[Jeff_Mingay]

I find the following comments from Pete Dye, from a recent LINKS magazine interview with Geoff Shackelford, very curious.

Shackelford: What influence did (Robert Trent Jones) have on your style?

Dye: At Harbour Town, I tried to do something different from what the norm had been. Of course it didn’t hurt that Arnold Palmer won in the first tournament there. But if you built that kind of golf course today, they would not pay you.

Shackelford: Harbour Town? But it’s loved by pros and high handicappers alike.

Dye: When it was done it was so entirely different. But that type of golf course in today’s market where it has to look good in magazines and where you have to sell real estate...

Shackelford: You mean Harbour Town is not flashy enough?

Dye: Absolutely.

[Chip Gaskins]

If you take 16, 17, and 18 out of the mix, there isn't another hole on Harbour Town that would grace the cover of Links Magazine.  That is what I read into Dye's comments.  

Think about some of the holes in the middle of the front nine.  Fun to play, yes, flashy, no.

I suppose the debate is the definition of "flashy"

[Tony Ristola]

I understand his argument.

Pinehurst No.2 wouldn't register either. It'd be just some parkland course in the North Carolina sand hills.

Could add more to the list, but I fully understand his point. With so much being produced, the guts get overlooked.

Pete had the foresight and savvy to go in anther direction with Harbour Town. Colbert and Palmer came in with timely defenses of the course. It helps to be the first in the market. Harbour Town was the first in the new wave.

Build it today (by a less known architect), and it's merely a nice course on Hilton Head Island that the raters would overlook.

[Anthony_Nysse]

For nearly $300 dollars, you get 4 good views/shots at HT. (Approach shot #16, tee shot #17, tee shot and approach #18) Take away these holes or shots, and HT doesnt sniff the top 20 list in the state, let alone ANY Top 100 list. I think that it's the most overrated course in the Top 100. I personally don't think that HT is even in the Top 5 in the HHI area.
  It's really amazing just how tight some of the holes are there. As different at HT is from RTJ's Palmetto Dunes, HT is also vastly different than Long Cove, purposly done. LCC has wide corridors, huge greens, huge waste areas. My. Dye did a great job of not making the 2 match, which could have been easy. In my time at LCC, many of the pros came over with the Heritage in town and would comment the same way, just how different the 2 courses were, yet the same designer.

Tony Nysse
Asst. Supt.
Colonial CC
Ft. Worth, TC

[Mike Salinetti]

I thought I would comment here as I just was fortunate enough to have played Harbour Town, Dye's new Herron Point (formerly Sea Marsh) and the Dye course at Colleton River a few days after Christmas. I have played many other Dye courses in the past and I feel that Harbour Town is his best. Perhaps I am biased because I was an assistant superintendent there in the 90's but I just think it is one of the most unique courses Dye has built. It is placement golf at it's best, along with 4 spectacular par 3's. I just don't get the same rush when I play Colleton, Long Cove, etc as I do when I play Harbour Town.

[Joe Fairey]

Tony....I'm  with you on Harbour Town...everytime I see the  rankings in SC...I'm amazed...take away the Heritage(PGA) and everything changes...to me Dye's Long Cove is far better golf course in regards to routing, strategy, and design balance...doesn't have the Lighthouse...and being private...relatively unknown to many...

In SC...1) Sage Valley(by far)   2) Long Cove   3) Greenville CC-Chanticleer

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