Pinehurst Resort, site of two U.S. Open championships, aims its month-long, $29,500 program at executives hoping to cut their handicaps.

By Michael Buteau
Bloomberg Markets October 2007

James Suttie, who retired in August as chief executive officer of Infowave Software Inc., has set his sights on a new kind of earnings target: a golf handicap under 10.

The former head of the Burnaby, British Columbia-based software company is trying to shave his 13 handicap by attending Pinehurst Resort's new golf sabbatical. For $11,000, Suttie gets private lessons, custom-club fitting, counseling from sports psychologist Dick Coop, massage, use of a fully loaded Acura and 20 rounds of golf in 10 days. Two of those rounds will be on the North Carolina resort's No. 2 course, site of the 1999 and 2005 U.S. Opens. "It's a lot of golf, but that's why I'm going there," Suttie, 60, says.

Pinehurst created the first-of-its-kind sabbatical in April to boost revenue from guests who are willing to pay high prices for personal attention, says Tom Pashley, Pinehurst's marketing director. Pashley says the program, which includes a 30-day package for $29,500, is designed for executives like Suttie, its first customer.

The 112-year-old resort was founded in the village of Pinehurst, which was laid out by Olmsted, Olmsted & Elliot, the firm that designed New York's Central Park. Though the resort has a 31,000- square-foot (2,900-square-meter) spa and upscale dining, Pinehurst is known primarily as a golf mecca.

Sabbatical guests are also offered tours of the No. 2 course with Paul Jett, its superintendent. They'll learn his course-setup secrets, such as his most difficult pin placements, and possibly cut a hole on one of the turtleback-shaped greens.

"It's something that's going to elevate my golf game," Suttie says. "It didn't require a lot of selling on their part."

#<257571.18602.1.0.53.12385.25># -0- Aug/24/2007 19:09 GMT

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