Eight Members Sue Faxon's Group Over Proposed Metacomet Sale

The Providence Journal’s Kevin McNamara reports on the deteriorating situation involving Metacomet Golf Club, purchased last year by a group that includes Brad Faxon. Besides different views about the long term viability of the club, the suit figures to garner national attention given the courses Donald Ross roots. It’s rare these days for a Ross to be sold off for development.

The members are claiming that Faxon and his investment group, the Metacomet Property Company, misled the club and made numerous promises after buying the Donald Ross-designed course that they did not live up to. Metacomet Property Co. has announced its plans to sell the golf club to Marshall Development, which has said it plans to “redevelop the site into an exciting first-class mixed-use property that will bolster both commerce and community in the upper bay.”

Those plans contradict discussions Faxon and his partners had with members at a Nov. 18 town-hall style meeting at Metacomet, according to the lawsuit. The suit claims the owners “gave a visual and audio presentation to the dues paying members of the Club, describing in detail the intended golf operations for the Club for the 2020 golf year, which included, among other things, the costs and expenses to be incurred by the Members, the golf course and tournament schedule for the Club, specific improvements to be made to the Property, including the golf course, and other operation intentions and plans.”

Metacomet Property Company assessed each member $3,800 for the 2020 golf season but nearly three months later, on Feb. 20, 2020, the membership was alerted to negotiations to sell.

Some reports, including this one by Tommy Gorman, say the land could be worth $10 million without permits.

Rory On Pete Dye Courses: "They're like beer when you're younger"

Fun stuff from Rory McIlroy on Pete Dye as he prepares to defend his Players Championship title. This is the first Players since Dye’s passing earlier this year.

Q. You've mentioned that Pete Dye courses were a little bit of an acquired taste for you. I wonder was there a turning point where you started to feel a little bit more comfortable, could have been Kiawah in 2014 or could have been -- you had three top 10s here in a row early on. When did you start turning the corner on that, and is there a hole out there that still kind of drives you nuts?

RORY MCILROY: So 2010 Whistling Straits was when I turned a corner. I turned up there, it was the PGA Championship, and I hated it. Like I really did not like it. I had to tell myself, look, you just need to like it for one week. Just get your head around liking this place for one week and embracing the fact that it's different and the fact that it's visually a little funky and whatever. I ended up finishing third that week and one shot out of a playoff, and I think that was when I sort of had turned a corner in terms of not necessarily loving Pete Dye golf courses because of -- I think he's a wonderful golf course designer, but I never liked how he made you feel on the golf course in terms of hiding things and angles, and it makes you a little bit uncomfortable, which is obviously his plan. Like he's a wonderful designer of golf courses, but that was the week where I had to embrace what Pete tried to put into his golf courses.

Yeah, going on from there, winning at Kiawah, winning at Crooked Stick, winning here, I've started to quite like them. But as you said, an acquired taste. They're like beer when you're younger. You sort of don't like it but then you think it's cool to drink it and then you sort of acquire a taste for it.

Marion! Finally, Hollins Is A World Golf Hall Of Fame Finalist

The World Golf Hall of Fame’s release of finalists for its next induction class includes Tiger Woods (too soon), Tom Weiskopf (took too long), Dottie Pepper (this time!) and Tim Finchem (inevitable). You can see the full list of finalists here.

But for history buffs, the inclusion of Marion Hollins is both a win for her remarkable life, but also for the many folks in Northern California who have championed Hollins. Namely, Pasatiempo’s Bob Beck.

The Hollins description:

Marion Hollins – Won the 1921 U.S. Amateur and went on to become one of the most influential women in the game’s early development, including her work as a golf course architect and one of the only female golf course developers in history; a principle force behind the founding and formation of Cypress Point, Pasatiempo and the Women’s National Golf and Tennis Club.

Let’s never forget that she was vital in the shaping of Augusta National, both in helping Bobby Jones find his architect, and in visiting during construction on behalf of MacKenzie.

John Boyette wrote about Hollins a few years ago in advance of the Masters.

At Golf Channel, profiled Hollins as part of a pre-Masters feature last year and I wrote about her here.

