Donald Ross came over from Scotland in 1899 meaning to teach a young country an old game. James W. Tufts, who had dreamed Pinehurst into being, put him to work soon after he arrived, and Ross stayed on for another 48 years. No. 2 opened in 1907, and Ross made his home beside it. His house sits just left of the spectacular third green, a green he was said to tweak year after year, as though he could not leave it alone. That restlessness suits the place. The greens of No. 2 are the thing everyone remembers: turtlebacks, domed and shrugging, average in size yet far smaller than they look, with wicked fall-offs that send a slightly wayward approach into the collection areas below. They hold only the best or the luckiest shots, and they have reduced grown men to tears. Ross cut his golfing teeth at Royal Dornoch, and domed greens like these came to be called his hallmark. Yet across his vast body of work they may be the exception rather than the rule. They were not handed down whole in 1907. They grew into their shapes over time, and when Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw came to No. 2, they chose to honor that evolution rather than chase the exact first forms. Their work began in the spring of 2010 with old aerial photographs and a brief to bring back the sandy character of the 1930s. They widened fairways, removed turf from the rough in favor of sandy waste areas, and reshaped many bunkers. By 2011 years of lush conditioning had been peeled back to reveal the wire grass and sandy native ground beneath, and No. 2 had become more natural, maintaining less turf and asking for fewer resources. They also flipped the pars of the parallel fourth and fifth, making the fourth a par 4 and the fifth a par 5. Par, it turns out, is negotiable. The holes are not. The course is famous for its greens but is not only its greens. The 5th, 9th and 16th are world-class, and the whole is one of the most finely balanced and most difficult courses a golfer could play. In 1951 the Ryder Cup came to Pinehurst, with Sam Snead, who often named No. 2 his favourite course, captaining the Americans against Arthur Lacey's British side. The matches were even halted so both teams could go to a football game. The United States won 9 1/2 to 2 1/2, Arthur Lees spared Britain with two points, and Jimmy Demaret retired from Ryder Cup golf unbeaten at 6-0-0, the best such record the event had seen. The U.S. Open came in 1999, when Payne Stewart holed his remarkable putt on the final green, and again in 2005. In 2014, on the restored course, Martin Kaymer opened with a pair of 65s and coasted to an eight-shot win at 271, while only three players finished under par. No. 2 has been named an anchor site for the championship. Robert Trent Jones once observed that Americans, who will not usually play golf in the rain, make an exception here. The sand keeps the walking dry, and in wet weather the pines glisten until each hole looks like its own jewel. Winter has its own case. The Bermudagrass goes dormant and plays firm and fast, and a Scottish bump-and-run runs on toward the hole instead of grabbing. The crowds thin and play moves a little faster, though there will be waiting whatever the season. It is expensive, and it is public, one of the rare chances to play a Hall of Fame architect's finest work. And it remains a place its maker kept adjusting, and one that kept changing long after him.