Born the son of Paul Francis (“Pink”) and Elizabeth Dye in 1925, Pete more than likely inherited his work ethic from his father who was, at various times, a politician, bar owner, insurance agent and postmaster in his hometown of Urbana in Champaign County, Ohio.

Three years before Pete was born, Pink designed and built a 6-hole course on sixty acres of farmland belonging to his wife’s family and when he got older, his son Paul (who was known as P.D. which eventually lapsed into Pete) would help out with routine maintenance while he was still a young boy.

Dye attended the Asheville School in North Carolina with his brother Andy before entering the US Army aged 18, enlisting with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. World War II ended while he was still in training, allowing him to relocate to Florida and enrol at Rollins College where he met his wife, 

Alice was a good player who would become a great one (winning nine Indiana Women’s Amateur titles, eleven Indianapolis City Championships and a couple of US Senior Women’s Amateur Championships) and her competitive female perspective certainly played a big part in Pete’s design decisions down the years.

Pete’s golfing prowess was also rather impressive, captaining the college golf team in his youth before going on to qualify for the US Open in 1957. He won the Indiana State Amateur the following year, took part in The Amateur Championship in 1963 and participated in five US Amateurs.

, into the world after moving to Alice’s hometown of Indianapolis in Indiana, where they were both gainfully employed in insurance – Alice with Connecticut Mutual and Pete as a salesman for his father’s firm, Northwestern Mutual.

Nonetheless, Pete still hankered after a career in the world of golf. As greens committee chairman at the Country Club of Indianapolis, he used the club’s grounds to experiment with the turf, pesticide and fungicide topics that he was studying in classes at the Purdue University School of Agronomy.

In 1963, Alice joined Pete when he played in The Amateur at the St Andrews Old Course (which he termed “a goat ranch” after his first round, incidentally) and they visited more than thirty courses during what turned out to be a very productive study trip – indeed, pot bunkers, wooden bulkheads and diminutive greens would become trademark design features for the Dyes in times to come.

After producing ten courses and revising around a dozen others, the course at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Indiana, was heavily influenced by what the Dyes had seen in Great Britain the previous year. It was this layout that really put them on the golfing map when it opened to critical acclaim.

TPC Sawgrass at Ponte Vedra, Harbour Town on Hilton Head Island (in collaboration with 

) and The Golf Club in New Albany, Ohio soon followed, with Teeth of the Dog at Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic attracting much attention on the world stage. Dozens of others have since appeared across thirty seven US states and more than twenty different countries.

Of course, they’re not all Pete Dye designs because sons Perry and P.B. work in the family business, as did his late brother Andy and his children Andy, Matt (also now deceased) and Cynthia.

A number of prominent architects worked for Pete Dye down the years, people like Dan Blankenship, 

, and without a doubt each and every one of them are better at their craft for having worked with the old master.

As one commentator writes: “Pete’s courses will live on for generations, challenging, intriguing, befuddling, exasperating, and delighting golfers long after he himself is gone. But those who’ve known, worked with, and befriended the man throughout his career are quick to point out that Pete Dye is as unique as the course’s he’s produced.”

After a long battle with dementia, Pete died in January 2020 but his golf course legacies will live on. Indeed, the design baton was passed on to the next Dye generations a while before his passing.


 : “During our initial trip to Scotland, Alice and I found out that most of the time the designer of the great Scottish courses was also involved in the building. This reinforced our feeling that it was difficult for a contractor to take a set of plans and implement the vision that we had for the details of the course.

We knew the only way to build the specific type of greens, fairways, tees and hazards we had in mind was for us to be intimately involved in the construction of our courses. That way, we would always have the opportunity to improvise and change things while shaping was in progress.

The new direction I intended to take would incorporate many of the design features Alice and I collected during our exploratory trip to Scotland. Not all would prove successful, but my new understanding of the use of small greens, wide fairways, contrasting grass mixes, pot bunkers, railroad ties and blind holes would affect all our future designs.”

has this to say about the architect: “Pete Dye continued to design golf courses well into his early nineties. His body of work exceeds ninety designs, which represents a smaller output than his contemporaries. Two main reasons account for this anomaly: Dye’s on-site presence throughout the construction of a project; and his passion to personally shape golf course features, utilizing various forms of construction equipment.”