Bamberger's Muni Monday: The Palm Beach Par-3

With the PGA Tour moving on from last week’s Palm Beach Gardens, Michael Bamberger at Golf.com profiles the amazingly-situated Palm Beach Par-3, a true muni with history and a wonderful story of rejuvenation thanks to Ray and Maria Floyd.

Green fees for 18 go as low as $21 for residents up to a $57 max. And Sam Snead won an LPGA event there!

Even better is Floyd’s love of Par-3 courses and the fundraising effort to save the place.

Floyd is a par3ophile. He loves the Par-3 course at Augusta National and for years he and his little gang, on the Mondays and Tuesdays of Masters week, would go straight from the 18th green to the little course to settle their bets. These days, the course is off-limits until the Wednesday afternoon tournament.

But Floyd said he never even thought about the Augusta course when he was doing his work at this Par-3. “You couldn’t have a more different piece of land,” Floyd said. The Palm Beach course is flat as a nickel, windswept, public and busy. Floyd changed the routing so the holes move in a variety of directions, added more slopes to the greens and replaced the Bermuda grass with Paspalum, a thick-bladed grass that can withstand salt-heavy air. Floyd and his late wife, Maria, raised $3 million from private sources for the renovation and the township put up a matching amount.

Finally A Course Ranking Focusing On Fun: National Club Golfer Lists GB&I's Top 100

Little known fact: golf course rankings have become dreary affairs focused on experience and in the case of too many, rewarding design difficulty over fun. Imagine in this enlightened age rating movies based on how uncomfortable the seating was, and how long the movie played (three hours is resistant to…fun!).

Mercifully, this ranking is all about storytelling and the only thing that matters: enjoyment factor. The National Club Golfer’s Chris Bertram explains how the panel approached the first magazine course ranking focused on fun:

Defining what is ‘fun’ and what makes one course more ‘fun’ than another is, in my opinion, even harder.

If what each of us thinks makes a course ‘good’ differs greatly, what we think is fun is at least as fluid. In an attempt to define it – not least to illustrate to you the kind of courses our panel has included in the 100 – I asked our contributors and some architects to tell me ‘fun’ meant to them. You’ll see that while there were common themes, there was also a wide spectrum of essential factors mentioned.

That, I think, helps to explain the presence of so many different types and styles of courses in the list, which I firmly believe is a good thing.

As a general rule, courses that are relatively short in length and relatively forgiving in nature prosper – which is entirely predictable. Frankly, we could have populated the list with nothing but that kind of course.

While we can all have the usual ranking quibbles, the list does an amazing job of highlighting fun and places overlooked because they are not of “championship” length or 18 holes.

That said, as much as I think Prestwick and Dornoch are top-5 (world) fun, I love seeing Formby’s Ladies between those two giants, with the short, sweet, charming Kilspindie right after that.

Those planning a UK golf trip and hoping to see some lesser-known gems will want to bookmark this.

Or, for those dealing with buddies looking to check off a name place in lieu of a cheaper, more enjoyable alternative, maybe some of the placement here will help make the case for fun.

The full list is here.

PS - I’m not telling you who is #1, but I do wholeheartedly endorse the top 3.

New Par-3 17th, Other Major Changes Coming To Hoylake For 2022 Open

New 17th at Royal Liverpool

Royal Liverpool, aka Hoylake, most recently home to Rory McIlroy’s 2014 Open win and last summer’s Walker Cup, is undergoing several huge changes prior to its next Open Championship in 2022.

Golf Monthly’s Elliott Heath with the details and some early images of the work, which includes a new short par-3 17th for The Open playing 139 yards with what looks like an infinity green backed by the Dee Estuary.

Royal Liverpool’s Chairman of Green, Andrew Goodwin, said: “The decision to make changes to a course like Hoylake wasn’t taken lightly, but throughout the Club’s 150 year history alterations have been made and Royal Liverpool has continued to evolve and improve, ensuring it remains a wonderful challenge for both amateur and elite professional golfers alike.”

He meant to note the profound increase in athleticism, too. We’ll let it slide.

The new hole also helps prevent two incoming par-5’s from being drives and short irons in the era of triathletes who are able to leap tall dunes in a single bound.

