraged to attend the symphony concert.

“It’s not just for ticket-holders,” she said.

Special parking for people attending the symphony concert will be at Camellia Square at Murdocksville Road and N.C. 211. A vehicle from Kirk Tours is providing shuttle bus service, she said.

Parking will also be available at Pinehurst Elementary School, Sacred Heart and Community Presbyterian churches, starting at 5 p.m.

Handicap parking will be allowed at the Theater Building and a few spaces at the nearby sand parking lot closer to the concert site, she said.

“I hope to be very busy,” an optimistic Mortenson said of her own shop, the Faded Rose on Market Square.

Six years ago, she was surprised that there weren’t “hordes” of customers coming into her shop during the Open.

Eldora Wood has run the Potpourri gift shop for 25 years. Wood is staying open until 9 or 10 p.m. on the night of the Symphony concert.

“We’ll wait and see how many people really come into the village,” she said. “The symphony Wednesday night will really benefit us. There is no way we could pay for the Symphony to come here ourselves.”

Wood said her shop benefited from the 1999 Open, before and after the event.

“People would want to play the No. 2 course the year before the Open,” she said. “They could go home and tell all their friends that they know all about it. We got more customers in 1998, and then in 2000.”

Osaka-born Gil Ro opened his new sushi and Japanese cuisine restaurant May 11 on Market Square. He learned about Pinehurst from watching the 1999 Open on television.

He said he spent about $200,000 on renovations to his business. It is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, with a separate bar. Ten Ya is poised for Open dining and entertaining.

Two streets away, Koley Keel, owner of The Villager Deli, plans to work 14 to 15 hour days to serve a supper special during the Open.

His normal breakfast and lunch service will be the same, opening at 7:30 a.m., but during Open week, except for Sundays, he plans to stay open until 9 or 10 p.m., depending.

“We don’t know what to expect,” he said. “We will support the Guild request that the core village stay open evenings. We know the golf courses will be crowded during the day, and we don’t want the locals to be afraid to visit the village during the day.”

Unlike some businesses that saw a decline in customers during the 1999 Open, Tom Stewart said his Old Sport & Gallery of golf art and memorabilia on Market Square saw a marked increase in business.

He said the days were “humdrum,” but golfers and fans visited his shop in the evenings and sometimes stayed until midnight. He expects it will be the same this time.