Ford Plantation-- Pete Dye Redesign

[Buck Wolter]

I got a push email that many probably received from Links Magazine --looks like the course was supposed to reopen today. Seems like the effort was to make it more playable. Pretty amazing to be in business long enough to redesign your own courses.

Here's a clip of Dye and Liddy working on the course
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=inKHfV8PlL0

I thought this sounded nice:

The Discovery Package at The Ford Plantation also offers couples the opportunity
to select two experiences from the following:
•Ogeechee River Cruise with History of the River
•Bass Fishing with Licensed Captain
•Sporting Clays Lesson at Dorchester Shooting Preserve
•Kayaking Tour with Naturalist
•Personal Training Session with Certified Fitness Trainer
•Scenic Trail Rides with Equestrian Guide
•Two rounds of golf on recently redesigned Pete Dye golf course
•Club Dining, Spa Treatments & Other Club Amenities Available at Member Rates

[Tom_Doak]

I lived in a house there with P.B. Dye for about two weeks in 1984 when they were just starting to build the course, and I was starting to work on the plans for PGA West.  It was a beautiful piece of property, though I only ever saw the first nine holes built through the trees ... the back nine was to be reclaimed from rice paddies and it was several years before they got around to that half of the course.

It was one of the scarier sites I've worked on ... backwoods jungle.  A wild boar attacked one of the guys' dogs on site and ripped half his ear off, and just before I was there, a guy was bitten by a water moccasin so hard it broke his leg!

[Mike_Young]

Was Percy there when you were there and was PB sailboat sitting there?  Percy would shoot gators in the canals and bar b que the tails...

[Tom_Doak]

Was Percy there when you were there and was PB sailboat sitting there?  Percy would shoot gators in the canals and bar b que the tails...

Yep.  It was quite the colorful crew.

[JC Urbina]

Buck,

Just spent time with Pete a few days back, told me he was busy as ever, age close to 90.  How is that for longevity?

Greeted me the same way as he did over 35 years ago, with one hand in the pocket,  "Jim, howw you doin."

Classic Pete, so glad I got my start working for Pete, mixed in with his son Perry, couldn't have written the script any better!

[James Brown]

Played this course today.  Never seen a routing like this before!  The front nine has such a nice flow in a gentle loop turning to your left but not playing all right to left.  And the back nine is out on the massive treeless marsh. 


I could imagine the negotiation between the single-owner developer and Dye over the back nine: Give me a whole bunch of sand and I will turn this big marsh into golf holes and you can have every bit of the current river front for housing. 



For a Pete Dye design built in 1984 this course sure seemed so... pleasant and not terrifying.  Lots [size=78%]of long views and tempting doglegs, but not real punishing and with such enjoyable contouring throughout.  [/size]


Perhaps oddly, reminded me a bit of the flow at Piping Rock, only in reverse with one nine playing around a big driving range on open ground with the clubhouse in about the same position and the other nine meandering around the property in a loop. 

[Ronald Montesano]

"Give me a whole bunch of sand and I will turn this big marsh into golf holes and you can have every bit of the current river front for housing. "

Sounds like The Lido, more than a bit.