Martin Ebert said: “The project at Royal Liverpool has been an extremely exciting one overall but the opportunity to create a new hole on a great links such as Hoylake is a rare one. The hope and expectation is that not only can a very short hole produce significant drama for the penultimate hole of The Open, but also provide the Club with a hole which members and visiting golfers from around the world will be hugely excited to play. It is also a real advantage of the new hole project that the Championship 15th and 18th par 5 holes will be strengthened with new back tees.”

Heath describes other changes, including several new tees, run-offs and service roads with The Open in mind. And the modern athlete.

Rory And Justin: Two Different Views On Riviera's Tenth

By now many are probably weary of hearing about Riviera’s wily 10th hole. Annual discussions of design dynamics that produce magical play and baffling decisions has been covered pretty extensively.

So here is more on George Thomas and Billy Bell’s 311-yard gem!

Two top-5 players, two views on how to play a hole where the lay-up decision is rarely a decision in the bomber’s world of 311-yard three-woods.

Here is Rory McIlroy from today’s Genesis Invitational press room asked about short par-4’s in general:

RORY McILROY:  The first hole I ever played as a professional golfer was a drivable par 4 was the 10th hole at The Belfry back in 2007.  I hit 6‑iron off the tee.  I mean, look, this is possibly the best drivable par 4 in the world here at Riviera, the 10th.  It's just so ‑‑ it's just as easy to make a six as it is to make a three, but all the statistics suggest that if you do go for the green, you're going to play the hole .3 of a shot lower than if you lay up.  All the statistics suggest that it's a hole to go for.

And then there was Justin Thomas who has played the hole every year since 2012 when he played the NCAA Championships at Riviera, asked about Rory’s use of stats to make his decision about to drive it or lay-up:

JUSTIN THOMAS:  I don't, personally I've always laid up on that hole.  I'll go for it to that front pin, but I've laid up ever since I've been on Tour.  I mean, the way I look at it is I try to make par on the hole and if I happen to make one birdie, then I beat the field for the week I would think.  It's a shot shape or the green shape is good for my wedge, my spin that I have on it with the left‑right spin.  I've had anything from 4‑iron to 6‑iron off the tee kind of up that left side of the fairway.  It's not a very hard wedge shot as long as you can just get your number right. 

So that's just how I've always look at it.  I've never looked at the numbers because my miss with a 3‑wood or sometimes driver is right and right's no good up there.  I'm just trying to make 4 and maybe sprinkle a 3 or two.

Better Late Than Never: Little Known Golf Architect Joseph Bartholomew's New York Times Obituary

Joseph Bartholomew (second from left)

While the The New York Times has always been the paper of record for obituaries since 1851, they too had an unfortunately tendency to ignore important lives based on skin color. As part of their Overlooked project, they’ve posted this wonderful remembrance of we’re adding the stories of remarkable people such as Joseph Bartholomew.

He is believed to have learned from Seth Raynor after coming into the game first as a caddie, and also later as a professional and course designer. He created several important courses in Louisiana and yet, was never permitted to play the courses he designed.

From Roy S. Johnson’s N.Y. Times obituary:

Bartholomew was in his 30s, in the early 1920s, when local golfers, impressed with his interest in the game and his work as a groundskeeper, collaborated to send him to a golf architecture school in New York, where he studied with the golf course architect Seth Raynor.

“Whooo, but I was surprised,” Bartholomew told Fortune magazine in 1949. “They gave me a whole bunch of money and told me to go and find the best course in the world and bring it back.”

He did even better, returning with the design for a course composed of holes modeled on famous ones at courses throughout the United States and Scotland.

The golfers liked it, and hired him to build it. Opening in the ’20s, it was called Metairie Counrty Club, and he was named its first club professional. But while he was permitted to give lessons, he was not allowed to play a round of golf there. Indeed, he was hired to design and build several more golf courses in the area for white golfers but barred from playing them.

Torrey Pines Update: Tougher, Way Fewer Trees, Same Architectural Humdrum

As a pair of Farmers Insurance Opens and the 2021 U.S. Open are set for Torrey Pines, the stakes are high for Tiger Woods in pursuit of win no. 83 and who-knows-what-major-number next summer. The conditioning struggles of 2008 are long gone and a pricey new irrigation system will continue to ensure sound turf conditions as long as superintendent Rich McIntosh is around.