Secrets of the Great Golf Course Architects

 by Michael Patrick Shiels: “Pete and I were members of the Country Club of Indianapolis and, as greens chairman, Pete finally killed most of the fairway grasses. He decided what he really wanted to do was build golf courses.”

Little Red Book of Golf Course Architecture

: "I owe my whole career to Pete and Alice Dye and their sons, Perry and P.B. They allowed me to watch and learn and they never held anything back. But it's more than that. Pete's enthusiasm for the work of golf course construction is the same example I try to set for everyone around me, and his battle of wits with great players was a master class in design."

 writes: “What Pete Dye has done for the game of golf is something for which we should all be thankful. He changed the way we think about golf course design, and how design works…Because of the attention that Pete Dye-designed courses have brought to the game, there are lots of people who are now able to make a living at golf course design. Me included.”

 mentions one of Dye’s early designs: “I’ll always have special memories of Harbour Town, on the southern tip of Hilton Head, where I was fortunate to be the inaugural champion at what was then known as the Heritage Classic… It was one of the most interesting of his designs and one I’ve enjoyed very much… I wish there were more courses like Harbour Town, which has never relied on length as a deterrent to scoring.”

 was also fulsome in his praise for Dye’s work: “The most amazing thing I have witnessed about Pete is his ability to create a golf course without a set of plans. He loves to see his courses evolve as the construction progresses, which allows his genius to resonate across the entire property… It’s as if he’s painting a masterpiece without having any directions to follow.”

 commented when Pete passed away in 2020: “He and Alice had made such an amazing team in life and golf. I would say that Pete Dye was one of the most influential golf architects in the history of the profession. Pete was the only golf architect that changed the face of golf twice, first with Harbour Town, an old-world design with characteristics totally opposite to contemporary golf architecture then in vogue. Then, he and Alice redirected golf architecture again with the creation of TPC Sawgrass, a course that would dictate the direction and style of golf architecture around the world for the next two decades. Personally, I can say Pete Dye was one of the most influential people in my life.”

Forrest Richardson also paid tribute to Pete after he died: “I remember distinctly reading an article and seeing pictures of what he did at the Golf Club in Ohio, and I was mesmerized by what he had done. When I started playing golf courses, I felt that every hole looked the same, but when I saw Pete’s work, I realized they didn’t have to be like that. At Long Cove, for example, you come to a hole and it doesn’t look anything like the ones that came before it, and that energizes the golfer.”

Bobby Weed, a former associate of Pete Dye, had this to say on his demise: “I first met Pete in the 1970s at Amelia Island Plantation. That was the start of a 45-year relationship. We built Long Cove together in 1981, and I’ve been building golf courses ever since. I can hardly approve a feature without feeling Pete’s influence. How many designers could that be said about?As much as a legacy as his courses will be, the impact he had on those fortunate to work with him may be more enduring.”

 also paid his respects on Pete’s passing: “Pete inspired us all to think outside the box. He really enjoyed making the best players in the world struggle. I told him to his face that I had played holes of his where – in the same hole – I thought he was an absolute genius and a lunatic! What I admired most about Pete is that he didn’t really have much of an ego; he was just as happy working on a golf course in a housing development as he was on a big tournament site, as long as the client didn’t restrict his creativity.”

Bury Me In A Pot Bunker: Golf through the Eyes of the Game’s Most Challenging Course Designer (

: Discover how Golf can bring Love, Humor and Success into your Life (2004) by Alice Dye with Mark Shaw.

Dye Golf Courses: Fifty Years of Visionary Design

 (2008) by Joel Zuckerman contains appreciations from three of the greatest golfers turned architects who have ever lived.

World Golf Hall of Fame – Class of 2008: Pete Dye has designed more than 100 courses in North America, the Dominican Republic, Israel, and Switzerland. “Golf is not a fair game, so why build a course fair?”

Pete Dye

Pete Dye captained the college team in his youth before going on to qualify for the US Open in 1957. He won the Indiana State Amateur, took part in The Amateur in 1963 and played in five US Amateurs.

Alice Dye, born Alice Holliday O’Neal in Indianapolis, left Shortridge High School to study at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, where she first met her future husband. She then graduated with a Batchelor of Science degree in Zoology in 1948 before marrying 

 a couple of years later then moving back to her home city with him.

Alice was a very good amateur golfer (she would win nine Indiana Women’s Amateur titles, eleven Indianapolis City Championships and two US Senior Women’s Amateur Championships and was also a member of the 1970 Curtis Cup team) and her competitive female viewpoint certainly loomed large in her husband Pete’s design decisions.

