“There was no hesitation,” said Robert


Linville, the tour co-founder. “We wanted to do something to continue her legacy and keep her name out there as the matriarch of golf.” The tour, with a footprint that expands


from Georgia to Pennsylvania, has grown from six events and 65 girls participating that first year to 52 events and 660 partici- pants in 2016. “Obviously we’re trying to teach the


girls who come through a little bit about what she did, using golf as a way to impact them in ways that are immeasurable,” Linville said. Sometimes overshadowed by her being


an outstanding player and world-class instructor was her business acumen. Miller said she was very hands-on in the operations of Pine Needles Resort and later when the family purchased Mid


Pines Inn and Golf Club just across the street. “A risk taker, but calculated,” said


Mrs. Bell had a fondness for growing the game.


Her Golfaris —a melding of golf instruction and social experiences she created for women at Pine Needles— have been a smashing success. Her soft spot, perhaps, was with junior golfers, who she never charged for a lesson. “It was her way of giving back,” Miller said. “Her


pro, Leonard Schmutte, never did that, so she just carried that on.” In 2007, Triad Youth Golf Foundation presi-


dent Chris Haarlow, a former student of Mrs. Bell, approached her about lending support to a fledgling developmental tour being created to empower junior girls.


Miller of Mrs. Bell, who enjoyed play- ing craps. Pine Needles’ hosting of the 1996


U.S. Women’s Open was one such deliberate decision. The U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship in 1989 and the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship two years later had been held on the Donald Ross- designed course. For Bell, though, there was a missing jewel. “Now if we just had the Open,


we'd have it covered,” she said at the time. “And it wasn't too long


after that we got the Open.” Judy Bell said the fact that the U.S. Women’s


Open operated at a financial loss did not deter Mrs. Bell, who viewed hosting the national championship as a win for the club. The club would host the U.S. Women’s Open again in 2001 and 2007, and will host the second U.S. Senior Women’s Open in 2019. “It’s sad that Peggy won’t be with us for that


Senior Women’s, but I expect it will be such as much a tribute to her as the Opens were,” Judy Bell said. While Mrs. Bell could not have imagined as a


teenager how her life with golf was going to play out, she was certainly grateful. "Her attitude was to use golf to make life bet-


ter,” Stillwell said. "And that was through instruc- tion, through the resort, her Golfari experiences, the tournaments she played in, the people she met. She would have said she was a lucky person because she got to play golf and all the rewards she had in life came from the game.” Golf was just as lucky to have met Mrs. Bell in


the first place.


www.trianglegolf.com


TRIANGLE GOLF TODAY • SPRING 2017 13


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