At Pinehurst Golf Sabbatical, the rich really do have it better

How good a golfer could you become if you could take time off and really work on your game, with top-notch instruction, equipment and world-class places to play? For just a thousand bucks a day, you can now find out.

I get a lot of bizarre press releases and package “deals” across my desk these days, but this one, from Pinehurst Resort, really stood out. On the one hand it is a lot of money, and very few readers will even be able to consider it halfway seriously. On the other hand, who wouldn’t want to try it? Especially since this is no gimmick destination, but rather the nation’s most storied golf resort, the first destination golf resort in the United States, the only place that has hosted the PGA Championship, the US Open and the Ryder Cup, and the closest thing we have to St. Andrews, an entire charming town that lives and breathes the spirit of the game.

So what is this package? It is the Pinehurst Golf Sabbatical, and it was introduced to celebrate this year’s 100th birthday of the legendary Number Two course, the most revered of the eight layouts that make Pinehurst the nation’s largest golf resort, and the second largest in the world. Number Two hosts all the big tournaments and was the seminal work of Donald Ross, considered by many the greatest American designer (at least after he moved here from his native Scotland, living out his entire adult life in Pinehurst in a house alongside the course).

Here is the bottom line: You take a month off of work, play, or whatever it is you do with your life, relocate to Pinehurst where the package includes 30 nights accommodations in a suite in the venerable Carolina Hotel, including all meals (and the food is pretty good!), laundry, even spa treatments with your personal therapist. So that you don’t have to hitch or take the bus, they loan you a fully loaded Acura for the month. You also get golf instruction and analysis, mind exercises with a renowned sports psychologist, lessons on how to read greens, custom club fitting and unlimited golf on the eight courses, along with a 30-day supply of Titleist ProV1s. They throw in some VIP events like tours of Ross’ house, visits to the archives of the resort founder, and you get to bring in a spouse or golf buddy for a two-day complimentary mini-vacation during your sabbatical. All this for just $29,500.

Hopefully by the end of this golf-intensive month you will achieve a level of golf greatness you always dreamed of, but if you don’t, it will still be one to tell the kids about, with a lot of great golf on great courses followed by great meals in a great hotel and great town. Wow, I have almost sold myself. Anyone out there want to be my sponsor?

Photos: Top, Pinehurst No. 2, bottom, an on-course statue of architect Donald Ross; by Gerry Broome, AP Photo