What are Pete Dye's secrets?

[A_Clay_Man]

Wanted to bring up some old threads for consideration and I found this and thought of something else Pete seems to get right.

Texture.

Maybe it's not him, but if his attention to detail is so great I wouldn't doubt it.

[Matt_Ward]

I've always said that Pete Dye is the architect with the greatest impact for the 2nd half of the 20th century. Part of his success in my mind is his desire to go against the grain of conventional strategic golf. Throwing in such elements has always made the better player squirm and I believe few, if any, can match his innate sense to scare the sh*t out of the top player when they step on many of his outstanding holes / courses.

[Steve Lang]

 

I vote for Alice's influence.. ever since I heard that one about her complaining when cart paths were to the left side of the ladies tees.. no lady wants folks looking at their butts during a swing!

[Jeff Goldman]

Does anyone else use individual or small groups of trees as strategically in the middle of holes?  On the River course alone you have 9, 11, 13 and 16, although they are getting too high on the 9 and 13.  17 on the meadow course too.

Jeff Goldman

[ChipOat]

Hubert Green's comment upon first seeing Harbour Town, and its then-novel railroad ties:

"This is the first course I've ever seen that could burn down."

Pete Dye is my favorite architect although MacDonald/Raynor comes awfully close.

[david h. carroll]

who's been to the harbour Town in St. Michael's, MD...food for thought??

[Tim_Weiman]

Ran:

Great question.

Matt Ward sees Pete Dye going against the grain of conventional golf architecture thinking, presumably by his willingness to scare the hell out of better players. But, I've noticed something funny. No matter how difficult, even not so good golfers seem to really enjoy Dye's courses. Pete can make a fool out of them, but instead of getting frustrated, they laugh. The famous bunker left of #16 green at PGA West serves as a classic example.

Whenever I've played #4 at Spyglass, I've always had this sense of Robert Trent Jones standing by the ice plant having a laugh or two. With Pete Dye, you have this sense on many of his holes.

[les_claytor]

Right to left..........Left to Right
Left to right.......... Right to left
L - R... R - L..... L - R...... R- L

Pretty simple pattern, design holes that force players to play alternate shot patterns.  One of Mr. Dye's principles.

Also, Mr. Hogan was a hero of Mr. Dye's

[Jason Mandel]

i have not played many dye courses, in fact my first and only may have been long cove.  i don't know what it was about long cove, but i came away from that round thinking "what a great golf course", anything that may normally have seemed a little funky(single tree sitting in fairway) felt like it always played a vital part to the strategy, i think that is what makes dye so great, you have to think your way around his courses.

[cary lichtenstein]

The secret to what Pete Dye does is the creativity in his mind. He is a true artist, as opposed to a draftsman.

Think of Pete as the Salivador Dali of golf course architecture. Not everything he has done worked, but even in his holes that are a bit strange, there is a level of artistry uncommon in the industry.

When you run across a genuinely gifted artist, the best thing to do is give him his head, but challenge him along the way to get his creative juices flowing. All great artists want to show off what they can do.

Pete will probably tell you that both his clients and employees have inspired him to do some of his best work.

If you study his work, it is pretty amazing how diverse his holes are, eg, in Kohler Wisc. But I've played some of his courses that I truly didn't care for, some of that is due to the period he was in, and sometimes artists get stuck and just go thru the motions for spurts in their career.