Architect Bio: Pete Dye

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FL

Pete Dye has never had any qualms about taking risks, infusing new ideas into 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.

Of course, practically all these features can be found on many of his courses, including his most famous design, the Stadium Course at the Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass. Even the stadium golf aspect he incorporated at the behest of former PGA TOUR commissioner Deane Beman is reminiscent of links holes routed through natural mounds and dunes.

In addition to Sawgrass, Dye has created some of the most difficult layouts in modern history, including PGA West, the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, 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.

Sawgrass has undergone various changes since it opened in 1982, but it still stands as one of the finest representations of his ability to meld modern and classical concepts to create holes that are strategically exacting and visually striking.