[video width="1024" height="576" mp4="https://www.pineneedleslodge.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/BonnieVidSM.mp4"][/video]   Southern Pines, NC – Bonnie Bell McGowan, the eldest child of LPGA founding member Peggy Kirk Bell and an institution herself in the golf instruction and resort management business at her family-owned Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club, passed away peacefully January 12, 2023 with her family by her side. She was 68 years old.  Bonnie and her sister Peggy Ann and brother Kirk grew up in the golf business as their parents, Peggy and Warren “Bullet” Bell, began running the Pine Needles golf and lodge operation in 1953 with Julius Boros and the Cosgrove family. Five years...

This article originally appeared on USGA.org on May 19, 2019. By Scott Lipsky, USGA Throughout her three-decade career, Helen Alfredsson has won wherever she’s played. A major champion. Seven wins on the LPGA Tour. Eleven victories on the Ladies European Tour. And now, she can finally add USGA champion to her list of accolades. With a final-round 72, Alfredsson, 54, topped Trish Johnson and Juli Inkster by two strokes to capture the 2nd U.S. Senior Women’s Open Championship on Sunday at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club, with a 72-hole total of 1-over 285. “Just to have something USGA, it feels very nice. Since...

Fifty years ago, Peggy Kirk Bell started Youth Golfari as a way to get kids involved in the game of golf, while they experience a week of fun unlike any other. She and her husband Warren “Bullet” Bell ran the camp together, where she was one of the lead instructors and he ran the day to day operations. Over the years their own children attended the camps, but every kid felt like family. Peggy Bell Miller, daughter of Peggy and Bullet, started attending the camp herself at age 10. Back then, families would come together and the kids would stay for a...

Southern Pines, English golfer Laura Davies crushed her tee shot. The defending U.S. Senior Women’s Open champion had dropped by to play a round at the home stomping grounds of the grande dame herself, the late Peggy Kirk Bell, in anticipation of the 2019 U.S. Seniors Women’s Open Championship....

This article originally published on ThePilot.com on March 24, 2019. By Hunter Chase, The Pilot Peggy Kirk Bell’s impact on women’s golf lives on. Bell, who passed away in 2016 at the age of 95, was a pioneer in promoting women’s golf, a passion she carried throughout her life, including the more than 60 years she was the Grand Lady of Pine Needles. She still is making an impact on women’s golf, with her legacy and contributions to the game a driving force behind the USGA bringing the U.S. Senior Women’s Open to Pine Needles in May. The Senior Women’s Open, the newest national championship overseen by...

This article originally published on USGA on February 27, 2018. By Julia Pine, USGA Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C., will be the host site for the 77th U.S. Women’s Open in 2022. The championship, considered the ultimate test in women’s golf, will be held June 2–5. The 2022 U.S. Women’s Open will be the seventh USGA championship and record fourth U.S. Women’s Open contested at Pine Needles, which is also set to host the 2nd U.S. Senior Women’s Open in 2019. The USGA was last at Pine Needles for the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open, when Cristie Kerr won the first...