For the 2020 Farmers, you will see some scarring left over from the two-hole-at-a-time irrigation installation method of last summer, but the courses are in otherwise excellent condition, with the North sporting more stout rough (and pretty narrow landing areas). With disease and beetle issues claiming a tragic number of Torrey Pines, the property has better views but is lacking a little something without the native tree for which the facility is named.

Also on tap will be our first look at newly configured elements on the 4th, 9th, 10th and 17th holes.

The 4th features a reshaped landing area designed to remedy issues from the 2008 when balls would not stay in the fairway under faster, firmer conditions. The shaping of the new work is quite good, fitting the hole better to existing landforms and presenting a more intimidating looking hole. How the balls react and where they finish, is still to be determined.

The most dramatic work from last summer can be seen at the par-4 17th, long a bit of a snoozefest for a penultimate hole and now hugging the canyon edge. It will force a decision between laying back and leaving an uphill 200-yard approach or hitting driver to get less club in. A huge risk that I suspect most players will not take, but at least it’s there and we’ll see just how aggressive the world’s best will get.

My summary for Golf Central followed by my Instagram post showing the new look 17th:

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@tigerwoods tees off from a new 17th tee at Torrey Pines. The 443-yard view provides a great look into the sagebrush canyon, with the landing area now hugging the hazard. The revamped fairway bunkers are as atrocious looking as you’d expect for a Reestoration, but they do ask players to either lay back or take a big risk hitting driver. Will be a much more interesting penultimate hole, finally, after all these years.

A post shared by Geoff Shackelford (@geoffshac) on Jan 22, 2020 at 2:45pm PST

Liberty National Needs To Expand Into Bird Habitat If It Want To Keep Hosting Those Rapidly Growing Playoffs!

Tracy Tully of the New York Times considers the need of Liberty National to add three holes in a migratory bird habitat called Caven Point if it wants to keep hosting big-time professional events.

Naturally, golfers can understand the desire of adding new waterfront holes on the landfill-converted course, but it’s the rationale being pushed that strains: the economic viability of Liberty National, tournament venue.

“If we are not able to accommodate what these tournaments need, then they will simply go somewhere else that can,” said Chris Donnelly, a spokesman for Liberty National.

Because there are so few options in the greater Met market.

And then there are those playoffs.

A spokeswoman for the state’s Economic Development Authority said the agency had no estimate of the economic value to the state from the four PGA tournaments held at Liberty National since 2009.

A spokesman for the PGA Tour, Joel Schuchmann, confirmed that the size of Liberty National had become a consideration, particularly for the Northern Trust, which is the first event in its FedEx Cup playoffs each year.

“It’s true that as the PGA Tour, and the FedEx Cup playoffs specifically, continue to grow in stature and interest among our fans, media and partners, so does the need to make certain the proper footprint is in place,” Mr. Schuchmann said in a statement.

First the golf ball rendering so many courses useless, and now the playoffs getting so big that they’re limited where they can go. So sad.

It's Back! Ayodhya Links Resurfaces On Golf Digest's World Ranking

While Golf Digest’s non-U.S. ranking of courses has always featured odd inclusions, the latest edition posted online features more eye-openers than normal. While some might find it jarring to see The Bluffs at Ho Tram Strip ahead of Royal Cinque Ports, I’m just thrilled to see RCP/aka Deal on the list.

While edged out by the vaunted Ba Na Hills, the real stunner involves the resurfacing of Ayodhya Links. You may recall it was the inclusion of this extraordinarily ordinary Perrett and Lobb masterwork near Bangkok landed on Golf Magazine’s World Ranking a few years back. That instigated a domino effect resulting in a massive overhaul of the ranking, with a new panel head and many panelists shed from the process. Questions remain unanswered to this day about what exactly led to the ultra-private Ayodhya earning prestigious world status and whether undue influence led to its place.

And yet, here it appears again. Ron Whitten’s pained description is hard to read.

