someday. People are going to follow him like they do Michael Jordan.” Jack Nicklaus won the 1959 North & South Amateur, beating Gene Andrews 1-up, and ever since has had a soft spot for Pinehurst and the Donald Rossdesigned No. 2 course. “I think it’s a very enjoyable golf course to play,” Nicklaus said. “I’ve said many times it’s my favorite golf course from a design standpoint. It’s extremely difficult around the greens, but it also gives you an opportunity to play. Pinehurst and Augusta probably give you the two toughest sets of greens I know. I think Pinehurst’s are more difficult than Augusta’s.” The North & South in the mid1900s was dominated by the “career amateur,” the elite golfer who rejected the vagabond and not particularly lucrative pro tour in favor of a good job and stable home life. Billy Joe Patton of Morganton won three North & Souths while selling lumber across the Carolinas, and Bill Campbell of Huntington, W.Va., won four times while owning an insurance agency. But after Campbell won in 1967, the North & South became the bastion of the college golfer on the way to the pro tour. Joe Inman, Gary Cowan, Eddie Pearce, Danny Edwards, George Burns, Curtis Strange, Gary Hallberg, Hal Sutton, Corey Pavin, Davis Love III and Billy Andrade won from 1968-1986. The Donald Ross Memorial Junior held each December and the North & South Junior for Michigan Golf Journal
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