Book excerpt: In anticipation of the 2014 Men's and Women's U. S. Opens to be played on the venerable Pinehurst No. 2 course comes the release of the definitive history of North Carolina Sandhills golf: The Legendary Evolution of Pinehurst, Home of American Golf. Written by veteran golf course architect Richard Mandell, It is a detailed account of the evolution of the playing fields of the Sandhills area of North Carolina and how it directly affected the game of golf in America a century ago and still does today. The book chronologically reviews the history of golf course development in the Sandhills and how it mirrored the growth, and often directed, the evolution of golf architecture and development in the United States. Today, Pinehurst stands at the pinnacle of a revolution in golf course design and development just as it found itself in that position in 1895. As the golf world adjusts to the new world economy, Pinehurst No. 2's recent transformation into a sustainable, yet exciting, playing experience finds itself as the prototype for the game of golf in the twenty-first century.