Pete and Alice Dye and their longtime friend, author, Mark Shaw.
Afterword by Mark Shaw
There
are special occasions in life that we all savor, that we never
forget. They are magical, many times even mystical in nature.
In late October
2012, my lovely wife Wen-ying Lu and I sat across the table from
Pete and Alice Dye at their home in Delray Beach, Florida. For
several hours over two days, we listened to the wisdom of the
game of golf while preparing to revise this book (Bury Me In
A Pot Bunker) for its third edition. I knew that thousands of
golfers would have given anything to be in my shoes, to have
the opportunity to spend time with the Dyes. I savored every
moment we were with them; what a privilege to be in their company.
Our mutual friend
Bobby Weed, a protégé of Pete’s and a talented
course designer in his own right, calls Pete and Alice “national
treasures” and he is right on point. Young at heart in their
mid-eighties, and cherished friends of mine for more than forty
years, the loving couple are true living legends, throwbacks
to the course designers of old who worshiped God’s green
earth and made it better through the design of many of the world’s
greatest golf venues.
As Pete and Alice
provided their views on the game they love, I recalled Lu and
myself sitting at the World Golf Hall of Fame ceremony in 2008
when Pete was inducted. That evening he charmed the audience
with stories, many of which were at least partially true. I knew
then, as I did during our October chats, that I was in the midst
of a true genius, a man whose insight into how the game of golf
should be played is second to none. As I tell fellow golfers
these days, many courses built now are either a Pete Dye course
or some sort of copy of one since his innovations, his imagination,
has spread to the four corners of the globe.
My introduction
to the Dyes began in 1969 when longtime friend Wayne Timberman
invited me to play with Pete and Alice at Crooked Stick Golf
Club. Any local sports fan unaware of the Dyes’ success
as golf competitors had not read a newspaper in years. Alice
had won the Indiana State Amateur nine times, the North and South
Amateur, the Eastern Amateur, and competed in several United
States Women’s Open Championships. Pete, an Indianapolis
District and Indiana State Amateur Champion, had reached the
third round of the British Amateur and qualified for five United
States Amateur Championships.
Those impressive
credentials did not faze me a bit when I met Pete and Alice on
the tee of the 458-yard 10th hole. I had been a member of a Big
Ten Championship team at Purdue and was ready to take on anyone,
anytime, anyplace. Besides, what I saw that morning was the slightly
built Pete dressed in khaki pants, a white “no-logo”
golf shirt that had not seen an iron, black socks, unlaced work
boots, and a dumpy porkpie hat that seemed a size too small.
Standing next
to him was Alice, who looked more like my kindly mother than
the razor-edged, tenacious championship golfer I had heard about.
When the subject of wagering came up, I quickly accepted a twenty-five-cent
bet with both Dyes. While my betting dead-even with a woman over
forty seemed a bit unfair, who was I to take pity on the overmatched
Alice?
Pete began the
match by hitting one of his patented hooks that started across
a large lake and somehow made it back into the dead center of
the fairway. I was next. Full of confidence, I came off both
feet and ripped my ball, a Spalding Dot, 260 yards straight down
the pike. I then tossed my Tony Penna driver to my bespectacled
young caddie and turned around to hear the first of many Pete
Dye witticisms that has driven me to rib-cracking laughter over
the years. “Well,” Pete calmly told Wayne as he began
the Pete Dye trot toward the women’s tee, “Shaw must
not be able to chip and putt or I would have heard of him!”
My huge ego deflated,
I headed for the women’s tee, where for the first time I
witnessed Alice’s textbook-perfect, rhythmic swing resulting
in a beautifully positioned drive that catapulted by mine on
the fly. As I watched from nearby, she lifted the ball toward
the green where it hit ever so gently and then rolled, rolled,
rolled until it abruptly disappeared into the hole for an eagle
two. Her fine play continued and the big-time college boy never
won a hole from the “over matched” Alice that sunny
afternoon.
This enduring
friendship with Pete and Alice led to my being selected to collaborate
with them on the first edition of this book in the mid-nineties.
Since many more experienced and talented writers than I approached
the Dyes, I was flattered that they chose me.
This third edition
is unlike either of the first two since during the years that
have passed, Pete, with Alice always close by, has continued
to design course after course. Many people retire at age 65,
but not Pete, and the world of golf has been the better for it
as such courses as Whistling Straits, an amazing golf adventure,
have arrived on the scene.
