classical design concepts, or building some of the most startling, intriguing and
difficult golf courses in modern design. Because of this adventurous spirit, Dye is
considered in many circles to be the most influential course architect in the last 50
years.
Dye, whose ideas have been tempered by sound strategic guidance from his wife,
Alice, an accomplished amateur player, enjoyed a successful insurance practice in
central Indiana before finding his true calling as a course designer.
Seldom working from set plans or elaborate blueprints, Dye sculpted his visions with
a hands-on approach that has increasingly come into vogue in recent years.
Especially in the early design days, Dye was not averse to hopping on a bulldozer to
attain the kinds of features he sought for his courses.
Though viewed as a maverick with a penchant for stirring controversy - the byword
for his work is "Dye-abolical" - Dye's philosophies are grounded in the old-style
concepts. A month-long trip to Scotland, golf's home country, in 1963 influenced
his work significantly. There Pete and Alice discovered railroad ties shoring up
bunkers, smallish greens with bold movement, tiny pot bunkers, sandy waste areas,
and angular, rolling fairways guarded by strategically placed hazards.
Dye has created some of the most difficult layouts in modern history, including PGA
West, the Pete Dye Golf Club, the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, TPC Sawgrass
and Whistling Straits. This tends to overshadow some of his most subtle and brilliant
work, most notably Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, SC, a relatively short but
strategically enthralling course he built in collaboration with Jack Nicklaus.
The Dye family has generously directed all of their proceeds from The GolfScape to
Purdue University to aid in research of the golf course impact on the environment.
directed all of their proceeds
from The GolfScape to Purdue
University to aid in research of
the golf course impact on the
environment.