Nearly nine years ago I was given an opportunity to write a book about Pinehurst’s golf history, to hop an airplane and go visit the likes of Hogan and Snead, Palmer and Patton to collect their memories of playing golf at Pinehurst.

The experience was enhanced by the fact that I got real folding money for the effort.

In those travels perhaps the most eloquent, poetic and thoughtful interview came on a December morning in Austin, Texas, when I sat down for an hour or so with Ben Crenshaw. Over coffee and pastry, Crenshaw dissected the artistry of Donald Ross’s work at Pinehurst, explained why it was so important in the annals of American golf and how it affected many decisions he made in designing his own golf courses.

"I think this instance of all or nothing on so many golf courses is totally wrong," Crenshaw said. "First of all, golf was never meant to be a death or glory situation on every hole. It hasn’t been that way for 100 years. A golfer cannot be continually punished if he’s having an off-day. He cannot be battered into submission on every hole.

"That’s why St. Andrews is so great. You can make a lot of bogeys, but it’s hard to make a double. At the same time, you have to play excellent golf to make a birdie. That’s what Pinehurst is all about."

I was glad to learn Tuesday afternoon that the passion Crenshaw feels for the village, the No. 2 course, the ambiance and Donald Ross himself hasn’t waned.

"Gosh, it looks good," he says.

"What?" I asked. "The course? The greens?"

"The whole thing," he said. "I can’t believe how good it is."

One of Crenshaw’s first experiences on the pro golf tour came just a few months after his collegiate career at Texas had finished with three NCAA titles. He shot a 64 in the 1973 World Open on No. 2 and finished second to Miller Barber in the 144-hole marathon.

He says "it killed me" to miss the Tour Championships at Pinehurst in 1991 and 1992, the season-ending tournaments limited to the top 30 money-winners each year. He’s only been to Pinehurst once this decade, that on a quick trip with some officials at Barton Creek in Austin, a club with one of Crenshaw’s courses and a sister resort of Pinehurst in the ClubCorp family.

He finally returned for serious — with his golf clubs — early Monday afternoon.

"Gosh, that grass is good," he says. "I can’t believe how good that G-2 is on these greens."

And that’s coming from a man with a strain of bentgrass named for him.

"The nice thing about golf today is you see about six or eight species of turf grasses come out that are more on the heat-tolerant side," Crenshaw says. "And they’ll keep getting better and better. Agronomy is just getting better all the time.

"I wonder what Donald Ross would have said about this G-2. The architect Harry Colt made a great comment one time. After he built Sunningdale (an outstanding course in England), he came back about four years later and said, ‘I think the lies are (ital)too(close) good."

The thing to do when you get an audience with someone like Crenshaw in a venue like Pinehurst is to get out of the way, to let him roll. A sampling of his thoughts:

"I look at these greens and I scratch my head. The movement is magical. You try to grasp it, to put those dimensions in your mind. They’re so distinct."

"It’s symphonic."

"I talked to Darren Clarke yesterday. Here’s a guy from the west coast of Ireland. He talked about how great it felt, how wonderful it was to be playing a traditional golf course. He said there’s some Dornoch in there, there’s some St. Andrews in there. It’s wonderful to hear those comments."

"I can’t say enough about that G-2."

"What’s amazing, is that from off the green, you have one shot if the ball comes to rest at any given point. If it moves (ital) just three feet(close) you’ve got a totally different shot. The ground is continually moving. As a result you never have the same shot twice. That’s why it stays so fresh."

"There’s nothing like it. There’s nothing like it at all."

"There’s no dead ground, and that’s what’s so fascinating about it."

All of the above is why you have to root for low numbers this week from Ben Crenshaw.