The site of Ayodhya Links didn’t look promising to Australian architects Ross Perrett and Tim Lobb at first. It was a flat, treeless marsh near Bangkok. To build a championship-caliber golf course on such property, the architects had to drain the swamp. They did so by excavating canals and ponds.

Oh did they now?

This generated fill for tees, fairways and greens, which they shaped into endless humps and rolls. So, arguably, it’s links-like, although manmade and far from an ocean.

Just missed out on the links-like category. Sounded close though!

Today, Ayodhya has water in play on every hole, lagoons throughout the front and back nines, with the ninth and 18th along the shoreline of a large lake. Across the same lake is the island green of the par-3 12th. An estimated 10,000 trees were planted to add beauty and while the turf conditions at this exclusive private club are considered opulent, the course boasts membership in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program, so it must be growing turf with sustainable methods and fewer chemicals.

And that’s good enough to make it a world top 100. Again.

When In Far Hills..."The Art Of The Golf Course" Exhibit Opens

For those in the greater Far Hills, or now, Liberty Corner region—aka USGA headquarters—a new Golf House exhibit focusing on golf architecture as art has opened.

The description:

The USGA Golf Museum’s exhibition, “The Art of the Golf Course,” encourages viewers to consider golf course architecture as an art form, as an analog to landscape architecture, in which design choices are made for aesthetic reasons as well as functional purposes. The exhibition is an examination of art, through art, challenging viewers to expand their perspective on golf as linear journey from tee to green.

The full slide show teasing what to expect.

Trinity Forest Out As Nelson Host After This Year

The Dallas Morning News’ Tim Cowlishaw explains why the 2020 AT&T Byron Nelson will be the last at Trinity Forest. The bold Coore-Crenshaw design was just one issue, along with the courses location, the lack of shade and a huge decline in tournament revenues.

We have learned that it’s over, that the 2020 Nelson will be the final one held on the south Dallas course. Eventually, the tournament will move to PGA Frisco but it may need to make a stopover back at the Four Seasons TPC for 2021, which is sort of like telling your ex-wife: “Hey, things didn’t work out with my new partner, but I need to come home and crash before moving on to my next one, is that OK?’’

The tournament was expected to eventually move to the PGA of America project in Frisco, but that is at least two years away, meaning the Nelson may have no choice but to return to the TPC it left. Indeed, as Cowlishaw notes, that’ll be an awkward reunion.

It’s a shame. Trinity Forest may be the most eccentric Coore-Crenshaw design of all and one of their more amazing accomplishments given the not-thrilling landscape. But without the lively bunkering they are known for, an emphasis on the ground game (except during Nelson week when things were kept softer), and an awkward clubhouse/course/range setup for a big tournament, this was going to be a tough sell in May date prior to the PGA.

(The course would be the perfect Open Championship tune-up test, but the club is closed by July when players are prepping for the last major.)

The only good news in this case? From the start, sponsor AT&T was involved in the tournament move and former AT&T executive VP Ronald Spears is a club co-founder with Jonas Woods.

Roundup: First Pete Dye Tributes And Remembrances From The World Of Golf

What a perfect headline and New York Times obituary from Richard Goldstein, where Pete Dye is fittingly remembered as a mad scientist and golf architecture’s Picasso from of a perfect quote from Arthur Hills.

Rarely using a set of grading plans for construction, relying instead on his instincts as he laid out a course, walking it in khakis and work boots or sitting atop a tractor, Mr. Dye emphasized strategy over raw power.

“I think of Pete like Picasso, somebody that has created a nontraditional design, whether it’s a painting, a sculpture or a golf course,” the prominent course designer Arthur Hills was quoted by ESPN as saying. “He was so innovative in a profession that is very traditional.”

Ron Whitten nails it with his GolfDigest.com tribute, especially this:

Before Pete, golf architects mass-produced their products. Assembly lines of bulldozers stretched from coast to coast and chugged out facsimiles of the latest fashions. Some would eventually be deemed top-flight tests of golf, but all bore trademarks of one another.

Pete was a disruptor 50 years before that became a corporate buzzword. We called his style of design “target golf,” for it embraced abrupt change in its landforms, its sink-or-swim choices, its death-or-glory options, its my-way-or-the-highway reasoning.