Alice Dye, who
has a heart the size of a washtub, may be the most generous lady
I have ever met. Throughout my research for this book, I have
heard the words “wonderful,” “the best” and
“quite a lady” used to describe Alice. Even those competitors
who have witnessed firsthand Alice’s deadly golf game come
away with more respect than sorrow. Many of her thoughts about
the game including useful tips are included in From Birdies to
Bunkers: Discover How Golf Can Bring Love, Humor, and Success
into Your Life, a book I was blessed to co-author with her.
Several times
Pete has told me that the straight-shooting Alice is “the
most honest woman on the face of the earth.” Others have
echoed that thought and related countless stories in which Alice
has corrected a wrong that disturbed her deep-rooted sense of
fair play.
Alice Dye’s
alter ego is Pete, an unpretentious character whose down-home
folksy ways are a fooler who greets people, friend or stranger,
with “How y’all doin’?” or “What’s
new in your world?” With a twinkle in his eye, Pete Dye
will charm you with his wit and storytelling, but he is a focused,
intense, imaginative visionary who is still twenty-five years
ahead of his time.
Pete’s protégés
will tell you he’s the most energetic man they have ever
known. Alice says Pete could outwork the Energizer Bunny, and
exhausted workers many years younger than Pete are amazed that
he is always the first one on the job site and the last one to
go home even at his advanced age.
Pete Dye is a
humble, give-the-credit-to-someone-else gentleman whose sense
of humor and optimism are legendary. He’s a creative artist
and a wave-his-arms barker salesman rolled into one, and his
imagination permits him to visualize a completed golf course
when a normal person sees vast acres of nothing.
Pete is also
the only person who accepted an invitation to dine with Robert
Redford but had no idea who he was. When it comes to movies,
he never goes since he says they all wind up on television anyway.
During the years
that have passed since this book was first published, I’ve
continued to enjoy my friendship with the Dyes. I was very pleased
when the Dye family (Pete, Alice and sons Perry and P.B.) received
the Golf Family of the Year Award from the National Golf Foundation
in 1998. Alice became the first female president of the American
Society of Golf Course Architects, continued her superb play
on the course by overwhelming the field to win the Crooked Stick
Ladies’ Club Championship, and most importantly, stood front
and center with Pete as they co-designed more golf jewels across
the country.
When Purdue University
awarded Pete an honorary doctorate in landscape engineering for
his efforts in designing their new Kampen Course and in establishing
a working laboratory for aspiring agronomy students, it was well
deserved. Pete jokingly dubbed the affair “a coronation,”
and demanded that he be known not simply as “Dr. Dirt,”
his longtime nickname, but “Dr. Dye.”
Through the years,
I was honored whenever Pete telephoned me and asked that I accompany
him to one of his new courses. Trips to the Ocean Course at Kiawah
(I was responsible for making sure his dog Sixty had enough water),
Park City, and Whistling Straits, among others permitted me to
see firsthand how he approached course design. Many times, I
watched in awe as he actually “felt” his way around
the land using his feet to experience the varying contours. All
the while, the “Pete Dye mind,” as I call it, was at
work figuring how best to weave the holes into the land. Having
traveled to Scotland before I assisted with the first edition
of this book (When someone asks me if I was a good player at
one time, I just tell them I parred the Road Hole at St. Andrews),
I recognized that what Pete learned in the British Isles was
still impacting every aspect of his innovative course design.
This new special
edition hopefully captures all the essence of the first two but
is truly special because for the first time, in the Epilogue,
readers learn many of Pete’s overall design philosophies.
Students of the game, players who want to better understand how
the game should be played strategically, and especially those
who aspire to become golf course architects should read this
book cover to cover.
In a sport filled
with nice people, Pete and Alice Dye, who genuinely love the
game of golf, are at the top of the list. Collaborating with
them on all three editions of this book has been an unforgettable
experience, and my heartfelt thanks go to numerous people, including
respected golf writer Ron Whitten, great friends Wayne Timberman,
Bobby Weed, Tim Liddy, Gilles Gagnon, Jack Leer, former PGA Tour
commissioner Deane Beman, among others. Jack Nicklaus, who took
time to spend a never-to-be-forgotten lunch with Pete and me,
and Greg Norman, who wrote the Foreword, deserve special thanks
as well. To my wife Wen-ying Lu, my thanks for her support as
always. To Alice Dye, thank you for working with me on the book
and for your superb editing skills. To Theresa Moore and Ken
E. May, my thanks for the book layout and photographs.
Above all, I
thank Pete and Alice for permitting me the honor to share a lifetime
of memories with them. The intent of this book has been to shed
light on where two of God’s most special children came from,
how they got started as course designers, and by what means they
have designed and built many of the finest golf courses in the
world. More than that, I’m hopeful it captures the nevergive-up,
zest-for-life spirit that is the true essence of Pete and Alice
Dye.
- Mark Shaw |