The Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, site of next year's U.S. Open, didn't begin grassing its greens until the 1930s, a quarter century after golf was first played there.

WSJ: Sand-Greens Golf: A Game Lives On in the Great Plains

It began as would-be resort, a projected rival to Pinehurst, 25 miles west.

WSJ: The Afterlife of Fort Bragg's Golf Course | Golf Journal by John Paul Newport