Ran Morrissett penned this salute for Golf.com, including this:

Dye famously remarked that he didn’t need to produce plans because he would be on site every day. That practical, hands-on approach spoke to his Midwestern roots. It also made an impact on people who worked for him, including Bill Coore and Tom Doak. Those two headline the Dye Tree of architecture, and their firms have gone on to produce more World Top 100 courses as selected by GOLF Magazine than any other architects over the past 25 years. Other notable designers who are quick to acknowledge Dye’s influence include Rod Whitman, Tim Liddy, Brian Curley, Lee Schmidt and Bobby Weed. The list goes on.

Jack Nicklaus:

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The golf world lost a great friend today in Pete Dye. I first met Pete when I was 16 years old. Pete was 30, and we played an exhibition with Sam Snead in Urbana, Ohio. We became friends; we played a lot of golf together; and we designed courses together. It was Pete who inspired me to start designing courses more than 50 years ago, and so in many ways I owe my second career to him. I think Pete Dye was the most creative, imaginative and unconventional golf course designer I have ever been around. Pete would try things that nobody else would ever think of doing or certainly try to do, and he was successful at it. If there was a problem to solve, you solved it Pete’s way. In the end, Pete’s way usually turned out to be the right way. I followed Pete. I loved Pete. Barbara and I loved Pete and his wife Alice. We lost Alice less than a year ago and now Pete today. We have lost two wonderful people. Pete was the most innovative golf course designer in my lifetime, and certainly the golf world should mourn the loss of this great man. It is the end of the era, but Pete’s legacy in golf course design will endure because of the courses he has designed and the courses people will play for years and generations to come. They will enjoy them, perhaps copy them, and certainly be inspired by them. @asgca1947 @pgatour @rbcheritage @seapinesresort #HarbourTownGolfLinks (Photos courtesy of @jimmandeville and @nicklauscompanies)

A post shared by Jack Nicklaus (@jacknicklaus) on Jan 9, 2020 at 7:54pm PST

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan:

We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Pete Dye, a true friend of the PGA TOUR and one of the most important course architects of this or any generation. 

A 2008 inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame, Pete’s influence is far-reaching, leaving a global imprint on both the amateur and professional games. He designed some of the best known golf courses in the world, though none more recognizable than THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. It was here that Pete masterfully brought Commissioner Deane Beman’s revolutionary stadium golf concept to life, melding Deane’s vision with a brilliantly designed course that is celebrated annually as one of the game’s great strategic courses during THE PLAYERS Championship.   

Pete, though, was always quick to credit his beloved wife, Alice, with his success, including the concept for his most famous hole, the 17th island green at TPC Sawgrass.  Together, Pete and Alice made a formidable team in golf and life, and with sons Perry and P.B., themselves successful course architects, they are recognized as one of the most accomplished families in golf.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Dye family.

Developer Herb Kohler in Doug Ferguson’s AP obituary.

“While Pete designed to torment the most accomplished professional, his forward tees allowed the most inexperienced to play,” said Herb Kohler, who brought Dye to Wisconsin to build courses such as Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run. “He would challenge the professional both physically and mentally, while remarkably accommodating the raw amateur who was learning the game..”

The USGA’s Mike Davis:

“Pete Dye made a lasting impact on the game with his truly innovative style of golf course design. He will be greatly missed, and he and Alice will always hold a special place in the game.” - Mike Davis, USGA CEO pic.twitter.com/CVamlEUHFU

— USGA (@USGA) January 10, 2020

With PGA West on the PGA Tour schedule next week, Larry Bohannan considers Dye’s desert legacy that actually started in a big way with La Quinta resort.

Dye was an active but not terribly well-known architect when he was first summoned to the Coachella Valley. Two Oklahoma club pros, Ernie Vossler and Joe Walser, wanted to build a couple of golf courses around the La Quinta Hotel. They had worked with Dye before and felt he was the guy for the job.

The result of the collaboration of Dye, Vossler and Walser were two amazing golf courses, the Mountain and the Dunes courses at what is now La Quinta Resort. The courses, opened in 1980 and 1981, were like nothing the desert golf world had seen before. They were dramatic, featuring big lakes, Dye’s trademark railroad ties, an island green set in the middle of the desert and the Santa Rosa Mountains as a backdrop.