 (they would become partners in the family business later in their lives) and both parents established successful careers in the insurance industry – Alice with Connecticut Mutual and Pete as a salesman for his father’s firm, Northwestern Mutual.

Keith Cutten takes up the story in his book 

“Although still highly competitive in golf, Dye decided to leave insurance and become a golf course designer. Even though he was aged in his mid-thirties and had a young family to support, Pete made the move. Alice, a fantastic amateur golfer in her own right, supported the career change and partnered him in the new venture.

In 1961, the couple visited and talked to noted golf course architect Bill Diddel, who lived nearby. He did his best to warn them about the economic uncertainties of the industry; but the Dyes persisted anyway.”

Two years later, Alice joined Pete when he played in The Amateur at the St Andrews Old Course and they visited dozens of courses in the British Isles during what effectively became an enlightening field study. Little wonder then that pot bunkers, wooden bulkheads and small greens would become trademark design traits for the Dyes in their future designs.

In a Public Service Broadcast interview years later, Pete confessed: “Alice’s family thought I was nuts when we both decided to try to build golf courses… I didn’t know any more about moving dirt than the man on the moon when I first started! I accidentally built a 9-hole (course) for a farmer south of Indianapolis; he was a contractor, so I used his equipment.”

Alice chipped in: “We were young and ambitious to do something like this. I was very active in the first courses that we built. We both had ideas and we tried to incorporate them into different holes. I was playing a lot of national tournaments… and I would have these concepts and ideas about ‘Let’s copy such and such a hole’ but Pete is very original and very creative, and so the holes that he did really came out of his mind and the ones that I was involved in were more copies of other great holes.”

Geoff Cornish and Ron Whitten continue the narrative in their book 

“Pete and Alice formed a company and began designing and building small-town layouts around central Indiana. It was an extremely low-budget operation in the beginning; for one project, Alice propagated a stand of bentgrass in their front yard and transported it to the course site in the trunk of their Oldsmobile.

In those early days, Alice handled all the drafting for Pete. ‘Pete couldn’t read a contour map. I had to teach him,’ she later recalled. ‘And he never did learn to draw.’ While their sons were young, Alice handled projects close to home while Pete went out on the road, and for a time mainly handled the paperwork of the business. Once the boys reached their teens, she again took a more active role in the design aspect of their projects.”

Some might feel Alice’s main input to golf course design starts and ends with the iconic par three 17th hole on the Stadium course at TPC Sawgrass, which she implored Pete to build when the course was being constructed, but authors Cornish and Whitten know otherwise:

“Alice Dye considered her most valuable contribution to golf architecture to be the expert attention she devoted to the planting and placement of tees and hazards to create proper challenges for female golfers.

For years she spoke and wrote extensively on the need for more than one set of tees for women. The wide variance in women’s skills at any course, she contended, dictated forward and back (and sometimes even middle) tees for women, just as had been provided for years for men.”

The last word belongs to Alice in her aforementioned PSB interview on YouTube:

“Our golf courses really have very few forced carries for women. Almost all of our courses have an opening in front of the green and this plays really well, not only for women players but for higher handicappers and even for an excellent player who would happen to miss his tee shot; he doesn’t ever have to lay up because we have a corner or a place he can go to on most of our holes.

Our golf courses are playable but they’re very formidable, and kind of scary looking, but when you start to play them and get to know it, they’re not that difficult – unless you’re a really good player and you’re shooting for the pin. I think we’ve got a wonderful job, making it very difficult for a good player and very playable for your average guy… or woman.”

Sadly, Alice Dye passed away at her home in Gulf Stream, Florida, on the 1st February 2019, aged 91, where she was helping to care for her husband Pete (aged 93) who was living with Alzheimer’s disease. Regretfully, Pete died less than twelve months after Alice's passing in January 2020.


“Dubious Dye Debut” by Alice Dye from 

“People often ask us how we got started... Pete and I were members of the Country Club of Indianapolis and, as greens chairman, Pete finally killed most of the fairway grasses. He decided what he really wanted to do was build golf courses.

After unsuccessfully pursuing a job with 

, a local Indianapolis farmer-turned-developer gave us a job to build nine holes.

We tried to build a championship course with all the ideas we had from our national tournament experiences. Our carefully drawn routing crossed the creek thirteen times and included trees, bunkers and small, severely contoured greens. We were not hired to build the second nine.”

