It is only appropriate that Peggy Kirk Bell has a full page spread in today's copy of the The Open Daily (provided by The Pilot). Today marks the beginning of the U.S. Open Women's practice rounds at Pinehurst #2. Grab a copy of The Open Daily to learn how Mrs. Bell became a golf instructor and business woman. The full story is below.
Peggy Kirk Bell
By: Lee Pace, The Pilot
Peggy Kirk Bell had never given a golf lesson in her life when her husband, Bullet, approached her one day in 1954. He pointed to a woman who had come into the golf shop of the Pine Needles club in Southern Pines and said, “That woman wants to learn to play golf. Go teach her.”
At the time, Pine Needles’ clientele was nearly 100 percent men, and seeing a woman wanting to learn the game took Bullet by surprise.
“I don’t know what to tell her,” Peggy said.
“You know more golf than she does,” Bullet said. “Tell her anything.”
So there Peggy went. And it was a disaster.
“I told her everything I knew,” Peggy remembers. “We were out there for two or three hours. She’d hit it bad and I’d say, ‘Try this.’ Another bad shot. ‘Try this.’ I was going crazy trying to get her to hit it like I could.”
Finally, the poor woman said, “Can we quit? I’m dead.”
Peggy laughs at the memory. “I often wonder about that poor woman,” she says. “I’m sure she quit golf then and there.”
Fortunately for Mrs. Bell and her family, she soon got the hang of teaching golf. The small resort business that the Bells had begun operating in 1953 after getting married soon grew into a bastion of golf instruction. Peggy became respected as one of the top teachers in the game, adding to her earlier accomplishment as a founding member of the LPGA Tour. The Bells eventually bought and expanded Pine Needles and later added Mid Pines to the resort operation. The vintage Donald Ross-designed course at Pine Needles has been the site of three U.S. Women’s Opens (1996, 2001 and 2007). Mid Pines has hosted USGA championships for senior women and girls juniors.
Pine Needles and Mid Pines were — and remain — a family affair, with Peggy and Bullet running it for many years. Now their children and their spouses in charge.
“It’s great we’ve kept it in the family for so many years,” says Mrs. Bell, who, at 92, is still a regular fixture around the resort. Warren “Bullet” Bell died in 1984 — ironically, just a month after paying off the last note on the property and getting out of the debt he so abhorred.
“In so many family businesses, the kids have no interest in taking over,” says Peggy. “But golf is something you never get tired of. All Bullet and I ever wanted to do was own a golf course. But then we learned we had to get into the hotel business. It’s a different challenge every day. But the kids seem to love it and they’ve done so well with it.”
On a recent day in May, Pine Needles was hosting one of its signature “Golfari” events —weeklong “safaris” into the world of golf for ladies only. The club uses its full-time staff of instructors, including former PGA Tour player Pat McGowan, and Mrs. Bell is on the lesson tee most every morning at 9.
She watches from a golf cart about 15 feet behind golfers, then has them come sit with her and she offers some thoughts and ideas. She keeps a black Sharpie pen handy and draws on their gloves, indicating pressure points in the fingers and lines they should see on the top of the left hand at address. At any given noon hour at Pine Needles, she’s likely to be gripping a knife or a fork like a golf club and ruminating about the evils of poor pressure and position.
“She’s very productive, very viable still,” says McGowan, one of two sons-in-law of Mrs. Bell active in the daily operation of the resort. “People love to see her. She still preaches the same fundamentals she did back in the beginning: grip, posture, alignment. The basic fundamentals still work. If we get those three things right, odds are you’ll hit the ball much more consistently.
“Name another golfer who was one of the best players of his or her era and became a great teacher,” McGowan muses. “It’s a short list. I can’t think of anyone who rivals her. She has to be by far the best known woman instructor of all time. She was not the best player of her era, but she was very good and won a tournament considered a ‘major’ at the time.”
Peggy shrugs off the notion she’s done anything special.
“All I’ve done is play a wonderful game. Everything I have in life has been through golf. It’s been a joy and a blessing.”
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