June 2021 Ohio Golf Journal

Pete & PB Dye: Mirror Images of One Another By Mike May A uthentic. Genuine. Dedicated and Passionate best describe the life of the late hall of fame golf course architect, Pete Dye. Dye passed away on January 9, 2020 at the age of 94, but the Ohio native’s legacy remains intact, in the many great golf courses he created over the years. Dye’s work as a golf course architect began in 1961 in his adopted home state of Indiana, when he and his wife Alice designed Heather Hills (now, Maple Creek) Golf and Country Club in Indianapolis. Dye courses took center stage in May when the PGA of America and the LPGA conducted tournaments on the same weekend on two Dye designs – the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, for the PGA Championship and the River Course at Kingsmill on the James in Williamsburg, Virginia where the LPGA’s Pure Silk Championship was contested. It wasn’t the first time that a pair of Dye designs were used to host big events on the same weekend, and it won’t be the last. Besides his wife Alice, the only person who worked longer with Pete was his son PB, who has the highest respect for his father. “My dad put a shovel in my hand at seven, I drove a tractor at eight, operated a bulldozer at age nine and a backhoe at ten,” recalls PB, which is short for Paul Burke. According to PB, now 65, one of the reasons why he worked so long with his father is because they had similar mindsets. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” admits PB. “Our philosophies are quite parallel. I had a great teacher for a long, long time. I remember every topographical map that I looked at with my dad.” PB and his brother Perry, who also works in the golf business, were raised with old-fashioned, Steve Ferguson and Pete Dye Ohio Golf Journal