Courtesy of the American Society of Golf Course Architects:

“An American golf champion and golf course designer, Alice Dye is known as the "First Lady" of golf architecture in the United States. Accomplishments credited to her name include: designing some of the country's most acclaimed courses with her husband Pete, winning at least 50 amateur golf titles, and being the first women member and President of the ASGCA and to serve as the first women independent director of the PGA of America.

A leader in golf administration, Alice has served on the USGA Women's Committee and USGA Handicap Committee, the LPGA Advisory Council and on the Board of the Women's western Golf Association.

Alice joined with Pete in the design and construction of their first course, El Dorado, now called Dyes Walk, in Indianapolis. She then continued as co–designer for such famous courses as PGA West in La Quinta, California; Harbour Town Golf Links and Long Cove Club on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina; and Teeth of the Dog in La Romana, Dominican Republic.

Over the years, Alice has received numerous awards and honors, including inductions into the Indiana Hall of Fame, Florida State Golf Association Hall of Fame, The Heritage of Indianapolis Award, the Don Rossi Award for Lifetime Contributions to Golf, the Women's Western Golf Association's Woman of Distinction Award, and the PGA of America's 2004 First Lady of Golf Award.

Even with these countless accomplishments, one of Alice Dye's most fulfilling achievements has been leading a campaign to make golf courses more manageable for women. She has developed a chart and video suggesting yardages and positions for a ‘Two Tee System for Women.’ Alice also collaborated on the book 

From Birdies to Bunkers: Discover How Golf Can Bring Love, Humor and Success into Your Life 

“Alice Dye’s introduction to the game of golf was a study in dogged determination. She joined group lessons at age 11 at Woodstock Golf Club under the guidance of PGA Professional Wally Nelson. She would play alone on weekday mornings when the course was almost deserted.

If she hit a wayward shot, she would drop her bag, chase after the ball, return and hit it again. Under her rules, her best nine-hole score was a 45. Those early morning experiences led to her ability to focus on every shot.

Alice also was a tiger when it came to competition. She won 50 amateur championships, including 12 state amateur titles; led a victorious 1970 Curtis Cup Team and served as captain of the 1992 World Cup Team. She also captured two U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur and two Canadian Senior Women Championships, and pocketed a gold medal in

Perhaps the drive Alice Dye demonstrated in her golf career stemmed from parents that believed in giving a daughter every opportunity possible to succeed. Her mother Lucy O’Neal gave her a set of wooden-shafted clubs. One week, Alice stayed home with friends while her family went fishing in Canada. Alice spotted a set of six new clubs in the local golf shop.

‘I had asked for a pony prior to my golf career,’ said Alice. ‘Well, my father did get me a pony, but it was that set of clubs I was interested in. It was a driver, fairway wood, three irons and a putter. I wrote my father a letter and explained why I needed each of those clubs on the course. I got a Western Union telegram back, Buy them! They don’t eat all winter like a horse does.’

When pressed about a favorite venue, Alice said that Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana, first comes to mind. ‘That was the dream course, the first where Pete took the lead in getting it built,’ she said. ‘And, we lived there and we were together. Our children were with us. I have one photo of P.B., about age nine, running equipment on the green.’

Alice has worked hard to bring more women to the game. She is a board member of the Women’s Western Golf Association, and recently wrote a letter of regret about not being able to travel to help run a tournament. A tournament official sent back a reply, ‘Don’t feel any regret. You have done more for women’s golf than all of us together.’

Reflecting on a life journey through golf, Alice’s career is a canvas painted with special moments. What stands out for her, she said, may surprise you. It is not necessarily the glitter of major championships or ribbon-cutting at new courses. ‘I have too many really good, happy memories of playing with friends,’ said Alice. ‘That’s the biggest thing that you get out of the game – the friendships you make along the way in amateur golf.’”

Lee Schmidt: “I first met Alice Dye when I interviewed for a job with Pete in the fall of 1970. From that early meeting, I learned that Ms. Alice was the organized one of the partnership. Numerous times when I called Pete about making a site visit on a specific date he would say ‘hold the phone, I need to check with Alice.’ In short, when Alice spoke, Pete, as well as others, would listen.

