Pete Dye is One for the Ages

By Shane Sharp,
Contributing Writer

He once responded to a critic who proclaimed that his course designs were not natural: "Of course they are not natural. You wouldn't be playing golf on them if they were natural."

He is one of the great golf course architects of the twentieth century, his name signed to such venues as the TPC at Sawgrass, Teeth of the Dog, Harbor Town and the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island.

He is Pete Dye, and he may be one of the most influential, yet under appreciated course designers of the past three decades.

Dye was born in 1927, and attended Rollins College in Florida, where he graduated with a degree in business.

But golf courses were always his true passion, and his desire to indulge in landscape architecture was sealed by a tour of the great golf courses of Scotland, early in his career.

What ensued in the states over the next three decades following Dye's journey was an outpouring of memorable, challenging golf course designs. But as prominent as the Dye name has become in golf course design, he is often mentioned in critics' second breath - just on the cusp of greatness.

But how can a course designer as prominent as Dye be under appreciated? For one, Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Tom Fazio are widely considered to be the greatest architects of the later part of the twentieth century: Jones because his work spans four decades, and Fazio because of the striking nature and boldness of his designs.

Yet Dye has designed thirty percent of the first eighteen "Top 100 Courses You Can Play" as ranked by GOLF Magazine, and he has yet another three courses smattered throughout the remaining eighty-two. While Fazio and Jones have more total courses in the prestigious rankings, Dye is certainly well represented on the quality side.

Even more impressively, Dye has designed four of the "Greatest 100 Courses in the United States" as ranked by GOLF Magazine. Fazio, incredible talent that he is, does not lay claim to a single design until the 40th ranked course.

As for an under appreciation in Myrtle Beach, its simply a matter of not being able to appreciate what's not there. Prestwick Country Club in Surfside Beach is the only Pete Dye designed course in the Grand Strand, and it was created in conjunction with his son Paul Burke.

Despite producing a layout at the TPC at Sawgrass that was a veritable dead ringer for what PGA Commissioner Dean Beaman had asked for, Dye still took criticism from the players for what they thought was too brutal and unfair a challenge.

And while he created what is universally recognized as one of America's great seaside courses in the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, Dye is often blamed for the tracks unfaltering difficulty, which is largely attributable to the ocean winds and not anything that Dye did through his design.

So the next time you have the pleasure of teeing it up on a Pete Dye designed golf course, take a minute to appreciate one the great course designers of our time. His legacy, along with Jones' and Fazio's will live on for decades to come.