This from Rory McIlroy:

This morning I played an enjoyable round on Mr. Dye’s master creation.

His life had and will continue to have such a profound impact on the game. pic.twitter.com/mOohxpPJ6A

— Rory McIlroy (@McIlroyRory) January 10, 2020

Gil Hanse’s tribute:

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The word genius gets thrown around a lot, this man was the real deal. Lost Pete Dye today, a profound influence on modern golf course architecture, through his work, those he mentored, and the way he worked. Those of us who profess to be designers in the field owe so much to him. Fare thee well Pete!!!

A post shared by Gil Hanse (@gil_hanse) on Jan 9, 2020 at 7:36pm PST

And this short slideshow from photographer Fred Vuich:

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Pete Dye was a real Gentleman and will be missed by everyone who knew him. #2 with his wife Alice. #3 The 6th hole at Crooked Stick where he used railroad ties for the first time. #nikonusa #iamnikon #sportsillustrated #golfcoursearchitecture

A post shared by @ fvuich on Jan 9, 2020 at 6:51pm PST

The Legacy Of Pete Dye: How He Changed Golf

Pete Dye will be remembered in so many ways that it’s hard to pinpoint where golf would be had he not come along.

The ace golfer turned-insurance salesman turned-restless artist forever changed the sport with his extreme links-inspired features and hybrid of strategic and penal elements, all delivered with a dry, Midwest-rooted wit to squelch the haters.

Tributes will flow over the coming days from the many architects he brought into the business. Flags will be lowered at the venues where his legacy is so profound every day they are open for play. And we will hear tributes from the tours whose tournaments have been forever made more compelling thanks to Dye re-imagining how a “championship” venue should play.

While his work has aged in both beautiful and bizarre ways, Dye’s design legacy will never be rooted in one particular course. This, even as the impact of TPC Sawgrass and “Stadium golf” alone made him World Golf Hall of Fame worthy. Instead, the real genius of his work is almost overwhelming to contemplate. Dye put a stop to the runaway craze of 1950’s runway banality built to punish and all with so little character. This, after playing the great links of Scotland and Ireland and giving up his career to pursue better ways to design a course. And his brilliance was not merely in copying a few features or bringing back “template” holes when he returned. Dye expanded on what he saw overseas, pushing the art of course design places well beyond anything seen before.

Sure, some of it didn’t work, some of his designs were excessive and he had to remedy problems that surfaced on the tournament stage. But like any of the great anarchists and outliers, that Pete Dye could jam railroad ties against lake walls, force offensive blind shots from the middle of the fairway and get away with building other unmaintainable features, spoke to his artistic eye. Pete Dye courses inspired golfers to test their skills against him even when they knew he’d get the best of them.

Pete Dye broke the cardinal rule of timeless design by making about himself instead of a battle against nature. Yet he got away with the outlandishness. It was that wink of his eye and self-deprecating manner which, when combined with oddball touches—like the noose hanging from a dead tree that he left behind from the construction process—that made Dye lovable even as his designs violated most of the time-honored traditions of the great works. Alice’s editing, questions and golf savvy also should never be underestimated in making Pete what he was.

Pete Dye’s hands-on approach to construction also began a renaissance in the building of courses, His attention to detail and willingness to shape features approach took longer-than hoped to break the model of contractor-built, assembly-line golf courses that appeared stamped on the landscape by a blueprint. Eventually, however, his disciples have returned elite golf architectural creation to the field and away from the office.

And it is those Dye-inspired legacy of acolytes that have taken his lead in a renaissance of links golf, an emphasis on fun, and rekindling elements of design whimsy to offset the sport’s cruelty. Even the restoration movement responsible for rejuvenating so many classics, can almost entirely be tied to the awareness Pete Dye brought to the works of those who came before him. At heart, he was a traditionalist who played up his simpleton Midwest roots, but deep down inside there was a rebel, a nutty genius and imagination like no other. I hate to think what the game would look like had Pete Dye decided selling insurance was not for him. Thankfully, we don’t have to.