“Over more than fifty years I knew her, she would often send me handwritten notes saying she read a certain article about my firm, Schnmidt-Curley Design, and may even enclose the article. Other times she would send an old photo of me on a job site with a note saying, ‘boy, have you changed’ or ‘fun times.’ Her thoughtfulness over the years of thinking of me when she had so many other things to do was really special. Also, knowing full well she probably performed the same wonderful gesture for many others she knew.”

Bobby Weed: “From my introduction to Alice in 1981 at Long Cove Club until today, I was fortunate to observe first-hand what most in golf now know: she was Pete’s equal as a partner, contributor and collaborator in all that they did. In the late afternoons at Long Cove, Pete and I would be with the crew: tired, dirty, tongues hanging out, and Alice would come out in her Lilly Pulitzers, fresh as a daisy, to critique Pete’s work. And critique she would! That she could push him to do better and to go farther, and that he would allow himself to be pushed, was the foundation for everything they did.

“Hers was the opinion he trusted most, and they each filled an irreplaceable role in the partnership. Observing that dynamic was probably my most significant benefit from my time with them. From Pete I learned that it’s essential to push boundaries, try new things, and never stop innovating. But from Alice, I learned the importance of having wise counsel around – a voice that can pull you back from going too far, or give you confidence to put the pencil down.”

: “She was such an accomplished woman in so many ways. She was a crusader and a pioneer, obviously for women’s golf, but much more than even that. She was a crusader and pioneer for golf architecture, she was the first female president of the ASGCA and was such a proponent of the Society and golf architecture in general. She was such a huge influence on Pete’s designs.

Obviously, Pete got the lion’s share of the credit for them, but those of us who did work with Pete and Alice knew that Alice was very instrumental and influential in those golf designs, and far beyond just where the forward tees might be. The 17th hole at Sawgrass and the 13th green at Harbour Town – they are two minor things out of countless ways she influenced Pete.”

Perry Dye: “A fabulous lady who achieved a lot in her lifetime. Mom exposed her three boys – dad, PB and I – to women’s golf. She was a good player (representing the winning US Curtis Cup side in 1970 and winning two US Senior Women’s Amateur titles in 1978 and 1979), but exposed us to how difficult the game is.

“The hardest thing to do is mentor someone who doesn’t play the game. My mother did that every day. She worked aggressively to mentor average players and championed the average woman player, one at a time. Most beginners are afraid to play with good golfers – mother broke that barrier immediately. She would encourage good players and high-handicap players to play together. Mother protected them and tries to make the game enjoyable.

“She probably had the most influence on us with things she didn’t like. She would say ‘the hole’s unplayable, start again,’ but she wouldn’t tell us exactly what to do, she let us think about it ourselves. That’s what really engages your brain. Mother hates blind shots, but my dad included one on every course he built. He would say ‘Ally, it’s only blind once.’ He got away with that one. She had an insight into how people play golf holes that was unbelievable. She was the player in the family. Dad, PB and I are just a bunch of dirt diggers.”

Alice was a very good amateur golfer (she won nine Indiana Women’s Amateur titles and two US Senior Women’s Amateur Championships and was also a member of the 1970 Curtis Cup team) and her competitive female viewpoint certainly loomed large in her husband Pete’s design decisions.

Alice Dye

Alice Dye was the USA’s "First Lady" of golf architecture. She designed some of the country's best courses, won more than 50 amateur golf titles, and became the first female member of the ASGCA.

California

The Pete Dye Challenge Course was the third and final built at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California. It has a slightly different history than the other courses that bear this famous architect’s name, however: When Dye finished the course, it operated under the name of the “Dinah Shore Course,” a tribute to the actress and vocalist who helped to found the Dinah Shore Golf Tournament, which later became the ANA Inspiration major. Following Shore’s passing, her name was transferred to the course that the tournament is player upon, and Dye’s name was added to the Challenge.

Although it doesn’t receive as much attention as the course that hosts the pros, many agree that Dye’s contribution to the property is the best route of the three. It’s not the most punishing course that Dye created in the Palm Desert area, measuring just under 7,000 yards from the tips, but it does come packed with signatures that indicate Dye’s ‘80s design trends including numerous water features for those who choose the wrong club...as well as ample railroad ties to hold the fairways above the ponds.

Mission Hills (Pete Dye Challenge)

Pacific Grove

North America

The Peter Dye Challenge course was the last of three layouts to open at Mission Hills Country Club. Trademark railway sleepers buttress several greens close to intimidating water hazards, reminding golfers that they’re playing a Dye track.