STORYTELLING

The Stories of Tot Hill Farm

Property Landmarks by Lee Pace

Tot Hill Farm has great historical significance dating back to the 1800’s. From our historic Farmhouse to The Old Dam, Tot Hill Farm is not your average golf property. Sit back and enjoy learning all about these interesting facts.

The Spirit of Adventure by Lee Pace

“The great courses are fascinating to the golfer by reason of their shape, their situation and the character of their modeling. When these elements obey the fundamental laws of balance, of harmony and fine proportion, they give rise to what we call beauty. This excellence of design is more felt than fully realized by the players, but nevertheless it is constantly exercising a subconscious influence upon him and in course of time he grows to admire such a course as all works of beauty must be eventually felt and admired.”
Alister Mackenzie, “The Spirit of St. Andrews”

Act Two for Tot Hill Farm by Lee Pace

If Mike Strantz hadn’t died from tongue cancer in 2005 at the young age of 50, would he ever have made it to Pinehurst proper to design a golf course? We’ll never know, of course, but at least 25 percent of his remarkable but all too limited design portfolio was built within 45 miles of the Village of Pinehurst.

An Artist in the Dirt by Lee Pace

Tom Fazio was working at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, in the mid-1970s on some course renovations leading up to the 1979 U.S. Open when he noticed an ambitious and talented member of the course maintenance staff named Mike Strantz. “Mike developed a close friendship with Andy Banfield of our staff,” Fazio remembers. “He was a talented artist and drew sketches of golf holes. He showed a real desire to get into golf course design. He liked us and we liked him. After the Inverness project was finished, we offered him a job working for us.”