The design evolution of Pete Dye: From Crooked Stick Golf Club to Nemacolin Woodlands Resort
The 2016 BMW Championship, the third event of the 2016 FedEx Cup playoffs, returns this week to Crooked Stick Golf Club, the venerable Pete Dye design in Carmel, Ind.
In many ways, Crooked Stick, which opened in 1964, launched Dye's legendary career. When Dye stuck his shovel in the ground in farm country outside of Indianapolis, he had only worked on one other 18-hole layout: Radrick Farms Golf Club at the University of Michigan, which he designed in 1962 but wouldn't open until 1965.
Crooked Stick -- home to multiple major tournaments over the years -- was the breakthrough that led to higher profile jobs. Dye collaborated with Jack Nicklaus on Harbour Town Golf Links in South Carolina in 1969, now one of the longest-running venues on the PGA Tour. The Teeth of the Dog at Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic followed soon after. The rest is, shall we say, history. Dye, in cahoots with his wife Alice, has designed more than 80 courses and mentored many top architects, including those who worked for him (including Tom Doak) and his sons, P.B. and Perry Dye.
In this photo gallery, Golf Advisor tours the best of Dye's public courses in chronological order. Perhaps no architect in history has done more ground-breaking work (pun intended). Dye didn't invent the island green, but he brought it to prominence with the PLAYERS Stadium course at TPC Sawgrass in 1980. His mounding at Sawgrass -- which created a stadium effect -- led to an entire brand of tournament courses, the TPC network, built around the nation.
Building bunkers lined by golf railroad ties and penal holes that pros fear became Dye's signature "M.O." Many of his designs are considered some of the toughest ever built: Sawgrass, the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort, the Straits Course at Whistling Straits, the River Course at Blackwolf Run Golf Club, the Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort, Pound Ridge Golf Club and the TPC Stadium Course at PGA West, among others.
Video: History of Pete Dye's Crooked Stick
As he has aged, Dye's style has mellowed somewhat, bringing more playability and fun to his routings. His 54-hole Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort and more recently, the full 2015 makeover of Full Cry at Keswick Golf Club, now one of the best golf courses in Virginia, are perfect examples.
Even at age 90, Dye continues digging on various projects. He recently donated his time to finish a remodeling of the Ackerman-Allen Course at Purdue University. He's also busy at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Pennsylvania, completely redefining its Links Course by building a new course called Shepherd's Rock on much of the same land. It is scheduled to open at least nine holes, if not the whole routing, in summer of 2017.
Love or loathe his style, Dye's legacy is one of a kind.