Pete Dye
Paul Dye Jr. (Pete) was born in Urbana, Ohio. Pete’s Father, “Pink”, introduced his son to the game at a very young age, when three years previously he laid out his own golf course on 60 acres donated by his wife’s family.
Pete helped with routine maintenance on his Father’s course, and developed into an exceptional player in his youth. Pete was fortune to play many of the finest courses within a two hours drive of the golf-rich state of Ohio. When Pete’s Father went off to World War II, Pete maintained the family course entirely.
Pete enlisted in the U.S. Army as a Paratrooper, following in his Father’s footsteps. He was stationed in Fort Bragg, North Carolina where, fortuitously, he played Pinehurst #2 regularly, and got to know Donald Ross personally. His time in Pinehurst with Donald Ross and playing his masterpiece no doubt set Pete on his eventual career path.
Pete was 5 years into his marriage to Alice, when in 1955, he decided to start working in earnest towards become a Golf Course Architect. Pete studied agronomy at Purdue University. He dove himself into his local club’s Green Committee. Giving up a successful insurance career when the trend over the previous twenty-years of courses closing to opening hovered at 3:1 was a curious decision; however, Alice supported Pete wholeheartedly.
When Pete turned 38 years old, he and Alice traveled to Scotland after Dye qualified for the British Amateur. The couple traveled to many of the greatest courses over the next several months, where Pete took note of the design features that would become his trademark: Pot bunkers, rugged railroad ties, blind tee shots and heavily contoured fairways with bunkering that often obscured the best lines.
Dye designed 10 courses before his trip to Scotland, however, he considered Crooked Stick in Carmel, Indiana, to be his first great design and the one that set his trajectory permanently. Dye collaborated with Jack Nicklaus in his twenties on Harbour Town and later created the TPC Stadium Course, which cemented his legacy, as both are still played on the PGA tour today.
Dye’s Architecture style was bold, at times rustic-looking, challenging, but upon repeated play, his courses opened up to preferred lines that most mid-handicaps were capable of pulling off. Where Robert Trent Jones dictated to the golfer where and how to hit shots, Dye’s style offered options, in no part, due to his wife that advocated for all players, in particular, ladies. Dye brought back imaginative, short par 3’s and drivable, at times, maddening short par 4’s, which many of his protégé’s continue to incorporate today.
Given Dye’s long life in course design, his total course count is relatively low vs. his contemporaries; this was due to Dye’s insistence in being extremely hands-on, which endeared him to his owners. Dye had a hand in launching the Architectural careers of Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Bobby Weed, Bill Coore, Tim Liddy, Tom Doak, and Rod Whitman. As well, his two sons, Perry and P.B., also became accomplished course Architects since working with their Father from a young age.
Crown Golf Club Society noted clubs:
Pete Dye Golf Club
Colleton River
The Honors
