Mike,
Me either, but there were good grass greens in Florida 35 years prior to the ones at Pinehurst, which makes me think that it was a matter of choice in keeping them (sounds like that choice was the resorts) and the necessity of stepping into the modern world that made them change.
...."(Pros) found grassgreens at Pinehurst. That means the beginning of the end of a real tradition in America. The sand greens of Pinehurst have grown to have the force of a proverb, and the famous North Carolina resort is the only major golfing center in the world where such greens prevail. But now, as a part of an experiment to change all this, grass has been sodded on the first three greens of the Number Two or championship course, and Greenkeeper Frank Maples foresees so much success for the trials that it will be possible to grass all greens on all four courses next season. For a couple of years or so there have been grass tees at Pinehurst and for a long time Donald Ross, golf architect and genius of Pinehurst golf for over thirty years, had encouraged the turf of the fairways to encroach on the greens, so to speak, and so reduce the extent of sand putting surface. Smudge pots like you use to keep frost from getting the fruit blooms, or burlap-and pineneedle blankets, are being considered for use in nursing the grass through the little cold snap they call winter down there. One of the pleasant things about grass greens is that they will hold approach shots and pitches more readily than sand. So in keeping with the general theory of golf, viz., that we poor duffers are never to get a break, new rolls and contours have been built to offset the advantages of the grass and keep these first three holes as hard as ever".