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September 12, 2007

VALVANO: Dye the man behind the courses

BY BOB VALVANO

There are many reasons I like living here in Southern Indiana and I just got one more on Monday, and a memorable experience along the way.

Many golf fans know the name Pete Dye. He is one of the premier golf course designers in history, and at 81 years of age, is still a single digit handicapper.

Dye has designed some of the best courses in the world, including The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, Harbour Town Golf Links at Hilton Head, Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, Crooked Stick in Carmel, the Teeth of the Dog in the Dominican Republic, and the course that contains perhaps the most terrifying shot in golf, the TPC at Sawgrass, with the island green on the par-3 17th hole.

His career is literally amazing. He played against Jack Nicklaus as an amateur in Ohio, studied golf course design with the legendary Donald Ross while serving as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army Air Corps, became a Million Dollar Roundtable salesman for Connecticut Mutual and then set out to be a golf course architect, quickly establishing himself as one of the best ever.

I got to meet him and his equally amazing wife Alice at French Lick, visiting while overlooking the course from the clubhouse of the Donald Ross Course at the resort there.

He told me some amazing and cool things.

Like?

The trademark of Donald Ross, the crowned greens at Pinehurst, wasn’t by design at all. It was only because the greens at Pinehurst needed to have a layer of sand placed on them on a regular basis, and in so doing had built up to the point where the middle of the greens became crowned.

“If Mr. Ross had lived a few more years, he would have lopped the tops off of every one of those greens, “ Dye told me, making me laugh at the thought that one of the most distinguishable characteristics in course design wasn’t by design.

His wife Alice told me how the famous 17th hole at Sawgrass came about.

“Pete called me at home one day and said, ‘Honey quick get down here. I have a big problem,” Alice said. “I got to the course and Pete said, ‘Look what I did. I started digging and digging and the next thing I know I lost the hole completely. It’s gone! All I’ve got is a big hole in the ground.’”

Alice replied to him: “Well, why don’t you put a bunch of that dirt back in the middle of the hole, surround it with water and make an island? And that’s what he did.”

Alice was a fine player in her younger days, winning the prestigious North-South at Pinehurst among many other titles, and she still plays well today. She just won the senior women’s club championship at Crooked Stick, and is very vocal about making sure husband Pete’s designs are “user friendly” for women.

She is helping Pete with his latest design. At French Lick, they are a year away from opening his latest, and it is destined to take its place with some of his great courses. I got a deluxe tour of the course which is still very much under construction.

Driving in a 4x4 with the head pro at French Lick Dave Harner, I got to see the how’s and whys of the genius of Pete Dye.

“He is easily the best I have ever seen or worked with,” Harner said. “He can just see what this place should look like, and to watch him make the vision a reality is amazing.”

Harner said Dye took a tour of the property, looked at a topography map of the land, circled the 36 highest points on the map, and determined they would be the tees and greens.

“Later he took a napkin in the restaurant we were in, sketched out the course from that map, and that’s what has been the basis for the course. You can still see the napkin. It’s on display at the resort.”

It really was nothing short of amazing to drive the course and see it take shape. The back nine (at least it’s the back nine now — that is still up for debate), is far more finished than the front, and to see the type of work and how different it is at the various stages was terrifically entertaining.

A quick tour of the mansion that they will convert to the clubhouse was equally jaw dropping. I asked if I could have some input into it, just so I could say I contributed. I concurred that the locker room won’t need three men’s showers, two will suffice. It is a resort course, after all. Everyone will go back to their rooms to shower.

So next year when you are up seeing a world-class golf venue here in Southern Indiana, count the showers and when you see two, think of me.

I know you won’t. You’ll be too dazzled at the course, which is going to host some serious events down the road, I think. But I would be proud to call Indianapolis-based Pete Dye my partner in course design, even if he has nothing to do with the plumbing.

Hey, when you work with a legend you have to start somewhere, no?



Bob Valvano lives in Sellersburg and can be reached via e-mail at bobvshow@yahoo.com. He is a former college basketball coach and current radio show host on ESPN Radio.

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