The following article, by Pilot Publisher David Woronoff, originally appeared in The Pilot during U.S. Open Week 1998.

As Stephen Cryan, Pinehurst Inc. and Country Club’s director of retail operations, sat in one of San Francisco’s many superb restaurants and munched on his calimari, he reflected on the U.S. Open’s first day of play.

The weather was postcard-perfect. The crowds at the Championship were heavy. Dinner was outstanding.

Still, Cryan had a regret. He wished he had ordered 40 hats for the Championship and had them embroidered with the phrase "We Got Next."

That expression, taken straight from basketball’s vernacular, sits at the opposite end of the sporting spectrum from the khakied world of the U.S. Open. And it would have sent a clear message to everyone in organized golf — Pinehurst is ready for the 1999 U.S. Open.

Cryan wanted a hat for all 40 members of the Pinehurst contingent studying this Championship in preparation for next year when the Open visits the Sandhills. Most of those folks were Pinehurst Inc. employees, but several were local residents who wanted a first-hand look at the magnitude of golf’s most prestigious event.

"We feel we’re very prepared and excited about next year," said Beth Kocher, executive vice president of Pinehurst Inc.. "We don’t doubt we’ll have the best Open in the past 99 years."

At one time or another during their visit to the Championship, just about every spectator dropped by the merchandise tent to pick up a souvenir. Most, if not all, were taken aback by the size of the retail operation. At 24,000 square feet, the tent could hold a dozen typical Sandhills homes inside.

The tent was brimming with 12-tractor-trailer-loads of just about every major brand name in golf apparel — Izod, Tommy Hilfiger and Slazenger, to name a few — all emblazoned with The Olympic Club’s U.S. Open logo.

Two of the more unusual items for sale were a computer screensaver of the Olympic Club and tie-dyed T-shirts in honor of San Francisco’s favorite son — the late rock star Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead.

"This is, like, the biggest tent I’ve ever seen," commented one customer. Her companion quickly shot back. "Yeah, and it’s, like, the nicest one too."

The Pinehurst merchandise tent will replicate The Olympic Club’s except that the sales floor will be about 8 percent or 2,000 square feet larger.

That’s important, since Pinehurst Inc. keeps all revenues generated from the merchandising operation.

To make the operation run smoothly, the Olympic Club brought on 800 volunteers — many with banking backgrounds — to operate the more than three dozen cash registers and bar code scanners.

The sheer volume of checkout lines makes the upscale Harris-Teeter look like a little country store in comparison.

Cryan and his retail team of Patterson Morris, Pam Lippincott, and Suzanne Regan were studying just how the Olympic Club organized its merchandise tent and hoped to glean some valuable insights into how they might improve upon it in Pinehurst.

"We start with the assumption that this is great," said Cryan as he surveyed the vast merchandising tent. "We want our team to get overwhelmed by it and then start to pick it apart to find a way to make it better."

Cryan and his gang weren’t merely casual observers. They rolled up their sleeves and dug into the retail operation. At one point all four of them were on the sales floor waiting on customers, restocking shelves and checking inventory.

Their goal is to get a solid feel for what the U.S. Open spectator is looking for, as well as how much time and money they’re willing to spend on it.

Jon Wagner, U.S Open Championship director, and his staff have sited the merchandise tent near the main gate on Morganton Road across from the Harness Track.

"We want to give everyone an opportunity to take a piece of Pinehurst home with them," Kocher said. "So we situated it in a high-traffic area."

Pinehurst Inc. had a cadre of employees all dedicated to the goal of making the 1999 U.S. Open the standard by which all other Championships are measured.

To steal another phrase from basketball’s vernacular — they got game.